Marianne Baum
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Marianne Baum | |
|---|---|
 Herbert Baum and Marianne circled in white. Olga Benario is circled in gray | |
| Born | Marianne Cohn 9 February 1912 |
| Died | 18 August 1942 (aged 30) |
| Cause of death | Guillotine |
| Nationality | Germany |
| Known for | Anti-Nazi |
| Political party | Communist |
| Spouse | Herbert Baum |
Marianne Baum (9 February 1912 – 18 August 1942) was a German communist and anti-Nazi. She was executed after an attack on a propaganda show in Berlin.
Life and death
Marianne Baum was born in Saarburg in 1912 into a Jewish family. She had one sibling, her brother Lothar Cohn who would also became a communist activist. In 1927, 14-year old Marianne met her future husband Herbert Baum while attending the Jewish youth group Deutsch-Jüdische Jugendgemeinschaft.[1][2]
Around 1930, Marianne would join her first communist organization, the Communist Youth Federation (KJVD). In 1933, Marianne became become an active member of the Communist resistance movement. However, the Jewish Baum's were pushed out of the more mainstream organizations such as the KPD and the German Communist Party, as both groups thought having Jewish members would be to great a risk in antisemitic Nazi Germany.[1] Interested in continued resistance, the Baum's formed a Communist-Jewish resistance group "Gruppe Herbert Baum" in Berlin.[1] The group became a successful resistance organization separate from the mainstream communist party.[1] The group planned and executed a successful attack on an anti-Communist propaganda exhibition in Berlin titled "Soviet Paradise". The 18 May, 1942 attack led to the arrest of many members of Gruppe Herbert Baum.
Marianne Baum and eight other activists were sentenced to death for their "treason".[3] They were executed via guillotine on 18 August 1942 at the Berlin-Plötzensee penitentiary.[4]
Legacy
A plaque in the Weißensee Cemetery in Berlin commemorates the Herbert Baum Group. There is also a street near the cemetery named Herbert-Baum-Straße. In Berlin's Lustgarten, a monument designed by Jürgen Raue was erected in 1981 commemorating the 1942 attack. While the East German government, which established these memorials, emphasized Baum's allegiance to Communism, other historians[who?] (as well as veterans of the group) have noted the group's multiple political and cultural influences and the significance of the Baum group as an example of Jewish resistance to Nazism[citation needed].
References
- ^ a b c d "German Resistance Memorial Center – Biographie". www.gdw-berlin.de. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
- ^ Brothers, Eric (23 June 2014). "New findings on the Herbert Baum Group" (PDF). TheHerbertBaumGroupBlog – via libcom.org.
- ^ Brothers, Eric (2014). "New Findings on the Herbert Baum Group" (PDF). Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- ^ Cox, John M. (2009). Circles of resistance: Jewish, leftist, and youth dissidence in Nazi Germany. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0557-9.
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