Resistance of the heart: intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany

This story of resistance to the Nazis took place in Berlin in 1943. In February some 10,000 Jews were rounded up by the Gestapo, and most were transported to Auschwitz. Nearly 2000, however, who were married to Aryan Germans, were imprisoned in a detention centre on the Rosenstrasse. They were saved by a protest vigil by their spouses, who, in spite of threats by the police and the Gestapo, maintained their vigil until the authorities relented and released their Jewish captives. This book is an examination of the reasons why this volte-face took place, providing insights into Nazi policy. Focusing on this heroic incident, Stoltzfus also tells the story of other Aryans who faced hostility, persecution or worse because they had married Jews. Jewish-German intermarriage was against Nazism's basic race creed, and was particularly problematic to the regime as it strove to maintain the secrecy around the Final Solution. Working from hitherto unseen records and interviews with some of the survivors, this book reveals the true extent of this little-known stand against tyranny in the heart of the Nazi capital.