Klara Grüger

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Memorial plaque for Klara Grüger at house Droysenstrasse 10 a in Berlin

Klara Grüger (née Mandalka ; second marriage to Münzer ; * July 16, 1912 in Kandrzin (Upper Silesia); † May 8, 1999 in Berlin ) was a German Righteous Among the Nations . During the National Socialist era , she hid the Jewish lawyer Hans Münzer in her apartment for two and a half years .

Life

Klara Mandalka was the daughter of a train driver. She had four older siblings, three brothers and a sister. She was raised Catholic and after primary school she attended a household school in Gliwice for two years . She came to Berlin for the first time at the age of 14 and hoped to work there as a waitress . During this time she lived with an aunt who was a widow. She did not get a work permit because she was not registered in the city.

In 1936 she married the master baker Ernst Grüger. Together they ran a bakery on Droysenstrasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg . During the Nazi era , it also served Jews after restrictions were imposed on them and they were not allowed to receive white bread or to shop at certain times of the day. She did not care and was denounced , but was able to avert consequences. She and her husband continued to help, even after they were fined 1200 Reichsmarks following controls .

Her husband was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in 1941 for undermining military strength ; he served twelve months from the sentence. He had bribed a sergeant that his journeyman Hanno Günther could be deferred from military service. Klara Grüger was also sentenced to one year in prison. Her sentence was suspended so that she could continue operating the bakery. The journeyman was executed in the Plötzensee correctional facility .

In the winter of 1944 Inge Deutschkron brought her a suitcase full of goods that had come from a black market trader who had been deported . She found out that Inge Deutschkron was Jewish and supported her and her mother by forging signatures so that they could get food cards.

She helped other Jews, such as four young men, whom she placed in the basement of the house at Droysenstrasse 7, where they helped the porter's wife. The four survived the war. She also looked after Russian prisoners of war. The marriage with Ernst Grüger was divorced. After the end of the Second World War , she married the lawyer Hans Münzer.

In 1986 Klara Münzer was named Righteous Among the Nations . She died in 1999. In 2008, a memorial plaque for Klara Grüger was unveiled at house 10 a on Droysenstrasse in the presence of Inge Deutschkron.

literature

  • Münzer, Klara . In: Daniel Fraenkel, Jackob Borut (Ed.): Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations. Germans and Austrians . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005, p. 206 ISBN 3-89244-900-7
  • Inge Deutschkron: You stayed in the shade. A memorial for “silent heroes” . Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1996, pp. 11-29 ISBN 3-89468-223-X

Web links

Commons : Klara Grüger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem Honored (PDF file, 264 kB) on the side of Yad Vashem (English)
  2. ↑ Memorial plaque for Klara Grüger on the Berlin.de website
  3. ^ Press release from the country
personal data
SURNAME Grueger, Klara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mandalka, Klara (maiden name); Münzer, Klara (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German baker's wife and Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Kandrzin
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1999
Place of death Berlin