Emmy Zehden, born Emmy Windhorst (March 28, 1900 – June 9, 1944) was a German

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co- ...

executed by the Nazis.

Personal life

Zehden worked in domestic service and in 1918 moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

where she met Richard Zehden, a Jewish businessman; they married in the mid-1920s.

Religion, resistance and death

In 1930, Zehden heard of the

Bible Student movement The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged in the United States from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion' ...

. She and her husband were privately baptized as

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

in 1935 after the denomination was banned. In 1938, her husband was imprisoned for a year for his membership of the same faith. The couple had a foster-son, Horst Schmidt, who refused to do

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

because of his Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Zehden hid Horst and two of his companions who were also refusing to do military service, but they were discovered and all four were sentenced to death. Horst's two companions were beheaded. Zehden was sentenced to death for undermining of military strength in connection with treasonous favoritism of the enemy, and although Zehden appealed for clemency she was also beheaded, on 9 June 1944 in

Plötzensee Prison Plötzensee Prison (, JVA Plötzensee) is a men's prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The detention centre established in 1868 has a lon ...

in Berlin. Horst was not executed, and married a Jehovah's Witness who had survived a concentration camp. Her husband Richard was sent to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

and died on November 5, 1943.

Legacy

A street in

was named Emmy-Zehden-Weg in Zehden's memory in 1992. A ''

Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...

'' commemorates her outside 32 Franzstraße, Wilhelmstadt. Her foster-son Horst Schmidt wrote ''Death always came on Mondays : persecuted for refusing to serve in the Nazi army : an autobiography'' and described as giving "insight into Horst's forster-mother Emmy Zehden's remarkable life".

References

1900 births 1944 deaths German Jehovah's Witnesses Converts to Jehovah's Witnesses Female resistance members of World War II {{JehovahsWitnesses-stub