Für Freudensprünge keine Zeit : Erinnerungen an Illegalität und Aufbegehren, 1942-1948

Memoirs of a Berlin Jew, who was 16 years old in 1943 when he went into hiding in Luckenwalde near Berlin with the aid of Hans Winkler. Winkler, together with Werner Scharff, a Jew who had escaped from Theresienstadt, organized a resistance group, the Gemeinschaft für Frieden und Aufbau, comprised of their friends, mostly Jews in hiding and the non-Jews who hid them. They forged documents and disseminated anti-Nazi leaflets. They were arrested in fall 1944. Herman-Friede was released from prison just before the arrival of the Soviets. In 1948, he and members of his family were arrested by East German police on trumped-up charges; comments that, as Jews, they were convenient scapegoats for failures of the communist regime. The postscript (pp. 189-222) gives biographical details on members of the group, describes their activities, and traces their fate. Scharff and many other Jews were executed; Winkler and other non-Jews survived in prison. Includes bibliographical references. 222 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.