Katharina Jacob

Katharina Jacob ( Emmermann, formerly Hochmuth; 6 March 1907 – 23 August 1989) was a teacher and member of the German Resistance movement against National Socialism. She was married to Franz Jacob, a German Resistance fighter who was executed by the Nazis.

Biography Jacob was born Katharina Emmermann in Cologne. She married Walter Hochmuth in 1927. He was a Communist politician and member of the Hamburg Parliament during the Weimar Republic. She joined the Communist Party (KPD) in 1928. They had one daughter together, Ursel, born in 1931. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Walter Hochmuth appeared on a wanted poster and went underground. He had an affair with the woman who had given him a place to stay, and they had a son in March 1934. He and Katharina divorced in 1939.

Katharina was arrested several times. She was politically active in the German Resistance and was sent to Lübeck-Lauerhof from 1934 to 1936 and to KolaFu in 1938. Whenever she was under arrest, her daughter was left with no parent. Political friends took care of Ursel, as well as neighbors and her teacher at school, Gertrud Klempau. A chapter in the book, ("School Under the Swastika") is dedicated to her. The following month, their daughter, Ilse, was born on 9 November 1942. Groß brought news to Jacob's husband, underground in Berlin. Jacob took a road trip with her daughters, stopping secretly to see Franz in Berlin and staying just one night. It was the only time Franz saw his infant daughter.

Memorials In 1992, a street in the Hamburg district of Groß Borstel was named after Katharina Jacob. There is a stolperstein at Jarresstraße 21, where she lived for many years with her two children, and briefly, with her husband, Franz.