Elfriede Scholz

Elfriede Maria Scholz, née Remark (March 25, 1903 – December 16, 1943) was the younger sister of writer Erich Maria Remarque, killed by fascists in 1943.

Elfriede Remark, younger sister of writer Erich Maria Remarque, was born on 25 March 1903 in Osnabrück. She was fifth^[1] younger child in the family of Remark. She was educated as the dressmaker. Elfriede worked as a dressmaker, first in Leipzig, then in Berlin, and later in Dresden. She was married for short time to Erich Scholz (Heinz Scholz^[1]) in 1941, then divorced.

After two women reported to the nazi regime that they had heard as Elfriede was scolding the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler, she was arrested in Dresden on August 18, 1943, and imprisoned in the prison of the Moabit district of Berlin. The nazi court indicted her on October 26, 1943, on charges of "continuing and publicly undermining the military strength of the German people and aiding and abetting the enemy".^[1]

Elfriede was sentenced to death by the court under presiding Roland Freisler on October 29, 1943. She was directed for execution to Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, but authorities unexpectedly cancelled the execution, because the execution paper was burnt during the air raid of allies, and after a week in the Plötzensee Prison she was directed to the Barnimstrasse women's prison, then a month later she was directed back from the Barnimstrasse women's prison to the Plötzensee Prison and guillotined on December 16, 1943.^[2][3][4][1]

Her body was handed over to Center for Anatomy of the Charité for medical experiments, while authorities told her sister that Elfriede's body was properly buried and demanded from the sister to pay expenses for the procedures spent on the execution.

Erich Maria Remarque, resided during the nazi reign in the USA, had known about the execution of his sister only in 1946 and hired a lawyer, Robert Kempner, to find and charge the nazi guilty of his sister's death, but the case was dismissed by the Berlin Court of Appeal in 1970, so Erich Maria Remarque hadn't seen the punishment of guilty nazi, because soon after died of the heart failure.^[1][5]

Erich Maria Remarque dedicated the novel Spark of Life (1952) to his sister.

A Stolperstein for Elfriede Scholz was placed in Dresden (see the photograph).

A memorial plaque dedicated to Elfriede Scholz on the house in Berlin on the Suarezstraße, 31, where she lived for some time, was created in 2013. The plaque was financed by residents of the house (see the photograph).^[6]