Claudia Schoppmann:
Sprung ins Nichts - Überlebensstrategien lesbischer Jüdinnen in NS-Deutschland
A Leap into the Abyss - Survival Strategies of Lesbian Jews in Nazi Germany
English abstract
Claudia Schoppmann describes in her article how lesbian Jews attempted to avoid deportation to Nazi concentration camps by going into hiding, and how their friends and acquaintances supported them. It is impossible to say how many were affected. With the help of biographical evidence, it is possible to reconstruct what it was like to conceal oneself, use a false identity, constantly hunt for food, shelter or fake papers, and face the threat of being denounced, rounded up or bombed. Stripped of their rights and resources, these fugitives were dependent on non-Jewish Germans who, as their way of resisting Nazism, were willing to help them survive.
There has been, to date, no comprehensive examination of how lesbian Jews in Nazi Germany survived – there is only uncorroborated, singular and anecdotal evidence, to which Schoppmann has added several more cases.