Elise Saborovsky Ewert (born July 7, 1907, or November 14, 1886 in Hanover, Germany; died February 2, 1940, in

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

) was a German communist activist who worked around the world, but is most known for her work in Brazil during the 1930s.

Biography

Ewert was born in Hanover to Polish parents. She worked as a secretary and typist. She met and became a partner to Arthur Ewert in the 1914, though they would not marry until 1922. She became politically active in 1913. A year later, she and Ewert moved to Canada and was interned due to her political activities. Traveling to the United States, she became a photographer. She later returned to Germany and, in 1920, joined the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

. Ewert became a member of the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

. She and her husband traveled to China on a secret mission in 1932. They were in the Soviet Union during 1934. They arrived in Brazil in March 1935 under false names with American passports and were fundamental to the establishment of the "National Liberation Alliance," or the in July. A few days later, President Getúlio Vargas declared it illegal and it became an underground organization dedicated to planning the government's overthrow. After the failure of the Communist uprising in Brazil in November 1935, they were arrested in Rio de Janeiro. The Ewerts were tortured, including in front of each other, and Elise was

sexually assaulted Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

. In 1936 or 1937, she was deported to Germany and handed over to the Gestapo. She was first held at Lichtenburg concentration camp. Though some sources state that she escaped to France, Ewert most likely died in

in 1939 or 1940.

References

{{Authority control 1907 births 1940 deaths German communists German people who died in Nazi concentration camps People who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp