Winkler Hans & Frida (Klaehn)

Bornstein, Elisabeth Schallschmidt, Johanna Winkler, Hans Winkler, Frida Bredig, Elisabeth Luma, Hans ( Lumma, Arno ?) Kulka, Luise Kulka, Walter Ilse Gruen, née Berghausen, and her husband Gerhard Bernhard and Ilse's family had moved to Berlin before the war. Like so many other German Jews, they thought they would be able to weather the storm in the big city, but, soon after the onset of the deportations to the East, Ilse's family was separated, and most of them died in concentration camps. Ilse managed to survive thanks to the courage and self-sacrifice of several Germans who risked their lives to help her. Her husband was not as fortunate. The Bornstein couple – Elisabeth and her husband Ludwig – were the first rescuers. Since Ludwig was a half-Jew, the Bornsteins had to leave their apartment and move in with their daughter in a tiny one-room accommodation with a small kitchen but no bath. In this tiny apartment they kept the Jewish couple hidden for one and a half years and shared with them whatever little food they had. In October 1943, Ilse Gruen was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz. However, she managed to jump off the train and return to Berlin. There she called again on the help of the Bornsteins, who directed her to Johanna Schallschmidt, who was active in the underground organization Gemeinschaft für Frieden und Aufbau. The leader of the illegal organization was Hans Winkler of Luckenwalde, near Berlin, who, together with his wife Frida also gave shelter to the Gruens and to other Jews. Then came the turn of Elisabeth Bredig. She had been married to a man of mixed Jewish descent who had been murdered by the Gestapo. After her husband’s death, Bredig went to live with her parents. She prevailed upon them to take in Ilse Gruen and another Jewish couple, but did not tell them that they were Jewish. All that time – in fact, since January 1943 – Walter and Luise Kulka assisted with the supply of food-ration cards. In October1944, the Gruens were preparing to move to yet another mixed couple, the Lum(m)as. Hans Luma/Arno Lumma, who was a Christian, was married to a Jewish woman who was a cousin of Ilse’s husband. Mrs. Schallschmidt, who was also involved in the preparations, arranged with Ilse Gruen over the phone to meet her in the cemetery, where she gave her clothes to take to the Lum(m)as. The two did not realize, however, that the telephone had been tapped by the Gestapo. When the Gruens reached the Lum(m)as’courtyard, they were arrested on the spot and incarcerated in the Alexanderplatz prison. In December, they were moved to an Auslieferungslager (distribution center) in the Oranienburgerstrasse. Ilse managed to keep alive by mending SS uniforms, but her husband was taken to a camp in Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, where he was shot on March 16, 1945. Everyone else who had been involved in the affair paid for it dearly. Schallschmidt was deported to a concentration camp, and her 11-year-old son Werner was left alone (his father was a prisoner of war). Hans Luma/Arno Lumma was incarcerated and did not survive. After the war Ilse immigrated to the United States, remarried in 1953, and her married name was Loewenberg. On June 10, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Elisabeth Bornstein, Johanna Schallschmidt, Hans and Frida Winkler, Elisabeth Bredig, Hans Luma/Arno Lumma and Luise and Walter Kulka as Righteous Among the Nations.