The Jewish tailor Martin Deutschkron and his wife Eva performed forced labor for Siemens in Berlin. At the end of January 1943, they evaded deportation, since they were not at home when the Gestapo came to pick them up. The couple went underground, initially hiding separately. Through a former colleague, Martin Deutschkron met the tailor shop owner Franz Gomber. Deutschkron was able to work for him and sleep on an ironing table. Gomber was denounced and interrogated by the Gestapo. Deutschkron had to find a new place to hide.
From Rolf Isaaksohn, who later worked as an informer to the Gestapo known as a “catcher,” he bought a military pass belonging to the deceased Fritz Gebhardt. Martin and Eva Deutschkron found shelter with the Pelzer family in Borkheide in Brandenburg. They adopted the names Fritz and Eva Gebhardt, commuting to Berlin almost every day. Identity checks and Jewish “catchers” made these trips particularly dangerous, and the Deutschkrons therefore looked for new quarters in the city. The places they stayed in Berlin were twice destroyed by bombs, so they returned to Borkheide. They were liberated in Gommern at the beginning of May 1945. The Deutschkrons emigrated to the United States in 1947.
Eva and Martin Deutschkron, Berlin, 1942. Source: Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin survivors of the Holocaust. Interviews and photographs, image ID 56483
