Emmy Zehden

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Emmy Zehden , maiden name Emmy Windhorst (born March 28, 1900 in Lübbecke ; † June 9, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Stolperstein , Franzstrasse 32, in Berlin-Wilhelmstadt

In 1926 she married the Jewish businessman Richard Zehden . She was a newspaper deliverer by profession. As a member of the Association of International Bible Students , who later renamed themselves Jehovah's Witnesses , she belonged to a group that hid several conscientious objectors threatened with death in a gazebo at Krielower Weg 25 in Berlin-Gatow . This group also included the gardener couple MUSS and, after the arrest of Richard and Emmy Zehden, Liesbeth Seling as well .

The hiding place, in which Horst-Günther Schmidt and his friend Gerhard Liebold from Rentzschmühle near Greiz and later also Werner Gassner from Greiz hid, was discovered by the Gestapo . The Zehden couple were arrested in September 1942. Richard Zehden had previously served nine months in prison. He was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he died.

Emmy Zehden was taken to the Barnimstrasse women's prison in Berlin. After a hearing by the “ People's Court ” on November 19, 1943, she was sentenced to death and a lifelong loss of honor for degrading military strength in connection with treasonous favoring of the enemy . Despite a petition for clemency written by her, she was beheaded by Wilhelm Röttger on June 9, 1944 in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison .

The fugitives Gerhard Liebold and Werner Gassner were sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial in Berlin for undermining military strength and executed . Horst-Günther Schmidt was arrested as a courier in Danzig in June 1943 . The Gestapo transferred him to the Alexanderplatz prison in Berlin, later to the Moabit remand prison and then to the Tegel prison . On November 30, 1944, the 4th Senate of the “People's Court” sentenced him to death for evasion of military service, degradation of military strength and illegal activity in the International Association of Bible Students. He was freed from the Brandenburg-Görden prison on April 27, 1945 by Soviet soldiers.

Honors

Street name sign Emmy-Zehden-Weg in Berlin-Charlottenburg-Nord

The path that leads from Saatwinkler Damm to the Plötzensee execution site was named Emmy-Zehden-Weg in 1992.

In 2005, the city of Lübbecke named a new street in a building area on Hermannstraße after the Lübbecker-born Emmy-Zehden-Weg.

In October 2011, a stumbling block was laid in front of the residential building at Franzstrasse 32 in Wilhelmstadt to commemorate Emmy Zehden.

literature

  • Horst Schmidt: Death always came on Mondays. Persecuted as a conscientious objector under National Socialism. An autobiography. Published by Hans Hesse. Klartext, Essen 2003, ISBN 3-89861-201-5 .

Web links

Commons : Emmy Zehden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Copy of the record of the execution of the death sentence. In: Friedrich Zipfel : Plötzensee Memorial . State Center for Political Education Berlin, Berlin, 7th ed. 1966, p. 14. In the hurry to carry out the death sentence and to record it, her name was erroneously spelled “Zheden”.
  2. ↑ Emmy-Zehden-Weg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Zehden, Emmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Windhorst, Emmy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Luebbecke
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee