Inge and Gustav Held

Inge and Gustav Held lived at Rosenthaler Straße 43; Gustav Held’s doctor’s office was in the same building. He was Jewish, but initially protected from deportation because his wife Inge was not Jewish.

Held met Otto Weidt in 1943, if not before. Held proved to be the trustworthy doctor Weidt was looking for to treat Georg Licht, who was in hiding and seriously ill.

Inge Held started working as a secretary in the Workshop for the Blind in 1943. The Gestapo summoned Inge Held repeatedly to pressure her to divorce her husband – without success. She skillfully exploited her contact with the Gestapo to buy out persons she had been caring for who were already listed for deportation.

Inge Held particularly supported Günther Prege, the illegitimate son of the Jewish woman who helped in the Helds’ household. She managed to gain legal responsibility for care of the child and had him baptized by Pastor Heinrich Grüber. This protected Günter Prege and his mother until the war was over.

Although the Helds themselves suffered from the repressive measures designed to persecute Jews and deprive them of their rights, they helped many people in hiding. But they were not honored for this in the postwar period.