Gerda Berlowitz and Joachim Marcuse met as teenagers in activities of the Jewish cultural association in Berlin. They both were supporters of the Socialist movement; they were persecuted for their Jewish condition and were forced to hard labor. In January 1942 they got married.
In the company were Gerda Marcuse worked the Jewish young lady Hilma Ludomer was employed as forewoman. When dropping a bucket of water when she was cleaning, a supervisor started assuring that it was a sabotage and threatened to tell the Gestapo.
Gerda Marcuse, who saw the incident, realized of the danger her colleague was in. After the work she told her husband to take Hilma Ludomer from her house and hide her at their apartment from the Gestapo. During the night, Joachim Marcuse went to her place. After a long argument with Hilma’s father who believed that her daughter was protected enough by her merits on the front during the First World War, Marcuse could take the young lady to his place. The following day, when Hilma went to her parent’s house she could see how they were arrested by the Gestapo to be deported. Hilma stayed at Gerda and Joachim Marcuse’s house for two weeks, who later were forced to ask her to look for another refuge because Joachim was afraid that their own escape plan was endangered.
Hilma Ludomer survived in a hideout of a non-Jewish friend, whose name is still unknown. Gerda and Joachim Marcuse managed to run away to Sweden with Sigurd Larsen’s help.
