Sonja Sonnenfeld

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Sonja Sonnenfeld (born September 22, 1912 in Malmö , † July 22, 2010 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish actress and human rights activist .

biography

Sonnenfeld moved to Berlin with her family in 1914 . She was the fourth child of a Swedish father of Jewish origin and a German mother. Her father was an architect and could not find work during the First World War , so they suffered hardship. She started school in the Fürstin Bismarck School in Charlottenburg in 1918 . When she was twelve, she attended a concert by Josephine Baker and became friends with her afterwards. She played as an extra in the film “ Metropolis ”, her portrait photo appeared in magazines and on advertising posters, she was given roles as a tap dancer in various films , for example that of the dancer Bumbawa in “The Decoy”. Because she refused to meet Sepp Dietrich , the commander of the Hitler-Leibstandarte , she was banned from appearing. In 1934 she played the role of Anitra in the film “ Peer Gynt ” with Hans Albers under a false name .

Disguised as a journalist, she listened on behalf of her father to the first speech Adolf Hitler gave in the Berlin Lustgarten after his appointment as Chancellor. The father had insisted that Mein Kampf be read at home as early as the 1920s . As a Jew with a Swedish passport, she was safe from the persecution of the Jews , but returned to Sweden under the impression of the Reichspogromnacht that she experienced on the streets in Berlin. In Stockholm she got involved with refugees.

In 1940 she married the Protestant mathematician Wolfgang Sonnenfeld . Only her mother came to Sonja's wedding, the other family members refused the non-Jewish wedding.

In 1962 she set up the “Open House” in her apartment in Stockholm . Initially every Sunday, later every first Sunday of the month, whoever wanted to could visit the Open House to be with other people and talk about their fate there. Many famous personalities visited the "Open House", u. a. Astrid Lindgren , Simon Wiesenthal and Rosalinde von Ossietzky-Palm . In 43 years, around 10,000 people from 80 nations have met in this unique institution. Sonnenfeld has worked as managing director for the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg committee since 1979 . The diplomat's half-sister had approached her and asked to get involved with Wallenberg, who saved the lives of 100,000 Jews in Budapest and was deported to the Soviet Union in 1945.

In 2001 she published an autobiography with which she held countless readings, mainly in schools, until 2010, to commemorate the persecution of Jews in the “Third Reich”, other violations of human rights and the fate of Wallenberg.

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personal data
SURNAME Sonnenfeld, Sonja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish actress and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Malmo
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 2010
Place of death Stockholm