Edith Hahn Beer

Edith Hahn Beer (January 24, 1914 – March 17, 2009) was an Austrian Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust by hiding her Jewish identity and marrying a Nazi officer.

Life

Early life and education Hahn was one of three daughters born to Klothilde and Leopold Hahn. Her parents owned and ran a restaurant. In June 1936 Leopold died while working as a restaurant manager at a hotel in the Alps.

Although it was uncommon for a girl of that time to attend high school, Hahn's teacher persuaded Leopold to send his daughter. After graduating, Hahn continued her studies at university and was studying law at the time of the Anschluss, when she was forced to leave the university because she was Jewish.

World War II In 1939, Hahn and her mother were sent to the Jewish ghetto in Vienna. They were separated in April 1941, when Hahn was sent to an asparagus plantation in Osterburg, Germany and then to the Bestehorn paper factory in Aschersleben. Her mother had been deported to Nazi Germany-occupied Poland two weeks before Hahn was able to return to Vienna, in 1942.

In Munich, Hahn volunteered as a German Red Cross nurse. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who sought her hand in marriage even after she told him she was Jewish. They lived together in Brandenburg an der Havel, married, and had a daughter, Angelika, born in 1944.

Archive In December 1997, a collection of Hahn's personal papers was sold at auction for $169,250. The collection, known as the Edith Hahn Archive, was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Works