Marianne Joachim

Marianne Joachim (born Marianna/Marianne Prager: 5 November 1921 - 4 March 1943) was a Jewish German resistance activist during the Nazi years. She was executed at Plötzensee on 4 March 1943 following an arson attack the previous summer on the party propaganda department's (ironically named) "Soviet Paradise" exhibition in Berlin's "Lustgarten" pleasure park.[1][2][3]

Marianne Joachim
Born
Marianna/Marianne Prager

(1921-11-05)5 November 1921
Berlin, Germany
Died4 March 1943
Plötzensee, Germany
Occupationchild care professional
forced labourer
resistance activist
Spouse(s)Heinz Joachim (1919-1942)
Parent(s)Georg Prager (1890-1943/4)
Jenny Petersdorff (1886-1943/4)

Life

Marianne Prager grew up in Berlin. Georg Prager,[4] her father, was a building worker. After successfully completing her schooling she trained as a child carer at the Jewish orphanage in the city centre (Gipsstraße). In Summer 1940 she was forced to give up this profession, however, when she was required by the authorities to relocate to Rathenow where she became a forced labourer in the agriculture sector.[5]

Marianne Prager married Heinz Joachim on 22 August 1941.[3] Both Marianne's parents had been classified by the authorities as Jewish. Her newly acquired father in law was also identified as Jewish although her new mother in law was not. Nevertheless, at the time of their marriage Heinz was also a forced labourer, in his case in the "Jews department" at a Siemens plant in Berlin-Spandau. Marianne Joachim's own forced labour regime had by this time brought her back to Berlin where she was working in Berlin-Wittenau at the Alfred Teves plant[6] which, before the war, had produced car parts.

One of Heinz Joachim's co-workers in the "Jews department" at Siemens was the electrician Herbert Baum.[7] At around the time of their marriage Heinz and Marianne Joachim became members of what came to be known as the Baum group, a circle of forced labourers living in Berlin. Sources comment on how young most of the group members were. Most were Jewish and politically inclined towards leftwing politics. Some members were living "underground" - unregistered with any town hall - in order to make it harder for the authorities to track them.[8] The Joachims shared a small apartment beside the Rykestraße in the Prenzlauer Berg quarter, which was frequently used for meetings by the "Prenzlauer Berg Antifascist Group" ("Antifaschistischen Gruppe im Prenzlauer Berg Berlin" / AGiP) - a name by which Baum's group identified itself. Although discussion topics ranged widely, one of the things that the friends discussed with increasing intensity was how they might undermine the Nazi government.[2]

The Baum group's best known "political action" was an arson attack carried out on 18 May 1942 against the "Soviet Paradise" exhibition in Berlin's "Lustgarten" pleasure park.[2] The objective of the exhibition was to demonstrate to the people the "poverty, misery, depravity and need" that were features of life in the "Jewish Bolshevist Soviet Union".[9] The arson attack inflicted relatively little physical damage on the exhibition, which re-opened the next day, but news of it had a more lasting impact.[7]

Herbert Baum and Heinz Joachim were arrested at work on 22 May 1942.[10][11] Further arrests followed. Just over two weeks later Marianne Joachim was arrested at home on 9 June 1942.[3]

Letters home

During her time in prison Marianne Joachim was permitted to send and receive one letter per month. It is not clear whether this was the position throughout her period of incarceration, and it is not entirely clear to what extent she was constrained in what she was permitted to write. Letters that she wrote to her parents dated 15 November 1942, 15 December 1942, 17 January 1943 and 4 March 1943 have been made available online by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and provide some indications of Marianne Joachim's state of mind during that time.[12] She wrote a second letter on 4 March 1943, this time to her late husband's parents. In it she described the discovery that Heinz had already been executed - on 18 August 1942 - as the "cruelest blow of fate" (der "schwerste Schicksalsschlag"). She informed her parents-in-law of her impending execution and mentioned that she had had her remaining things sent to them. She believed - correctly - that Heinz's parents had a better chance of surviving the Nazi nightmare than her own parents. "I had my things sent to your address, dear Mom[-in-law], because I do not know for how much longer my [own] dear parents are still here" ("Meinen Nachlass habe ich an Deine Adresse gehen lassen, liebe Mama, weil ich doch nicht weiss, wie lange meine lieben Eltern noch hier sind. "). There are also indications in her letters to her parents of surprise and relief that they had not (yet) been sent away.[13][14]

Death

Marianne Joachim was executed by decapitation at Berlin's Plötzensee penitentiary on 4 March 1943.[6] Her younger sister, Ilse,[15] had managed to escape to England before the war. Later in March 1943 Georg and Jenny Prager, her parents, were deported to Auschwitz. From there they were transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where they were killed. Heinz's father, Alfons Joachim, died towards the end of 1944 at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Anna Joachim, his mother, had not been classified as Jewish, however, and outlived the Nazi regime.[13][14]

gollark: I accidentally made it much bigger than it should have been and also not hollow.
gollark: Well, the fusion reactor powering it is down, and the battery connected to it will only last maybe a few days.
gollark: Please remove the shield projector if possible.
gollark: I may have broken it with that shield.
gollark: Oops.

References
  1. Margot Pikarski: Jugend im Berliner Widerstand. Herbert Baum und Kampfgefährten. Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Berlin 1978. Page 138
  2. Johannes Tuchel. "Festnahme und Ermordung". Station 14: Siegbert und Lotte Rotholz – Angehörige der Widerstandsgruppe Baum. Landesinstitut für Schule und Medien Berlin-Brandenburg (LISUM), Ludwigsfelde-Struveshof (Bildungsserver Berlin-Brandenburg). Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  3. Avraham Atzili. "Marianne Joachim (née Prager)". Baum Gruppe: Jewish Women .... Biographical sketches. Jewish Women's Archive, Brookline MA. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  4. Maren Krüger (compiler) (7 February 2013). "Farewell letter, ink on paper". Jewish Museum Berlin. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  5. "Marianne Joachim: November 05, 1921 - March 04, 1943". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Berlin. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  6. "Les jeunes femmes du groupe Baum .... Marianne Joachim (née Prager)". Yiddish pour tous. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  7. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Benz (9 April 2005). "Jugend- und Studentenopposition ... Die Herbert-Baum-Gruppe .... Brandanschlag". Informationen zur politischen Bildung (Heft 243) - Jugend- und Studentenopposition. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  8. Wolfgang Wippermann. "Die Berliner Gruppe Baum und der juedische Widerstand" (PDF). Beiträge zum Thema Widerstand 19. Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Berlin. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  9. "The Soviet Paradise: An Exhibition of the Nazi Party Central Propaganda Office". Das Sowjet-Paradies. Ausstellung der Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP. Ein Bericht in Wort und Bild. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  10. "Heinz Günther Joachim: 13. Dezember 1919 - 18. August 1942". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Berlin. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  11. "Herbert Baum: 10. Februar 1912 - 11. Juni 1942". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Berlin. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  12. "Marianne Joachim letters". Accession Number: 2006.504.1 - Gift of the Estate of Ilse Kessler (thought to be the sister of Marianne Joachim, who survived the holocaust). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 1943. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  13. Maren Krüger (compiler) (4 March 1943). "Farewell letter, ink on paper". Jewish Museum Berlin. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  14. Maren Krüger (compiler) (4 March 1943). "Abschiedsbrief, Tinte auf Papier". Jüdisches Museum Berlin. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  15. Ilse Kessler (born Prager), 1926 - 1995
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