Eva Sieburg was classified by the National Socialists as a “1st grade Mischling” (“half-breed”), since her mother was Jewish. She therefore had to abandon her studies and was unable to become a film dramaturg as she wished. Instead, she worked as an employee for various companies. An attempt to emigrate to Australia with her mother on October 1, 1939 failed due to the start of the war.
On January 9, 1943, Sieburg was arrested in a Gestapo search at Sybelstraße 13 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, along with the Jewish Rosenthal family who lived there. She was held in the Große Hamburger Straße camp for four weeks for “aiding Jews.” After her release, she was denounced by an official in February 1943 and declared “politically unreliable.” As she stated in a résumé from the post-war years, many Jews visited her apartment, which meant it was searched several times and she was interrogated by the Gestapo. From January 1945 she was drafted into service as a construction worker.
After the end of the war, Eva Sieburg was able to marry her Jewish partner Paul Aronsfeld. They both worked for the Berliner Rundfunk radio station, changing their name to Ronsfeld in 1950.
