On October 20, 1942, the German Secret State Police (Gestapo) made an arrest in Berlin, which they had been seeking since 1940. This was common for the time, as was the couple that was arrested, Otto and Elise Hubbell – at least apparently.
Otto, born in 1897, had served in World War I and then started working as a laborer in a Siemens factory. Elise, six years younger than her husband, worked as a domestic helper and in 1936 joined the National Socialist Women’s Union. In fact, he was the head of one of the Union’s teams.
But things changed in 1940 when Elise’s brother Kurt lost his life in the campaign against France. After this loss, the couple turned against the Hitler regime, disagreed with the war operations and began to develop resistance action. From 1940 to 1942, Otto and Elise wrote over 200 postcards and leaflets which they distributed throughout Berlin, leaving them in mailboxes and public places. In capital letters and not great spelling, the couple called on their countrymen to wake up, resist and overthrow the regime, denouncing the encroachment of the German people’s rights, the loss of their personal freedom, as well as war crimes and mass murder dissidents and groups targeted by the Third Reich.
The Gestapo undertook to track down the creators of the postcards and leaflets from the very first times the relevant incidents were reported. But finding the culprits was not as easy as they first thought. Of course, finding one of the postcards in question at the Siemens factory where Otto worked made the Gestapo suspicious of the couple. Eventually, a colleague reported the pair and they were promptly arrested. They were interrogated and admitted their action, while Otto declared himself “happy with the idea” of protesting against Hitler and his regime.
Despite pleas for clemency, Otto and Elise Hubbel were tried by the 2nd Chamber of the People’s Court on 22 January 1943 and sentenced to death for “high treason and treason against the state” as well as “undermining the defense forces” (Wehrkraftzersetzung). , since they called on their fellow citizens to refuse to enlist in the army. On Thursday, April 8 they were beheaded by guillotine in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison.
The story of Otto and Elise resonated beyond Germany’s borders after the war. The German author Hans Fallada also contributed to its dissemination, who was deeply moved by the Hubbels’ bravery and based his story on it to write his novel Alone in Berlin. Falada’s work, published posthumously in 1947, captured the essence of the couple’s resistance action, ensuring their legacy will endure.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
