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Ilse Ledien

May 25, 1926 -
Ilse Ledien Ilse Ledien 

Ilse Ledien had to leave school before completing her education because she was defined as a “first-grade half-breed” by the National Socialists’ Nuremberg “race laws.” She attended a private language school from 1942. It was there that she met Maria Leipelt, who soon became a close friend. Leipelt introduced Ilse Ledien to her family and friends. At Easter 1943, Maria’s brother Hans Leipelt brought the last White Rose leaflet to Hamburg, and Ilse Ledien and Maria Leipelt transcribed it and distributed many copies. Through her father, Ledien found a position as a “beginner secretary” for an insurance brokerage owned by a known opponent of the National Socialists. She was arrested by the Gestapo on December 17, 1943, and taken to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Gestapo prison, followed by months of solitary confinement and interrogations. Unlike most of the Hamburg White Rose prisoners, Ilse Ledien remained in remand prison. She was indicted by the senior Reich prosecutor before the “People’s Court” for “failure to report intended high treason and treason” on February 23, 1945. In the last trial at the “People’s Court,” held in Hamburg on April 20, 1945, she was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

15 The White Rose