Ernestina Gallardo

Ernestina Gallardo with the Bernhard Etté Orchestra

Ernestina Gallardo (* 1. February 1912 in Berlin , † 20 June 1982 ibid) was a German actress and singer , the resistance against the Nazis made.

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family and friends

Ernestina Gallardo, nee Ledermann, was born on February 1, 1912 as the illegitimate daughter of the teacher Margarethe Ledermann and the Chilean officer Ernesto Gallardo in Ruhlaer Strasse in Berlin. Her mother came from Groß-Wartenberg , where she was born on December 11, 1876. She died on March 17, 1945 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf at Markgraf-Albrecht-Straße 8. Although she had converted to the Protestant faith, she was considered a so-called “ full Jew ” according to the racial laws of the National Socialists, as were her three sisters, Melanie Ledermann, Beatrice Ledermann and Anna Ledermann. Melanie Ledermann lived in Berlin-Schmargendorf at Ruhlaer Straße 26 and was also a teacher. Beatrice and Anna Ledermann lived in the Spreewald town of Lübbenau , Hauptstrasse 33. Anna Ledermann was unemployed and single. She died in 1937. Her unmarried sister Beatrice Ledermann was also born in Groß-Wartenberg on August 21, 1866 and later became the owner of the business in Lübbenau. On November 27, 1942, she committed suicide in her apartment suicide to a deportation to Theresienstadt to escape.

Ernestina Gallardo's maternal grandparents lived at Holtzenstrasse 13 in Berlin-Charlottenburg and were also of Jewish descent. Her grandfather, Siegfried Ledermann, was a businessman and died in Groß-Wartenberg. Her grandmother, Emilia Ledermann, who was born in Leipzig on May 28, 1838 , died in Grimma on August 22, 1909 . Emilia Ledermann's father was a cantor . He and his wife Therese had the surname Meyer. Both lived in Leipzig.

Ernestina Gallardo has had her father's surname since 1927 with official approval. At the beginning of the thirties she was engaged to the officer Gerhard Raffalovich, who, however , separated from her in 1935 according to the “ Nuremberg Laws ”.

Education and artistic activity

Ernestina Gallardo received private tuition from 1920 to 1928 at the Pädagogium Thie in Berlin and attended the Lettehaus . She then studied stage singing and took singing lessons from the Swedish court opera singer Ylira Helberg. She had her first engagements in the Tingel-Tangel-Theater Berlin and in the ensemble of Gustav Heppner. From 1932/1933 her career began as a singer in the jungle bar. According to her own statements, she performed in Belgium , Denmark , Riga , Reval and Finland in the 1920s . During the same period, she continued to take singing lessons from Silvia Laval Jaffé. However, after the National Socialists came to power, she was not allowed to take a final exam.

Because their Jewish origins had become known, a planned engagement at the Schillertheater in Berlin failed in 1936 .

For May 1 to 31, 1937, Ernestina Gallardo received the last permission to perform from the Reich Theater Chamber . This assumed that Gallardo was Spanish . With this permission to perform, she was able to tour Germany for the last time with the Bernhard Etté Orchestra .

After the war in 1945 she found it difficult to gain a foothold professionally. Ernestina Gallardo tried to continue working, but rarely found employment. She has performed with the US Army , the Titania Theater in Berlin and the Music Hall Dancing Cabaret in Bucharest , among others . According to a residence permit in Berlin, on August 30, 1956, she stated that she was an actress and singer.

resistance

Ernestina Gallardo made the Nazi resistance . She was connected to a resistance group that called itself "submarine supply". This group included, for example, Elly Heuss-Knapp (wife of the first Federal President Theodor Heuss ), Josef Pelz von Felinau and Gerhard Grindel as well as Rachel Hoppe, Charlotte Heppner (wife of the theater director Gustav Heppner), Mr Salomon ( lawyer ), Alfred Karpen (lawyer) , Erich Gloeden (architect), his wife Elisabeth Charlotte Gloeden (lawyer) and Carlota del Monte (student of theater studies , later civil servant at the Embassy of Guatemala in Bonn - Bad Godesberg ). Ernestina Gallardo was valued in her circle of acquaintances for offering her help without essential questions about the background of the people. She also advocated the admission of General Fritz Lindemann , one of the most important co-conspirators in the assassination group around July 20, 1944 ( Stauffenberg assassination attempt ). Ernestina Gallardo and Alfred Karpen wanted to bring General Fritz Lindemann to safety. They were not deterred by the increase in the risk of the attempted assassination. Ernestina Gallardo was only supported by Dr. Erich Gloeden informed about the situation, General Fritz Lindemann did not know her personally. Despite her best efforts, Ernestina Gallardo was no longer able to help him in time. The Gestapo tracked down General Fritz Lindemann and Erich Gloeden, who was his host, in his apartment on September 3, 1944. During the arrest , General Fritz Lindemann's notebook was seized. Among other things, it contained information about Ernestina Gallardo, whereupon a manhunt for her was initiated. According to a member of the “Submarine Supply” group, she was merely an accomplice, but not a direct member of the resistance group. General Fritz Lindemann was shot during the arrest and died of his serious injuries. Erich Gloeden; his wife, Elisabeth Gloeden, née Kuznitzky; Elisabeth Kuznitzky, née Liliencron, and her mother, who was also arrested, were sentenced to death and then executed . Despite this setback, Ernestina Gallardo continued to take in many persecuted people, mostly women, and looked after them as much as possible, even at risk to their own lives. The constant danger to life and the associated stress led to health impairments over the years.

Ernestina Gallardo looked after other Jewish victims of the Nazi regime during the period of National Socialist tyranny and offered them accommodation at Markgraf-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in Berlin. Under these circumstances, she first met the lawyer Alfred Karpen. She hid him from 1940 to 1945 in her apartment, where she lived with her mother, Margarethe Ledermann, and her aunt, Melanie Ledermann. During this time, I made contact with the Berlin milliner Helene Erb, who turned to Ernestina Gallardo in a desperate situation in 1943 and found shelter with her for the following three months. A particularly close relationship developed with Helene Erb. Therefore, in the reparation process in 1962, she was ready to give an affidavit for Ernestina Gallardo .

The time after the war

After the end of the war, Ernestina Gallardo tried to gain a professional foothold again through various smaller appearances in Berlin vaudeville shows and bars as a singer and through engagements as an extra in films. However, she was unable to do this because of health problems.

After applying for compensation for damage to property and professional advancement on October 29, 1952, Ernestina Gallardo initially received compensation of DM 8,600 .

In 1960 her help for Helene Erb in 1943 became known, after which she was honored on November 8, 1962 by the Berlin Senate as an " unsung heroine ". Shortly after being honored, she submitted an application for recognition as a politically and racially persecuted person under National Socialism (PrV), which, however, was rejected by the Berlin Compensation Office . On August 1, 1969, her action for recognition as a PrV was dismissed. On the one hand, the Berlin Regional Court recognized her for her resistance within the meaning of the PrV law, on the other hand it followed the argument of the compensation office, according to which Ernestina Gallardo had not suffered any significant damage to health.

In the following years, Ernestina Gallardo had to seek medical treatment again and again because of her poor health.

On October 14, 1972, the then Federal President Gustav Heinemann invited Ernestina Gallardo to Bellevue Palace for an honorary event for those who unselfishly gave help to those persecuted during the Nazi era. She accepted this invitation.

In her later life, Ernestina Gallardo took various cures that were reimbursed by the Berlin Compensation Office, which she had fought for in a court settlement. In 1981 she had to have a pacemaker implanted in the Sankt Gerhard Hospital in Berlin, for which the compensation office refused to accept the costs.

On June 20, 1982 Ernestina Gallardo committed suicide . She threw herself out of the window of her apartment on the fourth floor on the corner of Markgraf-Albrecht-Strasse and Damaschkestrasse in Berlin. On her table was a cash box with around 4,000 marks , bank accounts and gold coins.

Web links

• Stolpersteineluebbenau: Ernestina Gallardo

swell

1. ↑ cf. Archive, City of Lübbenau / Spreewald, Reg. Br .: 1/1937
2. ↑ cf. Archive, City of Lübbenau / Spreewald, Reg.No .: 69/1942
3. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. No .: 7683, Pension File B7
4. ↑ cf. Registry office, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Reg. No .: 823/1945
5. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, reg. No .: 7683, pension file HM26, HM1 / ​​HM6
6. ↑ cf. Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 078, No .: 665, Bl. 3
7. ↑ cf. Registry office, large district town of Grimmen, Reg. No .: 131/1909
8. ↑ cf. Website: https://stolpersteineluebbenau.wordpress.com/ernestina-gallordo/ (date of access: March 25, 2019; 10:58 p.m.)
9. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. Nr.:7683, Pension File - Old File, Bl. M29, B3
10. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. Nr.:7683, Pension File - Old File, Bl. E2 and Bl. E3
11. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg.No .: 7863, case file, sheet R 4
12. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg.No .: 7863, case file, sheet R 23
13. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. No .: 7863, case file, Bl. R? (19)
14. ↑ see Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. No .: 7863, trial file, p. R? (27)
15. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. No .: 7863, case file, Bl. R? (25)
16. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg.No .: 7863, case file, Bl. R 46 ff.
17. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg.No .: 7863, case file, sheet R 56
18. ↑ cf. Compensation Office Berlin, Reg. No .: 7863, case file, Bl.R 17a
19. ↑ cf. Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 078, No .: 665, Bl. 6
20. ↑ cf. Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 078, No .: 665, Bl. 3
21. ↑ cf. State Archives Berlin. B Rep. 078, No .: 665, Bl. 11
22. ↑ cf. Website: https://stolpersteineluebbenau.wordpress.com/ernestina-gallordo/ (date of access: March 25, 2019; 10:58 p.m.)