Elisabeth abegg biography of mahatma gandhi
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At the beginning of the Nazi era, the school was to be reorganized to comply with National Socialist requirements. Source: Aufbau, New York, Vol. XL, Nr. 42, 18.10.1974, S. 36
The building at Tempelhofer Damm 56 in Berlin-Tempelhof where Elisabeth and Julie Abegg had their apartment, photographed 2013.
Abegg temporarily housed dozens of Jews in her Tempelhof apartment and vacant neighbouring apartments, and secured permanent accommodation for them across Berlin, East Prussia and Alsace.
She sold her jewelry to pay for some Jews" escape to Switzerland and tutored hiding Jewish children at her apartment.
In total, she sheltered around 80 Jews between 1942 and 1945.
In 1957, on the occasion of her 75th birthday, some of the survivors who had been saved by Elisabeth Abegg dedicated a mimeographed collection of memoirs to her, entitled “When One Light Pierced the Darkness”.
On May 23, 1967, Yad Vashem recognized Elisabeth Abegg as Righteous Among the Nations.
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In 1957, a group of Jews whom Abegg had rescued during the Holocaust published a book, titled And a Light Shined in the Darkness, in dedication to her.She died in 1974.
In 1967, she was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
Elisabeth Abegg
born in Strasbourg on March 3, 1882 – died in Berlin on August 8, 1974
Helper
The left-liberal teacher Elisabeth Abegg taught at a girls’ high school in Berlin from 1924. Abegg moved to Berlin and began teaching at the Luisen Mädchenschule, a fashionable Berlin girls’ school.
She joined the Quakers religious community that same year.
In July 1942, a close friend of hers was deported, a Christian woman with Jewish origins. Source: LABO Berlin, BEG Nr. 6294
Letter from the municipal high schools department to Elisabeth Abegg after her denunciation (the names of the then underage students have been redacted), Berlin, dated June 22, 1940.
Front row, seated 6th from left: Elisabeth Abegg, 2nd row, seated 2nd from right: Elisabeth Schmitz. She had to change schools, and in 1940 was forced to retire prematurely following a denunciation. After the Second World War, Abegg resumed teaching in Berlin. In Berlin, she became involved in postwar relief work organised by the Quaker community.
Abegg openly criticised the Nazi regime after Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933.
She was transferred to another school as punishment for her criticism and was questioned by the Gestapo in 1938.
She was deeply influenced by the Christian-universalist teachings of Albert Schweitzer, the great Alsatian theologian, humanist and medical doctor. A memorial plaque was mounted in her Tempelhof neighbourhood in 1991 and a street in Berlin"s Mitte, Elisabeth-Abegg-Straße, was named after her in 2006.
Achievements
Abegg received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) in 1957.
Membership
She became a teacher at the Luisengymnasium Berlin in Berlin-Mitte in 1924 and was an active member of the German Democratic Party.
With the deportation to the East of her close friend of 40 years, Anna Hirschberg, Abegg understood the true import of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, and resolved to do everything in her power to save other Jews. She and her sister Julie took twelve people into their home in Berlin-Tempelhof, and she found hiding places with friends for others.
Elisabeth Abegg
educationist
Luise Wilhelmine Elisabeth Abegg was a German educator and resistance fighter against Nazism. She was active on social issues and had many democratic-minded friends. When the Nazis rose to power, Abegg soon came into conflict with the newly Nazi-appointed director of the school.