{{Short description|German resistance fighter (1923–1943)}} {{Infobox person | name = Liane Berkowitz | image = CIC RO L Berkowitz detail.jpg | caption = Berkowitz in her prison photo, 1943 | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|08|07|df=y}} | birth_place = Berlin, Weimar Republic | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|08|05|1923|08|07|df=y}} | death_place = Plötzensee Prison<br/>Berlin, Nazi Germany | death_cause = Decapitation | monuments = A ''Stolperstein'' near her home | occupation = Resistance member | known_for = Member of ''Rote Kapelle'' (Red Orchestra resistance group | spouse = {{marriage|Friedrich Rehmer|1942|1943|reason=d}} | children = 1 | mother = Catherine Jewsienko | father = Victor Vasilyev }}
'''Liane Berkowitz''' (7 August 1923 – 5 August 1943) was a German resistance fighter and was most notable for being a member of the Berlin-based pro-Soviet resistance group that coalesced around Harro Schulze-Boysen, that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. Arrested and sentenced to death, she was executed shortly after she gave birth to a daughter in custody.<ref name="gdw">{{cite web |title=Liane Berkowitz |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/liane-berkowitz/?no_cache=1 |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |publisher=German Resistance Memorial Center |accessdate=2 November 2019}}</ref>
== Life == Liane Berkowitz was born in Berlin, the daughter of conductor Victor Vasilyev<ref name="gdw"/> and the singing teacher Catherine Jewsienko. Shortly before her birth, her parents had fled the Soviet Union. When Liane's father died, her mother Catherine married Henry Berkowitz, who immediately adopted Liane in 1930.<ref name="HossSchönfeld2002">{{cite book|author1=Christiane Hoss|author2=Martin Schönfeld|title=Gedenktafeln in Berlin: Orte der Erinnerung an Verfolgte des Nationalsozialismus 1991-2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=20BoAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=22 December 2020|year=2002|publisher=Verein Aktives Museum|language=German|page=245}}</ref> The family lived on Viktoria-Luise-Platz in the Schöneberg district. Henry Berkowitz reportedly emigrated abroad after his divorce in 1939. The fate of Liane's mother is unknown.
==Red Orchestra== Liane was fluent in German and Russian.<ref name="HossSchönfeld2002"/> Henry arranged for her education at the private ''Heilsche Abendschule'' gymnasium where she prepared for her ''Abitur'' qualification from 1941. There, she joined some friends whose group coalesced around her schoolmate Eva Rittmeister and the latter's husband, the neurologist John Rittmeister. Ursula Goetze, Otto Gollnow, Fritz Thiel, and Friedrich Rehmer also belonged to the group. Under the guidance of John Rittmeister, the friends started to resist against Hitler's regime, and who would later work against the Nazis together with the left-leaning pro-Soviet resistance movement that was led by the Luftwaffe officer Harro Schulze-Boysen. Liane became engaged to Friedrich Rehmer and was pregnant when she was arrested.<ref>{{cite web |title=Friedrich Reh|url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/friedrich-rehmer/?no_cache=1 |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |publisher=German Resistance Memorial Center |accessdate=23 December 2020}}</ref>
Together with Otto Gollnow, while her fiancé was severely wounded in the hospital, Berkowitz pasted about 100 adhesive stickers saying thumb|Adhesive stickers that were posted on top of The Soviet Paradise posters : Permanent Exhibition : The Nazi Paradise : War, Hunger, Lies, Gestapo : How much longer?<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brysac |first1=Shareen Blair |title=Resisting Hitler |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=300 |isbn=978-0-19-513269-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/resistinghitlerm00brys/page/300/mode/2up?q=soviet+paradise}}</ref>
on the evening of 17 May 1942 in the busy area between Kurfürstendamm and Uhlandstrasse.<ref name="Nelson_pp255-256">{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Anne |title=Red Orchestra. The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler |publisher=Random House |location=New York |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-4000-6000-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/redorchestrastor00anne |pages=255–256}}</ref> This was intended as a protest against ''The Soviet Paradise'' exhibition organised by the Nazi Party Propaganda Office, that took place at the Berlin Lustgarten. They also wanted to show that anti-National Socialist resistance in Germany was still active. It is not certain whether during this action Berkowitz and Gollnow were discreetly accompanied and protected by Harro Schulze-Boysen. The stickers were created by Fritz Thiel and his wife Hannelore who printed stickers using a child's toy rubber stamp kit.<ref name="Nelson_pp255-256"/>
==Arrest== Berkowitz was arrested and charged on 26 September 1942.<ref name="gdw"/> Friedrich Rehmer was still in a Wehrmacht hospital in Britz, where he was recuperating from a serious war injury he had suffered on the Eastern Front. He was arrested in his hospital ward on 29 November. On 18 January 1943, the Second Senate of the ''Reichskriegsgericht'' court-martial convicted Berkowitz and Rehmer together with other friends involved in the adhesive label action "for aiding the preparation of high treason and aiding the enemy," and sentenced them to death. Liane's and Friedrich's daughter Irina was born on 12 April 1943 in the Barnimstrasse women's prison.<ref name="gdw"/>
As the ''Reichskriegsgericht'' pronounced the sentence recommendation when checking with Adolf Hitler to dismiss the pregnant Liane Berkowitz from prison, he expressly rejected any reprieve. The death sentence was confirmed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and countersigned.{{cn|date=October 2022}}
The young mother was executed in Plötzensee Prison at 7.45 p.m on 5 August 1943.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tägder |first1=Jörg |title=Mutige Taten in Erinnerung gerufen |url=http://www.moz.de/lokales/gransee/mutige-taten-in-erinnerung-gerufen-49836856.html |website=Moz |publisher=MOZ.de Märkisches Medienhaus GmbH & Co. KG |access-date=23 December 2020 |location=Liebenberg |language=German |date=19 November 2014 |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205194057/https://www.moz.de/lokales/gransee/mutige-taten-in-erinnerung-gerufen-49836856.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Friedrich Rehmer had already been executed as early as on 13 May 1943. In 2013 it was revealed by the BBC that her body, like thousands of others, was delivered to anatomist Hermann Stieve to be dissected for research.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gill |first1=Victoria |title=Victims of Nazi anatomists named |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21086388 |accessdate=2 November 2019 |agency=BBC |publisher=BBC News |date=28 January 2013}}</ref> Her final resting place is unknown. Her daughter Irina died on 16 October 1943 in the hospital in Eberswalde under unclear circumstances.<ref name="gdw"/>
Berkowitz was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.<ref>Death Register StA Charlottenburg of Berlin, No. 3891/1943</ref> Her letters from death row are marked by a deep faith. The Catholic prison chaplain Peter Buchholz enabled her to receive the Holy Communion on the day of her death.{{cn|date=October 2022}}
== Honours == thumb|Memorial plaque in Berlin-Schöneberg, Viktoria-Luise-Platz 1 * A memorial stele in the honour of Liane Berkowitz and other resistance fighters was erected in the courtyard of the Berlin Humboldt University on Unter den Linden in 1976 * A memorial plaque marks her former residence on Viktoria-Luise-Platz No. 1 in Berlin-Schöneberg * On 18 January 2000, a square in the Berlin district of Friedenau was named ''Liane-Berkowitz-Platz''.
== Literature == * {{cite book |last1=Gélieu |first1=Claudia von |title=Frauen in Haft : Gefängnis Barnimstrasse : eine Justizgeschichte |date=1994 |publisher=Elefanten Press |location=Berlin |isbn=3-88520-530-0 |language=de|oclc=33452421}} * {{cite book |last1=Griebel |first1=Regina |last2=Coburger|first2=Marlies|last3=Scheel |first3=Heinrich |title=Erfasst? : das Gestapo-Album zur Roten Kapelle : eine Foto-Dokumentation |date=1992 |publisher=Audioscop |location=Halle |isbn=9783883840444 |language=de|oclc=29316949|pages=222, 372}} * {{cite book |last1=Rosiejka |first1=Gert |title=Die Rota Kappelle : Landesverrat als antifaschististischer Widerstand. |date=1986 |publisher=Ergebnisse Verlag |location=Hamburg |isbn=9783925622168 |language=de|oclc=497259004}} * {{cite book |last1=Schilde |first1=Kurt |last2=Laurien |first2=Hanna-Renate |title=Eva-Maria Buch und die "Rote Kapelle" : Erinnerungen an den Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus |date=1992 |publisher=Overall |location=Berlin |isbn=3-925961-06-2 |edition=1. Auflage|oclc=71261539}} (In this volume, the prison letters and secret messages from Liane Berkowitz were printed).
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{commonscatinline}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150715183928/http://www.gedenkstaette-ploetzensee.de/zoom/09_6_dt.html Rejection of clemency (page 2)] {{People of the German Rote Kapelle resistance group}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkowitz, Liane}} Category:1923 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Executed German women Category:Executed Red Orchestra members Category:People from Berlin executed at Plötzensee Prison Category:People executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison