The Jewish gynecologist Dr. Benno Heller had a practice in Berlin. His non-Jewish wife Irmgard supported him as his assistant. Both were convinced communists, though they withdrew from active participation in the KPD after a visit to the Soviet Union.
From 1937, Benno Heller was only allowed to call himself a “Krankenbehandler” or carer for the sick, treating Jewish patients only. Nonetheless, many non-Jewish women consulted him illicitly.
For numerous Jewish women living in hiding, Heller’s practice became an important place to turn in 1942. He and his wife provided medical care and food to many Jewish women and found places for them to hide. The Hellers also sheltered persecuted Jews temporarily in their home, which was also their practice. They arranged for Eva Deutschkron, who was living underground, to work as a carer for a non-Jewish patient.
On February 23, 1943, Heller was arrested after the police were alerted by a persecuted Jewish woman suffering from mental confusion. He was held in various concentration camps. All traces of him vanish in 1945.
Irmgard and Benno Heller on vacation, around 1930. Source: Museum Neukölln, Berlin
