Otto Ostrowski was a social democrat and mayor of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg from 1926, but was driven out of office in 1933. When his friend Martin Deutschkron was to be arrested in November 1938, he arranged a hiding place for him. Deutschkron fled to Britain in 1939; his wife Ella and daughter Inge were unable to follow him after the war began.
At the end of 1942, Ella and Inge Deutschkron asked Ostrowski for advice, since they wanted to go underground. He encouraged them and offered his help. When the two of them lost their first hiding place after a few weeks, Ostrowski and his partner Grete Sommer took them into their home at short notice. The women then moved into the back room of Grete Sommer’s stationery shop, which they had to leave every morning, however. When their Berlin apartment was destroyed in November 1943, Ostrowski and Sommer fled the bombs to Calau.
At the end of 1944, Ostrowski obtained a divorce from his Jewish wife Bertha; they had been living apart for years. He presumably feared he would otherwise be drafted into the Organisation Todt. However, he hid his ex-wife near Calau, where she survived.
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
