Ottilie Pohl — born Ottilie Taube Levit — was a politician and resistance fighter. She worked as a milliner in her small Lusatian town, but moved to Berlin at the age of 20 as she saw more of a future there.

 

She worked at an worker's educational association for women and girls. In 1890, following the end of Bismarck's anti-socialist laws, she could finally join the SPD and represented the party in Berlin-Moabit.

 

In 1893 she married Wilhelm Pohl and had two children, Fritz and Getrud. The family lived together at Beusselstraße 43. Her middle name, "Taube", was a Jewish given name, and she often signed documents as "Taube Pohl", including her marriage certificate.

 

Until the death of her husband in 1915, she was primarily a housewife. She strongly opposed the First World War and distributed literature against it with Fritz. In 1920, she was elected to represent a spin-off of the SPD, the Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, working on committees for schools and those affected by poverty.

 

From this time until the Nazis came into power, Pohl fed strikers from the BVG (Berlin's public transit service) and sat on the board of the Konsumgenossenschaft (consumer co-op collective). In 1933, she joined an underground group called Rote Hilfe, consisting mainly of women, aiding victims of Nazi persecution and collecting funds to help those in hiding — many of whom Pohl let stay in her flat. One such fugitive was Rudolf Hallmeyer, a communist who had illegally re-entered Germany from Prague. He was arrested in August 1940, leading to the arrest of Ottilie Pohl and some other members of Rote Hilfe. Since she was now 73 and a first-time offender, it was decided that she should "only" serve a sentence of eight months at Kantstraße women's prison. Hallmeyer, however, was sentenced to death.

 

Pohl resumed her illegal work after her release, but on the 19th November 1942, the Gestapo came to her door, having identified her as Jewish. The following day, at the age of 75, she was deported to Theresienstadt. Soon afterwards, her home and belongings were confiscated and sold. She was murdered at Theresienstadt concentration camp.

 

A plaque commemorating Ottilie Pohl can be found at her Beusselstraße residence.

 

Sources:

Berlin Geschichte

Kulturring

Wikipedia

Wikiwand