Employment in the Workshop for the Blind

In 1941, Otto Weidt employed around 35 people, mainly blind, visually impaired, and hearing- impaired Jews. They were allocated their work-

places by the “Deployment Section for Jews” at Berlin’s Labor Office. The Gestapo carried out regular inspections of the workshop.

Two Jewish women and one Jewish man worked in Otto Weidt’s office, although this was strictly forbidden. An internal alarm system warned them of Gestapo inspections, and they hid in a niche under the staircase.

Probably in January 1943, the blind and deaf Jewish workers were arrested and taken to the deportation assembly camp at nearby Große Hamburger Straße 26. Weidt appealed that his production was “important for the war effort” and bribed the Gestapo officers, achieving his employees’ release.

On February 27, 1943, almost all Jews still living in Berlin were to be arrested and then deported during “Operation Factory.” Some of Otto Weidt’s workers were also arrested and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

During the period from March 1943 to the end of the war, Otto Weidt employed only few workers. They were mainly Jews protected from deportation by a non-Jewish partner or parent, as well as a few people living in hiding, like Inge Deutschkron, Alice Licht, Erich Frey, and Chaim and Max Horn.

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