Gertrud Seele

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Gertrud Seele (born September 22, 1917 in Berlin ; † January 12, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German nurse and social worker . During the Nazi era, she was committed to helping hard- pressed Jewish citizens and was a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime. Because of her attitude critical of the regime she was sentenced to death by the National Socialists and executed .

Life

Gertrud Seele was born as the daughter of a social democratic working class family. She first attended elementary school , then for two years the upper secondary school and was then drafted into the labor service. At the age of 18 she decided to become a nurse and, after completing her training, started working as a nurse and carer at the Robert Koch Hospital in Berlin. Their daughter Michaela was born on September 11, 1941, the father was a soldier on leave.

The former junker's castle and later Gertrud-Seele-Haus near Lanke. Photograph from 1951
Stolperstein in honor of Gertrud Seele (Parchimer Allee 75 in Berlin)

After the Reichskristallnacht in 1938, Gertrud Seele began to find safe accommodation for Jews who were persecuted by the Nazi racial ideology and threatened with deportation , or to hide them in their own apartment. In 1942 she and her daughter were evacuated to Merke in Niederlausitz . There the young woman attracted attention because of her anti-fascist stance and critical statements against Adolf Hitler . In 1944 she was denounced , arrested and initially taken to the remand prison in Frankfurt (Oder) . Later she was transferred to Barnimstrasse women's prison . On December 6, 1944, she was sentenced to death by the People's Court for degrading military strength and favoring the enemy . The judgment was carried out by guillotine on January 12, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee . Her wish to see her daughter again was not granted, but Gertrud Seele's farewell letter to her daughter has been preserved.

Commemoration

In her memory, a hospital in Lanke was named after Gertrud Seele on January 12, 1951 ; the former castle was later used as the Gertrud-Seele-Haus to a branch of the Eberswalder Hospital and then until 1998 as a nursing home. In addition, the Gertrud-Seele-Kehre in Hamburg and the Gertrud-Seele-Weg in Wedel are named after her.

literature

  • Hilde Steppe : Nursing in National Socialism , 1996, Mabuse-Verlag, ISBN 3-925499-35-0 , p. 196.
  • Horst-Peter Wolff: Seele, Gertrud In: Lexicon for care history. “Who was who in nursing history.” Ullstein Mosby, 1997, ISBN 3-86126-628-8 , pp. 185–186.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CF Rüter (ed.): GDR justice and Nazi crimes: Collection of East German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes. Amsterdam University Press, 2008, Volume 11, ISBN 3-59824-610-2 , pp. 518-519
  2. ↑ Women's prison Barnimstrasse: ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Farewell letter

Web links

Commons : Gertrud Seele  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Soul, Gertrud
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nurse and anti-fascist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1945
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee