Calogeras Ursula (Meissner)

Calogerás-Meissner, Ursula Ursula Meissner worked at the time of the war as a young actress in the Berlin State Theater under the directorship of Gustaf Gründgens. She was friendly with the Weiss family, a Jewish man and an Aryan wife who were living in a mixed marriage. In March 1943, the Weisses approached her and asked her to shelter relatives of the husband, a Jewish family from Breslau. These were the Lattes, who had only just arrived in Berlin and had no identification papers, money, or food-ration cards, as they took flight from the threatened deportation to the East. Even though she had never met them before, Meissner spontaneously agreed to lodge them, despite that this meant putting herself in very great danger. The Latte family – mother, father, and an adult son – spent several weeks at her home in north Berlin, until, gradually, each found an alternative accommodation or hideout. Throughout this period constant air-raid alarms forced them to descend to the common shelter, where the presence of three strangers – two of them men of military age – must have aroused suspicion. On September 11, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Ursula Calogerás-Meissner as Righteous Among the Nations.