Emmy Zehden
{{Infobox person
| name = Emmy Zehden
| image = Emmy Zehden.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Emmy Windhorst
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1900|03|28}}
| birth_place = Lübbecke, Germany
| baptised =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|6|9|1900|03|28}}
| death_place = Plötzensee Prison, Berlin
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| occupation = {{hlist | Domestic service | newspaper delivery}}
| nationality = German
| alma_mater =
| spouse = Richard Zehden
| parents =
}}
Emmy Zehden, born Emmy Windhorst (March 28, 1900 – June 9, 1944) was a German Jehovah's Witness executed by the Nazis.{{cite book |last1=Lehrke |first1=Gisela |title=Gedenkstätten für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus historisch-politische Bildung an Orten des Widerstands und der Verfolgung |date=1988 |publisher=Campus Verlag |isbn=9783593340135 |pages=174–175}}
Personal life
Zehden worked in domestic service and in 1918 moved to Berlin where she met Richard Zehden, a Jewish businessman; they married in the mid-1920s.
Religion, resistance and death
In 1930, Zehden heard of the Bible Student movement. She and her husband were privately baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses in 1935 after the denomination was banned.{{Cite web |title=Emmy Zehden |url=https://zumfeindgemacht.de/fall/emmy-zehden/ |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=#ZumFeindGemacht}} In 1938, her husband was imprisoned for a year for his membership of the same faith. The couple had a foster-son, Horst Schmidt, who refused to do military service because of his Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Zehden hid Horst and two of his companions who were also refusing to do military service, but they were discovered and all four were sentenced to death. Horst's two companions were beheaded. Zehden was sentenced to death for undermining of military strength in connection with treasonous favoritism of the enemy,{{cite book |last1=Tuchel |first1=Johannes |last2=Steinbach |first2=Peter |title=Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus |date=1994 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9783050025681}} and although Zehden appealed for clemency she was also beheaded, on 9 June 1944 in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.{{cite web |title=Notification |url=https://www.gedenkstaette-ploetzensee.de/en/murder-by-guillotine-and-hanging/notification |website=Gedenkstätte Plötzensee |access-date=2 February 2024}} Horst was not executed, and married a Jehovah's Witness who had survived a concentration camp.
Her husband Richard was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp and died on November 5, 1943.{{cite journal |last1=Krenze |first1=Michael |title=Review: Der Tod kam immer montags. Verfolgt als Kriegsdienstverweigerer im Nationalsozialismus. Eine Autobiographie by Horst Schmidt and Hans Hesse |journal=Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte |date=2005 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=247–250}}
Legacy
File:Emmy-Zehden-Weg in Berlin 1.JPG named in Zehden's memory]]
File:Stolperstein Franzstr 32 (Willst) Emmy Zehden.jpg at 32 Franzstrasse, Wilhelmstadt, Berlin]]
A street in Berlin was named Emmy-Zehden-Weg in Zehden's memory in 1992.{{cite book |last1=StadtINFO (Berlin) |title=Kauperts Straßenführer durch Berlin zusammengestellt nach amtlichen Unterlagen und eigenen Erhebungen |date=2008 |publisher=Kauperts Media |url=https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Emmy-Zehden-Weg-13627-Berlin#Geschichte|oclc=646573019}} A Stolperstein commemorates her outside 32 Franzstraße, Wilhelmstadt.
Her foster-son Horst Schmidt wrote Death always came on Mondays : persecuted for refusing to serve in the Nazi army : an autobiography and described as giving "insight into Horst's forster-mother Emmy Zehden's remarkable life".{{cite web |title=Death Always Came on Mondays Af Horst Schmidt |url=http://www.gramma.dk/produkter/death-always-came-on-mondays/ |website=www.gramma.dk |accessdate=4 September 2020}}
References
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Category:German Jehovah's Witnesses
Category:Converts to Jehovah's Witnesses
Category:Female resistance members of World War II
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