Reinhold Großmann lived in Berlin with his wife Charlotte and daughter Sonja. He joined the KPD in 1919. Up until 1933, he worked as a department manager in the Kosmos publishing house, which had close ties to the KPD. Großmann took part in antifascist campaigns and produced flyers calling for resistance to the Nazi regime. He also helped the communist former city councilor Albert Schwarz and his family to escape abroad.
When the Jewish painter Gertrude Sandmann, a family friend, had to go into hiding in November 1942 to evade deportation, she turned to the Großmanns for help. They took her into their small apartment.
Gertrude Sandmann was not allowed into the basement during air raids, due to their suspicious neighbors. She had to make sure the air-raid warden did not find her when he inspected the apartment. When the situation in the Großmanns’ home became too dangerous because of increased air raids in June 1944, Sandmann’s partner Hedwig Koslowski found a different place for her to hide.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Reinhold Großmann posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations in 2015.
Charlotte and Reinhold Großmann on an excursion to Berlin-Heiligensee, 1929. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Reinhold Großmann’s membership card for the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USDP), Berlin, 1919. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
