The electrical mechanic Werner Scharff and his wife Gertrud lived in Berlin. He worked in the Levetzowstraße synagogue, which had become an SS deportation assembly camp in 1941. Scharff helped the prisoners by smuggling their last letters out and packages in. He also warned friends and acquaintances of deportations, so they had time to go underground.
On June 10, 1943, Werner Scharff, his wife Gertrud, and his friend Fancia Grün also went into hiding. Scharff did not have a fixed place to stay, often changing accommodation. In July he was recognized by a Gestapo officer, arrested along with Fancia Grün, and deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on August 4, 1943. After four weeks, they managed to escape. They hid with the Winkler family in Luckenwalde.
Werner Scharff and Hans Winkler decided to help Jews and call for resistance against the Nazi regime in flyers. They founded the resistance group Community for Peace and Reconstruction.
After a member of the group was denounced and arrested, Werner Scharff was also picked up in October 1944. He was shot dead in Sachsenhausen concentration camp on March 16, 1945.
Gertrud and Werner Scharff, Berlin, around 1941. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
Factory ID card for the Berlin-Schöneberg Chemical-Metallurgical Laboratory for Werner Scharff alias Werner Schilling, presumably forged by Gertrud Scharff, Berlin, April 15, 1943. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
Transcript from the 95th transport list to Theresienstadt dated August 4, 1943, including the names of Günther, Else, and Hans-Peter Samuel, and Fancia Grün and Werner Scharff, Berlin, April 4, Source: Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen, 15510048b
Transcript from the 95th transport list to Theresienstadt dated August 4, 1943, including the names of Günther, Else, and Hans-Peter Samuel, and Fancia Grün and Werner Scharff, Berlin, April 4, Source: Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen, 15510048b
Transcript from the 95th transport list to Theresienstadt dated August 4, 1943, including the names of Günther, Else, and Hans-Peter Samuel, and Fancia Grün and Werner Scharff, Berlin, April 4, Source: Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen, 15510048b
Transcript from the 95th transport list to Theresienstadt dated August 4, 1943, including the names of Günther, Else, and Hans-Peter Samuel, and Fancia Grün and Werner Scharff, Berlin, April 4, Source: Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen, 15510048b
Flyer “We Are Shedding Light!” by the Community for Peace and Reconstruction resistance group, August 1944. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
Stolperstein commemorative cobbles for Werner Scharff and his mother Martha at Gitschiner Straße 70, Berlin, October 25, 2010. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
