Charlotte Garske

Charlotte "Lotte" Garske (born Charlotte Schaepe: 4 December 1906 – 16 December 1943) was a German political activist who resisted the country's Nazi Government. She was executed in Plötzensee Prison on 16 December 1943.

Life The memorial stone to the Garskes was erected in 1944 by their friends at a lakeside camping place where they often stayed. Predating the collapse of the Nazi régime, it is one of the earliest public memorials in Germany to Nazi victims. It was renovated – washed and repainted – in 2013. The memorial enjoys "protected" status. Charlotte "Lotte" Schaepe was born in Berlin. Following a commercial apprenticeship she took a job as an accountant. When, in 1933, she married the building worker (later a builder's draftsman) Erich Garske, it was her second marriage. She already had a child from her first marriage which in 1930 had ended in divorce. Erich Garske was able to help Knöchel in his work by producing satirical drawings and other art work for illegal party publications, notably with a news journal called "Der Friedenskämpfer" ("The Fighter for Peace"). Charlotte was arrested on 17 February 1943. On 9 November 1943 the special "People's Court" sentenced Erich and Charlotte Garske to death. Erich was killed – sources use the verb "murdered" – on 13 December 1943, Charlotte Garske on 16 December 1943, both at the Plötzensee Prison at Berlin-Plötzensee.