Women Under Hitler's Flag

Women Under Hitler's Flag reframes the familiar history of the Third Reich by focusing on the women who took active roles in its crimes. Instead of portraying them as passive bystanders, the film traces how nurses, clerks, party officials and others applied ideology with the same brutality associated with male perpetrators. Interviews with international historians bring new research to the foreground, while archive footage and personal testimonies illuminate choices and responsibilities often left out of mainstream accounts. The documentary maps patterns of recruitment, motivation and complicity across different institutions, and it highlights stories long buried in archives. The result is a sobering reassessment of gender and power within Nazi structures, presented without sensationalism. It refuses to excuse or simplify motives.

Directed by Christiane Ratiney and released in 2023, the documentary features Céline Sallette as narrator and contributors Wendy Lower, Selma van de Perre and Stefan Hördler appearing on camera, blending new scholarship with archival material and recent testimony from survivors.

The film saw a limited theatrical run and screened at festivals and museums, relying largely on educational bookings and streaming platforms rather than wide commercial distribution, so it did not register box office headlines but it found an engaged audience.

Critics and scholars gave generally favorable responses, noting the film's careful use of archival footage and recent research; audience voting averages around 7.8 out of 10 on public platforms, though sample sizes are small. Major themes include gendered responsibility, everyday bureaucratic violence, and how ideology became normalized in ordinary institutions.

Since its release the film has helped broaden conversations about women's roles in Nazi systems, supplying case studies scholars can cite and classroom-friendly material. It has encouraged further archival work and public discussion, prompting museums and universities to include more nuanced modules on gender and perpetration in exhibitions and syllabi.