Johanna Eck
| Righteous Among the Nations |
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| By country |
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
[edit]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).[1] She hid them and two others in her apartment in Berlin.[2][3]
Eck was a housewife and former nurse.[4] 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."[5][6] Eck's story has often been used as an example of an ordinary person who resisted Nazi violence.[7]
She was buried in the graveyard at the church of St. Matthias in Berlin.[8]
Honors
[edit]She was honored as one of the Righteous among Nations by Yad Vashem in the early 1970s.[9]
The Johanna Eck School, a secondary school in Berlin, was renamed in her honor in 2014.[8] Since 2002, the school has honored Eck by taking care of her grave as part of its religious education classes.[8] The school is known for its efforts to serve refugee children.[10][11]
She has been featured in a play about genocide education.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Johanna Eck". "Women of Valor": Stories of Women Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
- ^ Lewis, Ingrid (2015). The Representation of Women in European Holocaust Films: Perpetrators, Victims and Resisters. Dublin. p. 236.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Lewis, Ingrid (2017), "Gendered Disparities in the Portrayal of Rescuers", Women in European Holocaust Films, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 235–248, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-65061-6_15, ISBN 978-3-319-65060-9, retrieved 2022-12-06
- ^ Carmon, Daniel (January 2, 2017). "Ambassador's Speech on International Holocaust Remembrance Day". Embassy of Israel. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ Paldiel, Mordecai (1993). "Appendix: Performing One's Duty". The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 379. ISBN 978-0-88125-376-4.
- ^ Mensch, James R. (2003). Ethics and selfhood : alterity and the phenomenology of obligation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 195. ISBN 1-4175-3136-3. OCLC 56066759.
- ^ Tognato, Carlo; Jaworsky, Bernadette Nadya; Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2020-07-04). The Courage for Civil Repair: Narrating the Righteous in International Migration. Springer Nature. p. 10. ISBN 978-3-030-44590-4.
- ^ a b c Keitel, Horst-Dieter (2014-06-23). "7. Integrierte Sekundarschule nach Johanna Eck benannt". Berliner Woche (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ Sachser, Friedo (1976). "West Germany". The American Jewish Year Book. 76: 346. ISSN 0065-8987. JSTOR 23605448 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Nelson, Soraya Sarhaddi (December 26, 2015). "Migrants Find A Warm Welcome At This German School". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ denk!mal (PDF) (in German). Berlin: German Parliament. 2016. pp. 8, 19.
- ^ "Upstanders Plays". World Without Genocide. Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
External links
[edit]- “Kind German Widow: Johanna Eck” Accidental Talmudist.
- “Stories of Women Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust” Yad Vashem.
- “The Task That God Demands from Me” International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, October 20, 2020.