Erna Lenz

Erna Lenz (born July 3, 1900 in Berlin ; † January 23, 1955 there ) was a German communist resistance fighter .

Life

Lenz attended elementary school until 1914. She learned the profession of diamond polisher and worked for several years at Osram in Berlin-Moabit . In 1918 she joined the German Metal Workers Association (DMV). In the 1920s she was politically involved in the KPD . Because of her job, Lenz has worked abroad several times, including in Holland and Finland .

In June 1930 she went to Moscow with her then partner Bernhard Zessin to work in the Elektrosawod. After separating from Zessin, Lenz returned to Berlin in August 1931 . She now became a member of the KPD , for which she took on functions and later became involved in the resistance against the Nazi regime. She also joined the Red Aid Germany (RHD).

After the National Socialists came to power , Lenz worked in the area of ​​the Berlin-Southeast sub-district leadership of the illegal KPD. On August 31, 1937, the Gestapo arrested her in her apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg . On June 14, 1939, the III. Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal for "preparation for high treason" - taking into account pre-trial detention - to two years imprisonment. Lenz served the remainder of the sentence in the Cottbus penitentiary until September 14, 1939 .

After the end of the Second World War , Lenz was employed in the Berlin main employment office and later in the VEB light bulb factory in Berlin (East). She lived in Berlin-Kreuzberg, where she died after a serious illness, which was also attributed to the arduous imprisonment.

Erna Lenz was buried in the cemetery in Baumschulenweg (East Berlin).

Literature / sources

• Sergei W. Shuravlyov: I ask for work in the Soviet Union. German skilled workers in Moscow in the 1930s . Ch. Links-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-275-1 .
• Landesarchiv Berlin , inventory C Rep. 118-01, No. 6253 (documents in connection with the recognition as a "victim of fascism").
• History workshop of the Berlin association of former participants in the anti-fascist resistance, victims of the Nazi regime and surviving dependents (BV VdN) e. V. (Ed.): Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon , Volume 5. Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89626-355-2 , p. 65 (short biography).