Rosi Grätzer

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Rosi 'Rosa' Grätzer (born May 23, 1899 in Berlin ; † June 30, 1995 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat ) was a German trade unionist.

Life

Early years and activity in the union movements

Grätzer was the daughter of a Jewish merchant. She attended the Lyceum in Berlin-Schöneberg (1917) and then studied for a few semesters at the commercial college and administration academy without obtaining a degree. During this time she joined the free trade union central association of employees (ZdA). She also became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

From 1925, Grätzer attended the administrative school in Berlin-Schöneberg, which she left as a state-recognized welfare nurse in November 1926.

In May 1928, Grätzer began working as a family welfare worker for the Berlin city administration. On November 1, 1928, she switched to the career counseling department of the Brandenburg State Insurance Institute, based in Berlin. From April 1, 1929, she was employed with the full salary of an assistant. She also became a works council member at the state employment office.

As a supporter of the free trade union movement, she wrote various articles for the afa-Bundeszeitung , the central organ of the Afa-Bund. According to her political self-image, she was a socialist and critic of the capitalist economic order, but identified with the Weimar Republic.

Time of National Socialism and emigration

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Grätzer, who, as a Jew and well-known trade unionist, belonged to two groups of people who were hated by the new rulers, quickly fell into the crosshairs of the repressive organs of the Nazi movement: on March 29, 1933 she was arrested and included in the SA barracks in General-Pape-Strasse in Berlin were abducted. There she was physically abused, shaved her head and threatened with further measures. She was released a short time later, but was unable to work for a long time as a result of the damage to her health caused by the abuse. The Reichsversicherungsanstalt for salaried employees rejected an application for a therapeutic procedure. Instead, she lived on unemployment benefits. As part of a compensation process in the 1950s that lasted for several years, she was certified as being generally nervous, exhausted, claustrophobic and more.

At the end of April / beginning of May 1934, Grätzer emigrated to London. When she applied to a German diplomatic mission abroad in 1938, she was refused to issue a new passport because “improper use was to be expected” because she had ties to communists. Instead, she was put on the wanted list of the state police station in Frankfurt an der Oder .

In Great Britain she was only granted a work permit in late 1938 (until then she was supported by English unions). From then on she worked as a translator (until 1950).

On June 16, 1939, the expatriation of Grätzer was announced in the Reichsanzeiger and in the Prussian Generalanzeiger. Even afterwards she remained in the sights of the National Socialist persecuting organs: in the spring of 1940 she was placed on the special wanted list by the Reich Security Main Office , a list of people who, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of Great Britain by the Wehrmacht, were automatically and primarily identified by special commandos of the SS and should be arrested.

During the Second World War, Grätzer was involved in the regional group of German trade unions.

post war period

In the post-war period, Grätzer continued to live in London until the end of the 1950s. Later she went to Italy and then to France. Her last known residence was in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat , France , in the early 1970s .

Fonts

  • On the draft of a vocational training law. In: AfA-Bundeszeitung . 1927, pp. 105f.

literature

  • Stefan Müller: Grätzer, Rosi (1899-) 'Capitalism de-souls people'. In: Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Trade unionists in the Nazi state: persecution, resistance, emigration . 2008, pp. 137-139.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margin entry birth register Berlin XII a, 1899, entry No. 1281
  2. ^ Entry on Rosi Grätzer on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum, London).
personal data
SURNAME Grätzer, Rosi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grätzer, Rosa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1995
Place of death Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat