Magdalena Heilmann was an editorial secretary and an SPD member; she lived in Berlin with her husband Ernst. Their children Eva, Peter, Ernst-Ludwig, and Beate were born between 1920 and 1927. Ernst Heilmann was a well-known SPD politician of Jewish origin. He was arrested on June 26, 1933, and murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1940, after seven years’ imprisonment.
The Gestapo kept the family under surveillance, interrogating Magdalena Heilmann on several occasions. She was the sole provider for her four underage children, despite her low earnings as an office worker. Though she was not Jewish, she witnessed the persecution of relatives and political friends and was aware of the Nazi regime’s crimes.
Magdalena Heilmann and her children supported persecuted people. In 1943 Else Behrend-Rosenfeld found refuge with them. They provided shelter for a series of Jews in hiding in their rented apartment from 1942 to 1945. Heilmann could also rely on help from friends from the outlawed SPD.
A mural dedicated to the Heilmann family has commemorated their resistance since 2023.
Magdalena and Ernst Heilmann with their children Eva (left) and Peter, Berlin, 1925. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Mural by the street artist Paula Marie commemorating the Heilmann family in Berlin-Charlottenburg, at the corner of Heckerdamm and Heilmannring, unveiled on October 18, 2023. Source: Stiftung Berliner Leben, Foto: Sebastian Kläbsch
