Charlotte Krause married Reinhold Großmann in Berlin in 1928. She joined the KPD that same year. Her daughter Sonja was born in 1931.
During a vacation by the Baltic, the Großmanns met the Jewish painter Gertrude Sandmann. They maintained contact to her even after 1933. When the artist had to go into hiding on November 21, 1942, she turned to the Großmanns for help. They took her into their small apartment in Berlin-Treptow.
Charlotte Großmann worked in a grocery store belonging to relatives from 1941. That helped her to obtain enough food for Gertrude Sandmann. The situation was dangerous, since a convinced National Socialist lived in their building. Gertrude Sandmann was not allowed into the basement during air raids, due to the suspicious neighbors. She had to make sure the air-raid warden did not find her when he inspected the apartment.
From the summer of 1944, Gertrude Sandmann stayed in a garden shed on the edge of Berlin.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Charlotte Großmann posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations in 2015.
Charlotte and Reinhold Großmann on an excursion to Berlin-Heiligensee, 1929. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Charlotte Großmann and her daughter Sonja, Erkner, 1939. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
