Johanna Eck Explained

Johanna Eck (born January 4, 1888, as Johanna Opitz – died September 27, 1979) was a German woman who saved four people during the Holocaust. She was honored as one of the Righteous among Nations.

Biography

Born and raised in Berlin, Johanna Eck became close friends with the Jewish family of one of her husband's comrades from World War I.[1] When deportations began, she hid one of the family (Heinz Guttmann); she would go on to hide another Jewish woman (Elfriede Guttmann, no relation to Heinz). She hid them and two others in her apartment in Berlin.[2] Eck was a housewife and former nurse.[3] She described her reason to save others as "nothing special," remarking that "Human beings—so it seems to me—make up a big unity; they strike themselves and all in the face when they do injustice to each other."[4] [5] Eck's story has often been used as an example of an ordinary person who resisted Nazi violence.[6]

She was buried in the graveyard at the church of St. Matthias in Berlin.[7]

Honors

She was honored as one of the Righteous among Nations by Yad Vashem in the early 1970s.[8]

The Johanna Eck School, a secondary school in Berlin, was renamed in her honor in 2014. Since 2002, the school has honored Eck by taking care of her grave as part of its religious education classes. The school is known for its efforts to serve refugee children.[9] [10]

She has been featured in a play about genocide education.[11]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Johanna Eck . December 5, 2022 . "Women of Valor": Stories of Women Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust.
  2. Book: Lewis, Ingrid . The Representation of Women in European Holocaust Films: Perpetrators, Victims and Resisters . 2015 . Dublin . 236.
  3. Web site: Carmon . Daniel . January 2, 2017 . Ambassador's Speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day . 2022-12-06 . Embassy of Israel.
  4. Book: Paldiel, Mordecai . https://books.google.com/books?id=YCz0J-8HIIMC&dq=Johanna+Eck&pg=PA379 . The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust . 1993 . KTAV Publishing House, Inc. . 978-0-88125-376-4 . 379 . en . Appendix: Performing One's Duty.
  5. Book: Mensch, James R. . Ethics and selfhood : alterity and the phenomenology of obligation . 2003 . State University of New York Press . 1-4175-3136-3 . Albany, NY . 195 . 56066759.
  6. Book: Tognato . Carlo . The Courage for Civil Repair: Narrating the Righteous in International Migration . Jaworsky . Bernadette Nadya . Alexander . Jeffrey C. . 2020-07-04 . Springer Nature . 978-3-030-44590-4 . 10 . en.
  7. Web site: Keitel . Horst-Dieter . 2014-06-23 . 7. Integrierte Sekundarschule nach Johanna Eck benannt . 2022-12-06 . Berliner Woche . de.
  8. Sachser . Friedo . 1976 . West Germany . The American Jewish Year Book . 76 . 346 . 23605448 . 0065-8987 . JSTOR.
  9. News: Nelson . Soraya Sarhaddi . December 26, 2015 . Migrants Find A Warm Welcome At This German School . en . National Public Radio . 2022-12-06.
  10. Book: denk!mal . German Parliament . 2016 . Berlin . 8, 19 . de . PDF.
  11. Web site: Upstanders Plays . 2022-12-06 . World Without Genocide . . en-US.

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