From 1941, the Jewish woman Emmi Brandt had to perform forced labor in Berlin. After her husband’s deportation to Auschwitz at the end of 1942, she went underground. She was hidden by Hilde Staberock, who worked as a porter in an office building in the Charlottenburg district. Staberock also hid 15-year-old Eva Caro there, after her parents were deported. Emmi Brandt took care of the girl. After the building was hit during an air raid on November 23, 1943, Hilde Staberock arranged alternative accommodation for both of them.
In May 1944 Staberock accompanied Caro and Brandt by train to Singen, where local escape helpers were to show them how to get to Switzerland. However, the two Jewish women lost their way and returned to Singen. They were denounced and apprehended along the way. Brandt revealed the names of the escape helpers, who were then arrested. She herself was taken to Berlin by the Gestapo and put into the assembly camp on Schulstrasse. Under pressure in her interrogations, she revealed the names of other helpers and people in hiding. On November 24, 1944, Emmi Brandt was taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived and emigrated to Australia in 1951.
Temporary identity card issued to Emmi Brandt after her release from Ravensbrück concentration camp, issued July 7, 1945. Source: Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 078, BEG Nr. 350624
Emmi Brandt, early June 1945, immediately after her liberation from Ravensbrück concentration camp. Source: Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 078, BEG Nr. 350624
