Hedwig Porschütz

From 1940, Porschütz worked in Otto Weidt's workshop for the blind as a stockroom worker and later stenotypist. They were in close contact, and she significantly assisted Weidt's effort to protect his employees by hiding Jewish women in her home and illegally trading for supplies.[3]

The twins Marianne and Anneliese Bernstein stayed in Porschütz' apartment for six months starting from January 1943. In March they were joined by Grete Seelig and Lucie Ballhorn. Occasionally prostitutes would use the apartment – then the occupants would have to wait outside until the clients were gone. When the situation ultimately became too dangerous, due to police raiding another apartment in the same building in mid-1943, the Bernstein twins relocated to Wilmersdorf while Porschütz' mother sheltered the other two women. Three of the four would survive the Holocaust.[2]

Goods Porschütz bought on the black market would be given to persecuted Jews and used to bribe Gestapo officers. Otto Weidt's group sent more than 150 food parcels to Theresienstadt Ghetto to supply at least 25 people imprisoned there. Porschütz also procured forged documents for Inge Deutschkron. Due to her black market trade, Porschütz was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 1944 by a Nazi Sondergericht. For a time she was imprisoned in Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen concentration camp.[2]

After the war, her activities went unrecognised for many years. Her requests to be compensated for political persecution and to be titled an "Unsung Heroine" were rejected by West Berlin authorities in 1959. Authorities at the time did not consider helping Jews an act of resistance. Due to her prior work as a prostitute Porschütz was regarded as an immoral and dishonourable person. The 1944 judgment, despite having been delivered by a political court, was used against her. She died poor in 1977; no known photos of her exist.[4]