The widow Franziska Bereit raised the daughters Adelheid and Therese of the Jewish family Silbermann at Wedding, a working-class town in Berlin. Even during the repression she kept a continuous contact with the family, supplying them with food cards and trying to protect them whenever possible. She offered Adelheid Silbermann to hide in the floor of a room where she lived with her twelve-year-old grandson. When in 1943 Adelheid managed to escape from the big raid against all the Jews still living in Berlin, she looked for shelter at Franziska Bereit, who had the support of her two daughters and her son, helping her with food cards and protection.
After an air attack destroyed Adelheid’s sister hideout, Therese, who was sheltered there with her husband, Francisca Bereit also sheltered them in her small apartment. Adelheid, Therese, and her husband survived there whereas their parents had been deported and murdered.
Bibliography
- Kurt R. Grossmann, Die unbesungenen Helden, Berlin 1957, S. 88ff.
- Hans-Rainer Sandvoß, Widerstand in einem Arbeiterbezirk (Wedding), (Hrsg. Gedenkstädte Deutscher Widerstand), Berlin 1987, S. 90.
