Ursula Littmann, known as Uschi, grew up in a Jewish family in Berlin.
From mid-1930 on, Uschi Littmann was active in a youth group in the Ring – Association of Jewish Youth, where she met Herbert Baum. A communist resistance group developed around Baum and his wife Marianne, which Littmann joined. Her friend Hella Hirsch was also part of the group. The two of them posted protest notes on walls.
In 1935 Littmann began training as a milliner in a Jewish store in Berlin. She was working there on November 9, 1938, the day of the November pogroms. Hiding in the basement, she heard everything being destroyed above her. That evening, she and her family decided to flee to Amsterdam. They crossed the border in secret, helped by a friend of Uschi Littmann’s sister.
After the German invasion, Uschi Littmann went into hiding. She and her boyfriend Max Rubinstein were active in the Tehuis Oosteinde resistance group, which smuggled Jews out of an assembly camp. Uschi Littmann obtained papers under a false name and was a courier for the group. She and Max Rubinstein married while in hiding. They both survived.
Uschi and Max Rubinstein after their wedding, around 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Uschi Rubinstein’s identity papers, issued under the false name of Ursula Maria Szekely on July 15, 1944. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Uschi Rubinstein’s identity papers, issued under the false name of Ursula Maria Szekely on July 15, 1944. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
