{{Infobox person | name = Lina Haag | image = Lina Haag2.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|01|18|df=yes}} | birth_place = Hagkling, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire | birth_name = Lina Jäger | death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|06|18|1907|01|18|df=yes}} | death_place = Munich, Bavaria, Germany | occupation = anti-Nazi activist; author | known_for = Dachau Award for Courage }}
'''Lina Haag''' née ''Jäger'' (18 January 1907 – 18 June 2012) was a German anti-Nazi activist and author.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sonntagsblatt-bayern.de/news/aktuell/2007_18_27_01.htm|work=Sonntagsblatt|issue=18/2007|date=May 6, 2007|title=Eine Überlebensgeschichte. Die 100-jährige KZ-Überlebende Lina Haag und ihr Buch "Eine Hand voll Staub"|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718060824/http://www.sonntagsblatt-bayern.de/news/aktuell/2007_18_27_01.htm|archivedate=July 18, 2011}}</ref>
==Early life== Haag was born in Hagkling in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn50162 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250226173538/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn50162 |archive-date=2025-02-26 |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=collections.ushmm.org |language=en}}</ref> and was a member of the Youth movement of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the small Württembergish town of Schwäbisch Gmünd in the 1920s. In 1927, she married fellow Communist Alfred Haag. Alfred was a member of the regional Parliament for the KPD until Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933.
==Prison time== {{unreferenced section|date=July 2025}} Both Lina and her husband were arrested and spent many years in prisons and concentration camps. The Haag's were arrested in the large roundups after the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Snitzky |first=Dana |date=2015-07-14 |title=The Missing History of Ravensbrück, The Nazi Concentration Camp for Women |url=https://longreads.com/2015/07/14/the-missing-history-of-ravensbruck-the-nazi-concentration-camp-for-women-2/ |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=Longreads |language=en-US}}</ref> Both Haags showed extraordinary strength of spirit during their incarcerations. Lina spent many years in Remand Prison, during which time she met other prominent prisoners such as Liselotte Herrmann. Lina was freed in 1938 after managing to turn her camp commandant at Lichtenburg against the Stuttgart Gestapo.
==Alfred's release== Once released, she was reunited with her daughter, moved to Berlin, and secured a job. She visited the headquarters of the SS almost daily to petition for her husband's release. In 1940, she obtained permission for an audience with Heinrich Himmler, who secured Alfred's release from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Alfred survived physical torture while detained there and also at Dachau concentration camp.
==Writing== Alfred was soon drafted into the Wehrmacht, and sent to the Eastern Front, and Lina and their daughter were bombed out of their home in Berlin. Lina was transferred to work in a hospital in Garmisch. While there, she wrote a memoir of her experiences in the form of an extended letter to Alfred, not knowing if she would ever see him again. The letter was eventually published in 1947 as ''A handful of dust.'' (Eine Handvoll Staub).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haag |first1=Lina |title=Eine Handvoll Staub |date=1947 |publisher=Nest-Verlag |location=Lauf bei Nürnber |language=de|series=Star-Bücher|volume=3|oclc=6783196}}</ref> Alfred was taken prisoner by the Red Army and eventually released in 1948.
==Honours== The Haags lived in Munich until Alfred's death in 1982. In 2007, Lina was given the Dachau Award for Courage.<ref>[http://www.dachau.de/uploads/Broschuere_Lina_Haag.pdf Brochure on the 2007 Dachau Award for Courage] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718222452/http://www.dachau.de/uploads/Broschuere_Lina_Haag.pdf |date=2011-07-18 }}, Stadt Dachau, April 2009</ref>
==Death== On 18 June 2012, Haag died in Munich, aged 105.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn50162 Oral history interview United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haag, Lina}} Category:1907 births Category:2012 deaths Category:People from Ostalbkreis Category:People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians Category:German Communist Party politicians Category:Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members Category:Communists in the German Resistance Category:German women centenarians Category:Nazi concentration camp survivors