Else Behrend-Rosenfeld (1.5.1891 Berlin – 1.3.1970 Birmingham/Great Britain)

Else Behrend grew up in Berlin as the daughter of a Jewish physician and his non-Jewish wife. She belonged to the first generation of young women who were allowed to pursue education: In 1919, she earned her PhD in the field of history in Jena. A year later, she married the Jewish lawyer Dr. Siegfried Rosenfeld, who served as an Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) member in the Prussian State Parliament and as a ministry official in the Prussian Ministry of Justice from 1921 to 1932. When her three children were old enough, she worked voluntarily in prisoners’ aid. In 1932, her husband was removed from his ministerial office, and after the Nazis’ seizure of power, the family moved to Bavaria.

The Rosenfelds had been living in Icking in the Isar Valley since 1934. In 1937, Else was accepted into the Jewish community. Their eldest daughter emigrated to Argentina, the two younger children and Siegfried Rosenfeld went to England. However, Else’s attempts at emigration failed. She became a carer in the Jewish Community of Munich. Together with the Quaker women Gertrud Luckner and Annemarie Cohen, she organized parcel campaigns for Jewish men and women deported to Piaski (Poland). In June 1941, she had to work in the ‘Lohhof Flax Processing Works’. In August, she was appointed business manager for the ‘Heimanlage für Juden Berg am Laim’ Internment Camp. She remained there, threatened with deportation herself, until she was able to escape underground in August 1942, first to Berlin and then to Freiburg. On April 20, 1944, she successfully fled to Switzerland on foot. Her diary “Verfemt und Verfolgt” was published there as early as 1945. In it, she reports on the reactions of Munich citizens to the introduction of the Star of David, names deeds and perpetrators, but also describes the help and support given to those persecuted.