They called him Herbert Baum a name whispered with reverence and defiance. Right here in this quiet corner of Weissensee Cemetery lies a man who dared to defy Hitler. He wasn’t a soldier. He was an electrician. A husband. A leader of the Baum Group a clandestine network of resistance against the Nazi regime.
Herbert Baum was born in 1912 in Moschin. His family moved to Berlin when he was young. He became an electrician. He joined left-wing and Jewish youth organizations. In 1931 he became a member of the Young Communist League of Germany.
After the Nazis seized power Herbert and his wife Marianne along with friends organized meetings. They discussed the threat of Nazism. They held political debates and cultural discussions. They openly distributed leaflets against the Nazis. This was incredibly dangerous. Their meetings were a beacon of defiance in a city consumed by fear.
In 1940 Herbert was forced into slave labor at Siemens. Even there he continued his resistance. He led a group of Jewish slave laborers. They worked to escape deportation to concentration camps. They went underground. They operated in secret.
The Baum Group’s most daring act was an arson attack. On May 18 1942 they attacked an anticommunist and anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition. This exhibition was called The Soviet Paradise. It was created by Joseph Goebbels. The attack was only partially successful. Many group members were arrested. Twenty were sentenced to death.
Herbert Baum and his wife were arrested on May 22. Herbert was tortured to death in Moabit Prison on June 11 1942. The Gestapo claimed it was suicide. Marianne was executed in Plötzensee Prison on August 18 1942.
Their bravery was a stark contrast to the oppressive regime. Their defiance is commemorated here. A plaque remembers the Herbert Baum Group. A street near this cemetery bears his name. A monument stands in the Lustgarten remembering the 1942 attack. Herbert Baum’s story reminds us that even in the darkest times resistance is possible. Even a simple electrician can become a symbol of hope. He fought back. He died for his beliefs. Remember him. Remember their sacrifice. Remember the Baum Group.