In the 1920s, Ellen Rathé built a career for herself as a dancer at the State Opera on Berlin’s Unter den Linden. She also founded her own dance troupe, appearing with them in Germany and abroad. From 1929 she lived with her partner, the non-Jewish actress Margarete Gahrmann, in Berlin-Schöneberg. Rathé was banned from her profession as a Jew in 1935 and had to perform forced labor in the Pertrix battery factory from October 1940, until she fell severely ill as a result of the working conditions. On January 17, 1942, she evaded deportation through a doctor’s note obtained by Margarete Gahrmann, certifying her as unfit for transport. When she was again threatened with deportation at the end of March 1942, Rathé went underground. She had to move between hiding places frequently, and hid at times with her partner, despite the particularly high risk.
From the end of 1943, the couple spent most of their time outside Berlin. Gahrmann not only found accommodation, but also obtained a forged postal identity card for her partner and paid her living expenses. Ellen Rathé was liberated in Friedrichroda, Thuringia. The two women lived together until Gahrmann’s death in 1978.