Margarethe (Grete) Sommer ran a stationery store in Berlin. She and her partner, the SPD politician Otto Ostrowski, were friends of the Jewish Deutschkron family. Martin Deutschkron was able to flee to Britain in 1939; his wife Ella and daughter Inge remained behind in Berlin.
At the end of 1942, the two women asked Otto Ostrowski for advice, since they wanted to go underground. He offered them his help. When the Deutschkrons did go into hiding and had to leave their first quarters several weeks later, they found refuge in Grete Sommer and Otto Ostrowski’s small apartment.
After that, they stayed in the back room of Sommer’s store. They spent the weekends in the couple’s boathouse.
When their apartment was destroyed in an air raid in November 1943, Sommer and Ostrowski fled to Calau. 20-year-old Inge Deutschkron ran Sommer’s stationery store for some time under a false name.
In 2006 a plaque was installed on Grete Sommer and Otto Ostrowski’s former building, commemorating their help for persecuted Jews.
New Year’s Eve at the Deutschkrons’ apartment, top right: Otto Ostrowski, in front of him: his wife Bertha (in apron), to her left: his later partner Margarethe Sommer (with hat and glass), top center: Walter Rieck, left of him: Jenny Rieck, front row, 2nd and 3rd from left: Ella Deutschkron and Martin Deutschkron, Berlin, December 31, 1932. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Commemorative plaque for Margarethe Sommer and Otto Ostrowski at Westfälische Straße 64 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, after 2005. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
