Goes Elisabeth (Schneider)

Goes, Elisabeth Elisabeth Goes, the young wife of a Protestant pastor and mother of three, was a member of the Sozietät der Christlichen Nächstenliebe [Community of Christian brotherly love], a Christian charity organization dedicated to helping persecuted people, especially Jews. In Württemberg the Sozietät took the form of a loose net of ministers belonging to the Confessing Church, who, in the latter war years, took upon themselves to offer shelter to persecuted Jews “on the run.” In the fall of 1944, Goes, who was living alone with her three children in the small village of Gebersheim/Württemberg – as her husband had been drafted into the army at the beginning of the war – hid the Jewish couple Ines and Max Krakauer in her home for five weeks. Only one farmer, who supplied them with food, shared the secret. The municipality and the police did not ask questions. They once passed a few anxious moments when a car stopped at night in front of their house, but after a while, the car left, and nothing happened. The Jewish couple did not draw any attention to themselves. Whenever anybody visited the house, they would just disappear into their room. After five weeks Goes accompanied them through the woods to their next destination. On November 5, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Elisabeth Goes as Righteous Among the Nations.