398 mm × 210 mm

Heinrich and Marie List
Else and Berthold Beitz
Silent Heroes Memorial Center
Resistance to Persecution of the Jews, 1933–1945
The Silent Heroes Memorial Center commemorates those ­
brave people who supported persecuted Jews during the
In July 1941, young Berthold Beitz was
sent to Borysław in German-occupied
Eastern Galicia as the business manager of an oil company. Beitz was
stunned by the mass execution of
Jews and, starting in the spring of
1942, the deportations.
He decided to save as many as possible of the Jews forced to work for his
company. Else Beitz, who lived in
Borysław with her husband, also hid
Jews, including children, in her home
on a number of occasions when raids
were about to take place.
Nazi dictatorship. They are often referred to as “silent heroes.”
The example set by these helpers shows that it was in fact
­possible to save people in Nazi Germany. In the German-­
occupied territories as well, despite the risk, individual
The exhibition focuses on stories of rescue in Germany.
They are told from the dual perspective of the helpers and
of those su≠ering persecution.
About 10,000 to 12,000 German Jews tried to survive by
going into hiding after the mass deportations to the ghettos
Else and Berthold
Beitz with their
daughter Barbara,
ca. 1942 in Borysław
Germans found the courage to exploit any leeway they had
and extermination camps had begun in the fall of 1941.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of people helped these
Jews within Germany. About 5,000 Jews survived in hiding,
In November 1941, Marie and Heinrich List hid a Jewish friend of theirs,
Ferdinand Strauss, on their farm in
the Odenwald hills in the state of
Hesse, although this was very risky in
a village where everyone knew everyone else. Strauss’s hiding place was
exposed in March 1942. Ferdinand
Strauss was able to escape to
­Switzerland. While Marie List
­received only a severe warning,
the Gestapo sent her husband to
the Dachau concentration camp,
where he died in October 1942.
Heinrich and Marie List, 1930s
more than 1,700 of them in Berlin.
for maneuvering.
This resistance to the persecution of the Jews is vividly illus­
trated on the main floor of the Silent Heroes Memorial Center.
Numerous rescue stories can be called up at a media table.
Each of the eighteen stories is dedicated to a specific theme.
The permanent exhibition o≠ers information about the
Eugen Herman-Friede
Seventeen-year-old Eugen escaped
in January 1943 with the help of his
“Aryan” stepfather and went into
­hiding in Berlin to avoid imminent
­deportation. Starting in August 1943
he stayed with the family of Hans
Winkler, a court clerk, in the Brandenburg town of Luckenwalde. He was
there when Winkler and others founded the Community for Peace and
­Reconstruction resistance group
and he participated in their activities.
­Although arrested in December 1944,
Eugen Herman-Friede survived the
Nazi period.
­per­secution of Jews starting in 1933 and their hopeless situation
in view of the impending deportations “to the East,” about
the decision by some to save themselves by going into hiding,
Eugen Herman-Friede disguised
himself by wearing the Hitler Youth
uniform of Hans Winkler’s son,
Luckenwalde 1943.
and about the actions and motives of the women and men
who assisted them. Successful rescues are documented as
well as failed attempts.
Elisabeth Abegg
Elisabeth Abegg—a left-liberal
teacher, committed opponent of the
Nazi regime, and Quaker—decided
to help as many Jews avoid deportation as she could. With a network of
former students, friends, and her
­sister, Abegg arranged hiding places,
food, forged identification papers,
and other things that Jews in hiding
needed for survival. Together they
were able to save about eighty
­people in and around Berlin, in the
Alsace region, and in East Prussia.
The nine showcases on the upper floor document the di≠erent
life stories of persecuted Jews and helpers, each one introduced
by a short film. Objects, documents, and photographs can be
Elisabeth Abegg, ca. 1933
viewed in the showcases.
A separate room has eight computer workstations for more
­intensive research. There is a database including biographies,
photographs, and documents of several hundred rescuers
and those who were helped; it will be expanded on an
ongoing basis.
Contemporary witness and journalist Inge Deutschkron was
­instrumental in the process started in 1999 to expand a
­student project into the Museum Otto Weidt’s Workshop for
the Blind at Rosenthaler Straße 39 in the Mitte district of Berlin.
During the Nazi era, mainly blind and deaf Jews were employed
in this workshop under the protection of the brush manufacturer Otto Weidt (1883–1947).
Address
Silent Heroes Memorial Center
Rosenthaler Straße 39, D-10178 Berlin
www.gedenkstaette-stille-helden.de
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
S-Bahn station Hackescher Markt
U-Bahn station Weinmeisterstraße
Contact
Beate Kosmala, Ph.D.
Tel +49(0)30 23 45 79-19, Fax -39
E-Mail kosmala@gdw-berlin.de
The Development of the Silent Heroes Memorial Center
In recent years there has been growing public interest in the
Barbara Schieb
Tel +49(0)30 23 45 79-29, Fax -39
E-Mail schieb@gdw-berlin.de
life stories of people who helped Jews su≠ering persecution
during the Nazi dictatorship.
The Silent Heroes Memorial Center
is continuing to compile reports,
photographs, and documents,
and to archive video and audio
recordings of oral history accounts
of events.
Inspired by the association Against Oblivion—For Democracy,
a comprehensive research project “Rescuing Jews in Nazi
­Germany 1933–1945” was conducted between 1997 and 2002
under the direction of Professor Wolfgang Benz at the Technical
University of Berlin’s Center for Research on Antisemitism.
Films such as Schindler’s List and numerous publications have
also heightened interest in this subject.
After diverse e≠orts, such as by then German president
­Johannes Rau, the building at Rosenthaler Straße 39 was
­purchased in 2004 with funds from the German government
and the Berlin Class Lottery Foundation that had been
­earmarked not only for the expansion of the Museum Otto
Weidt’s ­Workshop for the Blind, but also for the establishment
of a ­central Silent Heroes Memorial Center.
In April 2005 the German Resistance Memorial Center was
commissioned with the conceptual and organizational
­planning of this new museum. In collaboration with and based
on the research findings of the Center for Research on Anti­
semitism, the “Silent Heroes” project started preparations for
a permanent exhibition. The Silent Heroes Memorial Center
was opened on October 27, 2008.
The exhibition and the catalog
received funding from the Federal
Government Commissioner for
Culture and the Media and were
co-financed by the European Union,
European Regional Development
Fund (ERDF), and the state of Berlin.