Ottilie Pohl
Ottilie Pohl (born Levit ; born November 14, 1867 in Schönwalde ; † December 1943 in Theresienstadt concentration camp ) was a German politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism . She was Berlin city councilor of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) in the Tiergarten electoral district .
Life
The trained cleaner left her home country as a relatively young girl and went to Berlin, where she hoped for better future prospects. Ottilie Pohl got involved in a workers' education association for girls and women from an early age . After the fall of Bismarck's Socialist Law (1890), she joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), as their representative in Moabit .
The local politician was declared an opponent of the war, together with her son she distributed the " Spartacus letters " and other sheets of the Spartacus group . During the First World War she joined the USPD in 1917 and was elected to the city council as a member of her party in 1920. She worked in various committees such as the poor and school commission. During the BVG strike (1932), she helped feed the strikers in the solidarity kitchen.
After the change of power in 1933, Ottilie Pohl became actively involved as a resistance fighter against the Nazi regime and worked, among other things, in the " Red Aid Germany ". Here, together with other women, she organized the care of children of whom one of the parents had been arrested, or raised money for relatives of those in prison or in hiding. She worked particularly closely with Rosa Lindemann .
In 1940 Ottilie Pohl was sentenced to eight months in prison for arranging accommodation with friends for the KPD instructor Rudolf Hallmeyer . After her release from the Kantstrasse women's prison in Berlin at the end of 1941, however, she continued her illegal work.
According to most sources, in November 1942 she was finally deported to Theresienstadt because of her Jewish origins. The 76-year-old died there in December 1943.
Honors
Today a plaque in Beusselstrasse (Berlin-Moabit) and Pohlstrasse in Berlin-Tiergarten remember Ottilie Pohl.
literature
- Luise Kraushaar (Ed.): German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 2. Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 50 f.
- Silva Wittfeld: Ottilie Pohl. In: Ursula Ahrens: Aufbruch. Women's stories from Tiergarten 1850–1950. Weidler, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89693-138-5 , p. 88
- Hans-Peter Doege: Civil courage in difficult times . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 5, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 51-52 ( luise-berlin.de ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pohlstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pohl, Ottilie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Levit, Ottilie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1867 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schönwalde |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 1943 |
| Place of death | Theresienstadt concentration camp |