Violence in childhood Andrea Sawatzki: "I wished my father would die"
As a child, Andrea Sawatzki had to care for her father, who suffered from dementia - and experienced violence in the process. Her trauma stayed with the actress for a long time. She was able to overcome it thanks to her own family happiness.
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- As an eight-year-old, actress Andrea Sawatzki began caring for her father, who suffered from dementia.
- What initially sounds like loving care was a painful experience for the now 62-year-old.
- "In the years when I had to care for him, at some point there was only fear and reluctance. And also hatred," says Sawatzki in an interview with Die Zeit.
Many people have to care for their parents themselves when they are ill or old - including German actress Andrea Sawatzki. But the 62-year-old was still a child when she had to care for her father, who suffered from dementia.
She was confronted with the task at the age of eight and repeatedly experienced violence and hatred.
Her father once sat on her and repeatedly "punched her in the face", recalls Andrea Sawatzki in an interview with the newspaper "Die Zeit", adding: "He smashed my eyebrow with his wedding ring. It bled terribly."
Andrea Sawatzki tied her father to his chair
The actress can't imagine that the neighbors didn't notice any of this. "I'm sure she heard my screams." Her mother was also unable to protect her. "I knew she didn't want to know what nights with him were like," says Sawatzki.
She continued: "When my father became physically weaker, I couldn't tell her what I was doing to him. Or that I wished he was dead."
And so the child fought back herself. When her father became physically weaker as his illness progressed, she took advantage of this and tied him to his chair.
She never shared this with her mother either. When she was 15, her father finally died. But this was no reason for his daughter to grieve. She hated him, Andrea Sawatzki admits to Die Zeit, but also says: "Without the illness, I would certainly have loved him just as much."
Sawatzki: "I wouldn't have survived without my family"
The trauma stayed with the actress for a long time. She was able to overcome it with the help of her own family happiness:
She has been together with fellow actor Christian Berkel since the late 1990s. The couple married in 2011 and have two sons together.
"I wouldn't have survived this life without my family," Sawatzki is certain. "Without my children, I wouldn't have been able to go back to my childhood and bring out the ghosts of the past."
