Last month Germany commemorated a unique event related to the Holocaust. In February 1943, Nazis rounded up Jewish men who were being used as forced laborers in armaments factories. They were held in a building on the Rosenstrasse in Berlin pending deportation. These were largely men with non-Jewish wives, considered to be in a special (racial) category under Nazi law. Strange as it seems under the Nazi dictatorship, the non-Jewish wives of these men protested in front of the facility where their men were being held. Within two weeks, their husbands were released.
The below article from the Jewish Forum for Democracy and against anti-Semitism (Germany) is translated by Fousesquawk. It also contains a link at the end to an article by the event's organizers with a video of the commemoration. In addition, there is an excellent German movie on the event called Rosenstrasse. I believe it is available on Netflix with English subtitles.
https://www.jfda.de/post/gedenken-widerstand-der-frauen-rosenstra%C3%9Fe
- February 28, 2023
- : Commemorating the resistance of the women of Rosenstrasse
This year it is 80 years since brave women protested in front of the prison on the Rosenstrasse where their husbands were being held demanding their release. In 1943 in the course of the so-called "Factory Action", thousands of Jews were arrested, who were working as forced laborers in the ornaments industry. About 2,000 of them, who lived in so-called mixed marriages, were brought to the Rosenstrasse in a building (housing) the Jewish community.
The non-Jewish relatives of these Jewish would not accept the separation and deportation, (and) they protested in front of the building and resisted the attempt to remove them. While most other arrested Jews were deported and murdered in the framework of this action, those Jews in the Rosenstrasse transit camp were actually released over the course of the next two weeks. Proof that, even in an inhuman dictatorship, protest can be possible and successful.
On this occasion, a commemoration was held on February 27, the anniversary of the wave of arrests. A prayer for the dead was given by Rabbi Yitzhak Ehrenberg at the memorial on Grossen Hamburgerstrasse. Then followed a silent march to Rosenstrasse to the sculpture by Ingeborg Hunzinger, which was dedicated in 1995. In the presence of the Israeli ambassador, SE Professor Ron Prosor, who also spoke words of commemoration, this unique event was remembered in a ceremony, also, however, remembering the many dead who were murdered by the National Socialists.
Link to the organizer's report:
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