BIO

Grace Donnelly is a second year student at Florida State University with a double major in International Affairs and Finance. She has spent the past two semesters working with the Rosenstrasse Foundation in order to discover information about the women that demonstrated civil courage in Nazi Germany. Throughout this process, she learned how to utilize various research platforms in order to gather information, create a well developed project, and present these findings in a comprehensive manner. She will take these skills with her throughout the rest of her undergraduate career at Florida State University, law school, and future occupation.

The Rosenstrasse Foundation: Finding the Women that Demonstrated Civil Courage in Nazi Germany

Abstract

The Holocaust will remain a somber chapter in human history which included the loss of roughly eleven million lives (“Holocaust Misconceptions”). Adolf Hitler—the leader of the country spearheading this genocide—could commit this travesty because he “controlled the populace through social norms, not just through force” (Stoltzfus, 117). However, in February of 1943 a demonstration within Berlin proved this philosophy wasn’t infallible. While the Nuremburg Laws stated intermarried Jews—or Jewish people wed to non-Jewish spouses—were granted a deferral from deportation, on “February 27th, 1943 […] out of 10,000 Berliners arrested, around 2,000 were married to non-Jewish women [and held] in a collection center at Rosenstrasse in central Berlin” (Rosenstrasse Protest). Subsequently, the wives of these prisoners protested their apprehension and succeeded in freeing their spouses. The Rosenstrasse Foundation is a nonprofit organization that celebrates this courage. They utilize records of the protestors and conduct genealogical research to learn more about their identities and relatives. This is utilized to produce testimonials highlighting their roles which are published on the website alongside a database with similar stories. This project helped advance these efforts. Using the resources the Rosenstrasse Foundation compiled, this research assisted in learning more about one participant and their relatives. This is in hope of eventually producing a testimonial to add to the work the Rosenstrasse Foundation has conducted. This protest was a testament to the bravery of these women, and this research in collaboration with the Rosenstrasse Foundation will highlight their courage.

Keywords: History, Rosenstrasse, Germany