Emmy Zehden, born Emmy Windhorst (March 28, 1900 – June 9, 1944) was a German Jehovah's Witness executed by the Nazis.[1]
Emmy Zehden | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Emmy Windhorst March 28, 1900 Lübbecke, Germany |
| Died | June 9, 1944 (aged 44) Plötzensee Prison, Berlin |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Richard Zehden |
Personal life
editZehden worked in domestic service and in 1918 moved to Berlin where she met Richard Zehden, a Jewish businessman; they married in the mid-1920s.[2][3]
Religion, resistance and death
editIn 1930, Zehden heard of the Bible Student movement. She and her husband were privately baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses in 1935 after the denomination was banned.[4] In 1938, her husband was imprisoned for a year for his membership of the same faith. The couple had a foster-son, Horst Schmidt, who refused to do military service because of his Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Zehden hid Horst and two of his companions who were also refusing to do military service, but they were discovered and all four were sentenced to death. Horst's two companions were beheaded. Zehden was sentenced to death for undermining of military strength in connection with treasonous favoritism of the enemy,[5] and although Zehden appealed for clemency she was also beheaded, on 9 June 1944 in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.[6] Horst was not executed, and married a Jehovah's Witness who had survived a concentration camp.[2][3]
Her husband Richard was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp and died on November 5, 1943.[7]
Legacy
edit
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A street in Berlin was named Emmy-Zehden-Weg in Zehden's memory in 1992.[8][3] A Stolperstein commemorates her outside 32 Franzstraße, Wilhelmstadt.
Her foster-son Horst Schmidt wrote Death always came on Mondays : persecuted for refusing to serve in the Nazi army : an autobiography and described as giving "insight into Horst's forster-mother Emmy Zehden's remarkable life".[9][10][11][2][7]
References
edit- ^ Lehrke, Gisela (1988). Gedenkstätten für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus historisch-politische Bildung an Orten des Widerstands und der Verfolgung. Campus Verlag. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9783593340135.
- ^ a b c "Emmy Zehden". www.gdw-berlin.de. German Resistance Memorial Center. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ a b c "Emmy Zehden Way—The Story Behind the Name". wol.jw.org. Watchtower. 1977. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ "Emmy Zehden". #ZumFeindGemacht. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
- ^ Tuchel, Johannes; Steinbach, Peter (1994). Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus. Wiley. ISBN 9783050025681.
- ^ "Notification". Gedenkstätte Plötzensee. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ a b Krenze, Michael (2005). "Review: Der Tod kam immer montags. Verfolgt als Kriegsdienstverweigerer im Nationalsozialismus. Eine Autobiographie by Horst Schmidt and Hans Hesse". Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte. 18 (1): 247–250.
- ^ StadtINFO (Berlin) (2008). Kauperts Straßenführer durch Berlin zusammengestellt nach amtlichen Unterlagen und eigenen Erhebungen. Kauperts Media. OCLC 646573019.
- ^ Schmidt, Horst (2005). Death always came on Mondays : persecuted for refusing to serve in the Nazi army : an autobiography. Copenhagen: Gramma Books. ISBN 9788799012541.
- ^ Schmidt, Horst (2003). Der Tod kam immer montags : verfolgt als Kriegsdienstverweigerer im Nationalsozialismus; eine Autobiographie. Essen: Klartext-Verlag. ISBN 9783898612012.
- ^ "Death Always Came on Mondays Af Horst Schmidt". www.gramma.dk. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
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