The teacher Eva Lüddecke met the physicist Carl Hermann in the Protestant youth movement in 1923. The couple married shortly later and moved to Mannheim.
Determined opponents of National Socialism, Eva Hermann and her husband joined the Quakers. Eva Hermann worked with British Quakers to find homes for persecuted Jews in the UK. The couple also sent aid packages to deported Jews. In early 1943, they hid Eva Hermann’s former classmate Hilde Rosenthal and her husband in their home for several weeks. When the couple were picked up in the spring of 1943, their helpers were also arrested. The Hermanns were charged with “radio crimes” in July 1943. Unlike in cases of helping Jews, the law in this instance was very clear: in serious cases, the death penalty could be applied. Carl was sentenced to eight years in a penal institution, Eva Hermann to three years. They survived.
After the war, Eva Hermann was active in Christian-Jewish dialog. Yad Vashem honored her as Righteous Among the nations in 1976, and she also received several awards in Germany.
The Mannheim special court verdict against Eva and Carl Hermann, Mannheim, July 9, 1943. Source: Bundesarchiv, BArch R 3018/101
Eva and Carl Hermann, Marburg, around 1949. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Certificate issued to Carl and Eva Hermann on their recognition as Righteous Among the Nations, Yad Vashem, November 30, 1976. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
