Hermann Carl & Eva (Lueddecke)

Hermann, Carl Hermann, Eva Carl Hermann was born in Lehe in 1898. He was a physicist of international renown, specializing in crystallography. He and his wife Eva (née Lüddecke), born in Grünenplan in 1900, were both from Protestant families, and were adherents of the Quaker movement. As pacifists and avowed advocates of international solidarity, the Hermanns had no use for the teaching of National Socialism and continued to maintain friendly relations with Jews at the very time when the regime was seeking to turn them into pariahs. In January 1935, Carl Hermann was employed at IG Farben in the vicinity of Mannheim, while his wife became involved with a Quaker philanthropic organization that aided Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany. In the wake of the deportation of the Jews of Mannheim in October 1940, Eva Hermann compiled a detailed report on all the occurrences, naming the number of suicides that had been committed and emphasizing the calm attitude of the Jewish victims. As all emigration aid had come to naught at this juncture, the Hermanns spent all their earnings on the purchase of clothing and food to be sent to the Mannheim Jews who had been deported to the Gurs camp in southern France. In January 1943, Eva and Carl Hermann offered refuge in their home to the Rosenthals, a Jewish couple from Berlin. The wife, an old school friend of Eva Hermann’s, was trying to escape from deportation by travelling through Germany under the assumed name of Rasch. However, before long, the Gestapo got wind of the whereabouts of the Rosenthals and had them arrested in March 1943. The man committed suicide by swallowing poison, and his wife was deported. Following Hilde Rosenthal’s interrogation, their hosts were taken into protective custody and put on trial before a special court. The main indictment, however, was not the help they had extended to the illegal couple, but the Hermanns’ habit of tuning in to foreign radio programs. The prosecution probably chose toproceed in this manner because, under the formal letter of the law, only the latter offense carried with it capital punishment. However, although both faced the death sentence, the punishment actually meted out to the Hermanns was less severe. The main explanation for the leniency of the court was probably the fact that Carl Hermann’s research was considered vital to the German war effort. Thus, although he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and dismissed from his post at IG Farben, he was still allowed to proceed with his scientific work in the laboratory during daytime. His wife, Eva Hermann, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. On January 19, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Carl and Eva Hermann as Righteous Among the Nations.