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Holocaust Memorial Day: Three German women who defied the Nazis

The stories of three women who were part of a quiet resistance against the Nazis in Berlin.

In the heart of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, ordinary people worked tirelessly and at great risk to themselves to help those whose lives were threatened. This is the story of those who were hidden, and those who helped keep their secrets.

Among them was Ruth Winkelmann, who witnessed 16 members of her family being taken away to concentration camps. She managed to live in a garden shed for two years, hiding her Jewish heritage.

Elisabeth Charlotte Gloeden – known as Liselotte or β€œLilo” – along with her husband Erich, hid Jews in their home in Berlin, before arranging safe passage for them out of Germany. The couple’s efforts went undetected until 1944 when they took in General Fritz Lindemann, who was being hunted by the Gestapo for being part of the plot to assassinate Hitler. They stood trial in November 1944 before one of Germany’s most feared judges, Roland Freisler.

And finally Felicitas Narloch, who provided shelter to a Jewish woman who arrived on her doorstep asking for help. She was was just a teenager, but says "anyone would do the same."

(Photo: Ruth Winkelmann, Felicitas Narloch and Lilo Gloeden - three women who resisted the Nazis. Family collection/Getty Images)

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5 minutes

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