So'oa'emalelagi Gräfin von Ballestrem (née Solf, 31 August 1909 – 14 September 1955) was a part of the

German resistance to Nazism The German resistance to Nazism () included unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime by various movements, groups and individuals by various means, from assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, attempts to ass ...

as a member of the Solf Circle. She was born in Vailima,

German Samoa German Samoa officially Malo Kaisalika / Kingdom of Samoa (; Samoan: ''Malo Kaisalika'') was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1920, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the Independent State ...

as the daughter of

Wilhelm Solf Wilhelm Heinrich Solf (5 October 1862 – 6 February 1936) was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman. Early life Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam, western Pomerania, a ...

, the German colonial governor, and

Hanna Solf Johanna Susanne Elisabeth Solf (née Dotti, 14 November 1887 – 4 November 1954) was a member of the German resistance to Nazism and the founder of the Solf Circle group of intellectuals, opposed to the Nazi regime. Early life Solf was born in 1 ...

. Her

Samoan Samoan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean ** Something of, from, or related to Samoa, a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands ** Something of, from, ...

birth name was typically abbreviated to Lagi.

Biography

She lived in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

with her first husband Wolfgang Mohr (married 1932) where she helped Jewish refugees. She returned 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 ...

in 1938, at which time she was questioned by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. Her first marriage ended in 1939; the following year she married Hubertus Graf von Ballestrem (1910-1995), son of Count Valentin Gustav Alexander Joseph Christian von Ballestrem (1860-1920) and his wife, Countess Agnes of

Stolberg-Stolberg Stolberg-Stolberg was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the southern Harz region. Its capital was the town of Stolberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Stolberg, now in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was ruled by a branch of the House of Stolberg. In 1429 ...

(1874-1940). Together with her mother Hanna, Lagi von Ballestrem planned escape routes for fleeing Jews and participated in secret meetings with other opponents of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. This group of intellectuals would later be known as the Solf Circle. In 1939 von Ballestrem helped the gynaecologist and intellectual

Ferdinand Mainzer Ferdinand Mainzer (16 January 1871 – 3 January 1943) was a German-Jewish gynaecologist and historical author. Born 16 January 1871,Thomas Corinth, ed., ''Lovis Corinth: eine Dokumentation'', Wasmuth, 1979, p.377 Mainzer wrote his doctoral disse ...

and his family to escape to England. The Solf Circle was betrayed to the Gestapo in late 1943, which led to its members being arrested. Ballestrem and her mother were transferred to

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi 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 of 1 ...

. While many other members of the group were executed, Ballestrem and Solf were freed when the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

liberated Ravensbrück. Her story in her own words is found in 's book '' We Survived'', first published in 1949.

References

1909 births 1955 deaths Female anti-fascists Female resistance members of World War II Countesses in Germany German resistance members Members of the Solf Circle People from Tuamasaga Ravensbrück concentration camp prisoners Women in World War II {{Germany-countess-stub Samoan people of German descent