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Maria Terwiel

June 07, 1910 - August 05, 1943
Maria Terwiel Maria Terwiel 

Maria Terwiel was born in Boppard am Rhein in 1910. She studied law in Freiburg and Munich and met her later fiancé Helmut Himpel at university. She was unable to complete her studies due to her Jewish origins. Moving to Berlin, she earned her living as a secretary in a Swiss-French textiles company. Her fiancé established a dental surgery. The couple managed to support persecuted Jews illegally with food ration cards and identity papers. In 1939/40 they contacted the Red Orchestra resistance circle formed around Harro Schulze-Boysen and took part in the group's activities. For instance, Maria Terwiel duplicated the Münster Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen's sermons in 1941 and in 1942 the leaflet "The People are Troubled about Germany's Future" written by Harro Schulze-Boysen and John Sieg. In May 1942 she fly-posted notes against the anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition "The Soviet Paradise." Maria Terwiel was arrested in mid-September 1942, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on January‑26, 1943, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on August‑5, 1943.

14 The Red Orchestra