During the war, the engineer Karl Marguerre worked for the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (DVL) in Berlin. He lived in a house in Eichwalde with his wife Renate and their three daughters. When women and children were evacuated, Renate Marguerre and the girls left Eichwalde in the fall of 1943.
Karl Marguerre was asked by a friend if he would hide a Jewish woman living underground. He agreed and took in the complete stranger Charlotte Hopp in September 1943. Hopp ran his household from then on.
In mid-March 1944, Marguerre’s workplace was relocated to southern Germany. He offered to let his colleague Leo Grebe live in his house temporarily and introduced him to Charlotte Hopp as a woman whose Berlin home had been damaged by bombs. Eventually, he told him the truth and asked Grebe to continue housing her. Leo Grebe was prepared to do so and moved into Marguerre’s house. From September 1944, Charlotte Hopp’s husband Erich and son Wolfgang were able to hide there as well. The Hopp family survived.
Karl Marguerre was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1979 for his help.
