Frida Winkler lived in Luckenwalde with her husband Hans and their two children Horst and Ruth. The Winklers were against the Nazi regime. In 1943 they tried unsuccessfully to save the Jewish Samuel family from deportation. From August 1943 they hid 17-year-old Eugen Herman in their home. Frida Winkler explained to her children, aged 12 and 14, why they were looking after Eugen and other persecuted Jews.
Hans Winkler and Werner Scharff founded the resistance group Community for Peace and Reconstruction, which helped people living underground and wrote flyers criticizing the Nazi regime. Frida Winkler was a member of the group, but she considered some activities too risky and was concerned for her family’s safety. Not only Eugen lived in the Winklers’ small apartment; other persecuted people also frequently slept there.
Frida Winkler was conscripted to work in a paper factory. When her husband was arrested on October 19, 1944, she lost her job. She arranged a defense attorney for him and provided him with food and clothing until the end of the war.
In February 2008 Frieda Winkler was honored posthumously by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
Frida, Horst, and Hans Winkler on the day of Horst’s confirmation, Luckenwalde, 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Yad Vashem medal for Hans and Frida Winkler as Righteous Among the Nations, Israel, 2008. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
