Irene Wosikowski

Irene Wosikowski was a German political activist (KPD). After 1933 she continued with her political activity in Germany till 1935. The next two years were spent in Moscow after which, as instructed by the party, she moved to Paris which had become one of two de facto capitals for the exiled German Communist Party. She worked on political education and publishing till 1940 when she was placed in the Gurs internment camp. After her escape she joined the Résistance. Living "underground" (unregistered) she managed to remain at liberty till July 1943, despite the intensely dangerous nature of much of her resistance work, which included approaching German soldiers and engaging in "political" discussions to try and persuade them to face up to the accelerating savagery of the Shoah. Following her arrest Wosikowski was subjected to a sustained programme of torture and taken back to Germany where she was executed at Plötzensee on the edge of Berlin.