Gertrud Neuhof

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Gertrud Adelina Frieda Neuhof (born Jaffke ; * August 28, 1901 in Berlin ; † November 19, 1987 there ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Gertrud Jaffke was born in her parents' apartment at Willibald-Alexis-Straße 25 in Bergmannkiez . Her parents were the workers Otto Jaffke and Gertrud Jaffke, geb. Floor. She learned the trade of a stenographer. She was an active athlete in the Fichte workers' sports club and a member of the KPD . In 1923 she married Karl Neuhof and had their son Peter Neuhof in 1925 . She was employed in the Willi Müller joinery in Neuenhagen near Berlin .

In September 1942, despite the already existing threat from the Gestapo because of the participation in the underground struggle of the illegal KPD, she granted accommodation to the instructor of the KPD section leadership West Wilhelm Beuttel who had come from Holland . She also supported his political work in Berlin by providing courier services and establishing contacts with her resistance group.

On February 10, 1943, she was arrested together with her husband and roommate Wilhelm Beuttel in their apartment at Zeltinger Strasse 52 in Berlin-Frohnau . During her pre-trial detention at the Berlin police headquarters on Alexanderplatz , she temporarily shared the cell with Erna Eifler . From October 1943 she was imprisoned in Kantstrasse women's prison, where she survived a heavy air raid on the evening of November 22nd. When she was released before her trial date at Christmas 1943, she went to various Gestapo positions in search of her husband. According to her memories, there was a personal encounter with Adolf Eichmann , whom she asked in vain about her husband's whereabouts.

Since no independent acts of resistance could be proven, Gertrud Neuhof was sentenced in the trial against Wilhelm Beuttel on January 20, 1944 to only a six-month prison sentence, which was already compensated with the remand. Her husband Karl Neuhof was admitted to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in October 1943 and, as a resistance fighter of Jewish descent, shot without trial on November 15, 1943.

After her release from prison, she again took part in the meetings of her KPD group, which had in the meantime found a connection with the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization . She met with Emil Leo with Marga Schumacher and George Dimentstein and distributed leaflets of movement Free Germany . She was arrested again on September 27, 1944 and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp with Marga Schumacher and other women from her resistance group. On April 28, 1945, she was forced to go on a death march towards Schwerin. After the guards fled, they were liberated by the Red Army on May 1 or 2, 1945 .

After the war she became an active member of the VVN , the SEW and the West Berlin peace movement as well as the Ravensbrück Committee West Berlin .

In the early 1960s she received compensation for her imprisonment and for the death of her husband.

Gertrud Neuhof died at the age of 86 and was buried in the Frohnau cemetery.

literature

  • Ursel Hochmuth : Illegal KPD and movement "Free Germany" in Berlin and Brandenburg 1942-1945. Biographies and testimonials from the resistance organization around Saefkow, Jacob and Bästlein. Hentrich and Hentrich, Teetz 1998, ISBN 3-933471-08-7 , 570 pages (= writings of the German Resistance Memorial Center, Series A, analyzes and representations, volume 4).
  • Peter Neuhof: When the Braunen came - a Berlin Jewish family in the resistance. Pahl-Rugenstein-Verlag, Bonn 2006.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Birth register StA Berlin IVb No. 2290/1901 .
  2. ↑ Peter Neuhof: When the brown ones came. A Berlin Jewish family in resistance. Bonn 2006, p. 245.
  3. ↑ Peter Neuhof: When the brown ones came. A Berlin Jewish family in resistance. Bonn 2006, p. 254.
  4. ↑ Peter Neuhof: When the brown ones came. A Berlin Jewish family in resistance. Bonn 2006, p. 292.
  5. ↑ Peter Neuhof: It was such an unlikely lucky circumstance that I survived this terrible time. In: AK asks us, we are the last; Berliner VVN-BdA (ed.): "Ask us, we are the last". Memories of those persecuted by National Socialism and people from the anti-fascist resistance. An interview brochure (part 4) . Berlin 2013, p. 25–35, here p. 33 ( blogsport.de [PDF]).
  6. ↑ Virtual memorial for Gertrud Neuhof. In: Berlin.friedparks.de. Retrieved January 3, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Neuhof, Gertrude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jaffke, Gertrud (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1987
Place of death Berlin