Ella Trebe

Ella Trebe (born Ella Beyer: 6 November 1902 - 11 August 1943) was a German factory worker who became an anti-government resistance activist after 1933. She was charged with high treason but was then taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp where she was shot dead, so that her case never came to trial.

Biography Ella Beyer was born in Berlin where her mother worked as a washerwoman. She grew up in the city's Wedding quarter. She became a metal worker with the "Lewin" company and then a winder at the AEG plant in the adjacent quarter of Berlin-Gesundbrunnen. It was at AEG that her political engagement began when in 1922 she became a member of the Metal Workers' Union ("Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband" / DMV). Four years after that, in 1926, she joined the Communist Party.

During the first part of 1943 Trebe arranged accommodation and contacts for Ernst Beuthke, a communist hero of the Spanish Civil War. He had been parachuted back into Germany as a resistance organiser by the British, landing in a field in the countryside to the west of Berlin. His arrival coincided with the appearance of a number of other German-born resistance fighters, also arriving by parachute, from the Soviet Union. The authorities became aware of the arrival of these so-called "parachute agents" ("Fallschirmagenten") and took immediate steps to arrest them and their "helpers". There are strong indications that Beuthke had conducted himself "imprudently", for instance visiting the home of his parents (whom he had not seen since 1933) for a family reunion. Beuthke was denounced and arrested. All the individuals who had been associated with him were identified and arrested overnight on 9/10 June 1943. That included Ella Trebe and her family. They were accused of "spying for the enemy" ("Feindspionage"). They were taken to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) headquarters on the Prinz-Albrecht-Straße and / or the Alexanderplatz penitentiary. It is not known whether they were tortured. Friends and relatives were permitted to bring clothes and food, but not to speak with them.

The formal charge was the usual one, under these circumstances, of "High Treason", but the case never came to trial. Following express orders from Heinrich Himmler, on 11 August 1943 these "Berlin communist prisoners" were taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and killed by shooting. Those murdered on this occasion included Ella Trebe and Ernst Beuthke, along with Beuthke's parents and brothers.