Gertrud Lutz

Gertrud Lutz (born Gertrud Schlotterbeck: 17 September 1910 – 30 November 1944) was a German resistance activist. She died by shooting at the Dachau concentration camp.

Life Gertrud "Trude" Schlotterbeck was born in Reutlingen, a mid-sized town between Stuttgart and Ulm. Gotthilf Schlotterbeck, her father, worked as a metal worker at the Daimler Benz plant in Untertürkheim and an active trades unionist. Gertrud and her brother Frieder grew up in a politicised household. She became a member of the Young Communists and in 1931 joined the Communist Party itself. During this time she was working as a clerk at a Stuttgart publishing firm that produced communist printed matter. of 20 December 1932. By the time of her release there had been a change of regime. In January 1933 continuing parliamentary deadlock had given the National Socialists the opportunity to take power: the new government lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. During the first part of 1933 Gertrud Schlotterbeck escaped from Stuttgart and fled to the Luginsland quarter of Stuttgart to work "underground" (ie without her place of residence being registered at a townhall). Work in this context included political activity on behalf of the (now illegal) Communist Party. On 24 October 1933 she was again arrested on suspicion of "distributing communist subversive literature" ("Verbreitung kommunistischer Zersetzungsschriften"). On 2 September 1934 she was sentenced to 28 month detention on the usual charge of "preparing high treason" ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat"). She was now held at the Gotteszell women's concentration camp, a reassigned Dominican Monastery just outside Schwäbisch Gmünd, till 21 April 1936. At that point instead of being released she was transferred directly into "protective detention" at the Moringen concentration camp. Gertrud, believing she was safe, stayed behind with her baby at the Keller family home. Of the Schlotterbecks attempting the escape to Switzerland, only Friedrich succeeded in not being captured on the German side of the border. Soon afterwards, on 10 June 1944, Gertrud Lutz was arrested, along with her parents and her daughter: the authorities had reacted to Friedrich Schlotterbeck's escape by deciding to arrest his entire family.