English summary: Only seven people came when she was buried in 1977. Elisabeth Schmitz, who studied history and theology and was a secondary-school teacher at a girls' school in Berlin until 1938, returned to her hometown Hanau at the end of the Second World War. Hardly anyone in her hometown knew what she had accomplished in the resistance against the National Socialist dictatorship. She never talked about it. Only in 2004, when a briefcase with personal documents was found in a church cellar, did it become known how ...
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English summary: Only seven people came when she was buried in 1977. Elisabeth Schmitz, who studied history and theology and was a secondary-school teacher at a girls' school in Berlin until 1938, returned to her hometown Hanau at the end of the Second World War. Hardly anyone in her hometown knew what she had accomplished in the resistance against the National Socialist dictatorship. She never talked about it. Only in 2004, when a briefcase with personal documents was found in a church cellar, did it become known how courageous she had been. In 1935 she wrote an anonymous memorandum to the church appealing to them to officially object against the anti-Jewish hate campaigns, boycotts and persecution. Repeatedly, she reminded the leaders of the church of their task. She wrote letters and requested that they act, while she herself took action. She became engaged in a non-Aryan Christian group, supported illegal citizens and hid Jewish citizens for several years. This biography tells the life of Elisabeth Schmitz, a protesting Protestant, who upheld her resistance against the National Socialist-regime. Angela Merkel called Elisabeth Schmitz an exception to the rule of keeping silent. The story of E. Schmitz' life is a discovery long-overdue. German text. German description: Zu ihrer Beerdigung 1977 kamen sieben Gaste. Elisabeth Schmitz, studierte Historikerin und Theologin, bis 1938 Studienratin an einem Berliner Madchengymnasium, kam zum Kriegsende in ihre Heimatstadt Hanau zuruck. Kaum jemand hier wusste, was diese Frau unter der Nazidiktatur in Berlin an Widerstand geleistet hatte. Sie selbst schwieg dazu. Erst als man 2004 in einem Kirchenkeller eine Aktentasche mit personlichen Dokumenten fand, wurde deutlich, wie mutig sie in Wirklichkeit gewesen war. Sie hatte 1935 die anonyme Denkschrift verfasst, mit der die Kirche zum offentlichen Einspruch gegen antijudische Hetze, Boykott und Verfolgung aufgerufen wurde. Immer wieder redete sie den Kirchenoberen ins Gewissen, schrieb Briefe und forderte zum Handeln auf. Sie selbst handelte, engagierte sich fur nichtarische Christen, unterstutzte Illegale und versteckte uber viele Jahre judische Mitburger vor ihren Verfolgern. Diese Biografie erzahlt das Leben der Elisabeth Schmitz, einer protestierenden Protestantin, die sich beharrlich und ohne Aufheben um ihre Person der Nazibarbarei widersetzte. Angela Merkel nannte Elisabeth Schmitz eine Ausnahme von der Regel des Schweigens . Die Geschichte ihres Lebens ist eine uberfallige Entdeckung.
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