Friedrich Peter

Friedrich, Peter Peter Friedrich (b. 1889), a socialist and an ardent opponent of the Nazis, kept Ismar Reich and his mother from August 1943 to the day of the liberation hidden in his cottage on the outskirts of Berlin. The contact was formed through Friedrich’s unmarried daughter Erika. Reich had met her at an apartment where he exchanged/purchased black-market food, and the two young people took to each other instantly. In August 1943, when Reich was apprehended on the street by the Gestapo, his mother called on Erika, who arranged for her to stay at her parents’ cottage on the outskirts of Berlin. The mother was soon joined by her son who had miraculously managed to escape at the last minute before his train arrived in Auschwitz. The Friedrich cottage consisted of a kitchen, living room, bedroom, small cubicle with a built-in-pail for a toilet, and a rabbit hutch. The Friedrichs and their two unmarried daughters occupied the bedroom; Mrs. Reich slept on the living-room sofa, and her son slept on a collapsible beach chair – which was actually ideal in the event that a fast disappearance was necessary. A double wall was quickly constructed in the rabbit hutch, which served both for hiding during visits and for keeping warm during winter. Nobody apart from the Friedrichs knew about the two additional lodgers in the household, and Reich and his mother never ventured outside. In October 1944, Friedrich’s daughter Erika gave birth to an illegitimate child, the fruit of her forbidden love affair with Reich. After their liberation, Reich was determined to leave Germany with his mother for the United States, but Erika would not part from her family and home country at any cost. Thus their ways parted. Erika died some three years later, and her child was raised by his German grandparents. Reich continued to keep up contact with his benefactors from afar. Friedrich died in Berlin in 1967. On July 16, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Peter Friedrich as Righteous Amongthe Nations.