ABSTRACT
The establishment of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany (IICSA) formed part of a global approach to address injustice perpetrated against children under the umbrella of the state, churches, health services, education, or within families. Objectives include acknowledgement of the injustice, but also the production, based on survivors' reports, of collective knowledge about violence and abuse against children, who are significantly dependent, and further about the denial of protection for them in society. The testimonies of those who have lived these experiences and who share them with society are therefore crucial. The chapter explores how bearing witness as a survivor in later life and linking ages are interwoven. The authors' research interests in the field of witnessing encompass three central epistemological areas of focus: Knowledge production, recognition of suffering and injustice, and transfer and transformation. In an exploratory, qualitative study, testimonies about child sexual abuse (CSA) in the post-war period are analyzed. Within this, recourse to childhood theory and the concept of generational order offer a better understanding. After introducing the research subject, the thematization of violence and abuse in childhood and adolescence is outlined as a topic in the public domain and historically in Germany since the Second World War. CSA and the German Independent Inquiry, with its specific emphasis on reappraisal, is then highlighted. Following this, the concept and potential of witnessing is introduced. In an exploratory structured content analysis, eight testimonies about childhood and CSA in the 1950s were conducted. The results are presented in a descriptive mode, identifying three areas of knowledge: Knowledge about childhood, violence and abuse in German post-war society, knowledge about lifelong processing modes of sexual violence experienced in the 1950s, and knowledge about emotional and social positioning in later life and the individual's present-day experience as a witness. The chapter ends with a conclusion and discussion in the light of linking ages and its contribution to transitional justice.
