Marianne Strauss

Marianne Strauss (1923-1996) was a Jewish woman who was born in Essen, a city in the industrial region of western Germany. Her account of the time of the Holocaust is rare.

Strauss was one of the very few people who were able to avoid being deported to a Nazi camp or a Jewish ghetto. To make things even more unusual, she didn’t even have to stay in hiding nearly as much as the lucky few who were able to avoid deportation. And this wasn’t because she had forged documents or wasn’t known the authorities, it was for a few other reasons. She was a smart, attractive young woman, who over time showed her bravery, and above all had connections with a number of Germans who were prepared to risk their lives for her.

Marianne was born in 1923 in Essen, a city in West Germany. She was born into a rich Jewish family. The father of the Strauss family was a very successful businessman, who did well even in times when everybody else in the countries was doing badly. Although the family feared what the policies of Adolf Hitler could do to them, they felt sheltered because they were wealthy and their region was more tolerant of Jews than the rest of the country. This shows that Marianne, probably didn’t have the same fear that most of the Jews in the country did of the Nazis. She was shocked when she went to a German high school and experienced racism for the first time.

When the Nazis started deporting Jews, Marianne’s family was able to gain exemption from this, because they were respected in the Jewish community and were asked to inform other families of deportation. This did not mean they wanted to support the Nazis though, and the family members were extremely lucky to avoid deportation. While this was occurring, the Strauss family was attempting to immigrate to Sweden, America or a South American country. Unfortunately, all their attempts to do this failed. The Nazi authorities wouldn't allow them to leave even with modified papers, and the countries to which they wanted to flee also didn’t cooperate.

During this period of uncertainty, Marianne spent her time helping the Jewish community around her. She sent many packages of food off to people she knew in the Jewish Ghettos, and she helped people cope with what was going on around them. It was at this time, that she discovered a left wing organization of German and Jewish people called, "the Bund". The Bund was basically a group of people who were against the Nazis, but their aim was not to protest but rather to secretly help people get out of the country and use each other for moral support. It was really more of a large group of friends than an organization, but it was still effective at what it strove to do. Little did Marianne know, the bund would be the main reason she survived the Holocaust.

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