Charlotte Luise (Lotte) Carney, geb. Hermann (zuerst: Lewin)

Charlotte Carney was born in Berlin on August 17, 1900. She was the daughter of Hermann Lewin and his wife Margaretha, née Bruck. In 1907, following the death of Charlotte’s father, her mother married the Amtsrichter (magistrate) Michel Alfred Herrmann. From then on, Charlotte used his surname as her maiden name. The family lived in Preußisch Stargard (today Starogard Gdańsk). In 1920, Charlotte Herrmann passed her Abitur (general qualification for university entrance) and moved to Magdeburg, where she passed her first state examination for the teaching profession a year later. In 1926, Charlotte Herrmann married the merchant Paul Carney. From Easter 1928 she worked at a primary school in Magdeburg and in June 1931 she passed the second state examination for the teaching profession. In 1932, Charlotte and Paul Carney moved to Galeriestraße 29 (today Franz-Josef-Strauß-Ring 4) in Munich. Just a few weeks after the Nazi seizure of power, the “Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums” (“law for the restoration of the professional civil service”) of April 7, 1933 destroyed Charlotte Carney’s chances of being employed as a teacher. For although she had converted to the Protestant faith, Nazi racial ideology considered her to be a Jew, so under the new law she was not permitted to be a civil servant. This was a bitter blow for Charlotte Carney, and she became ill. From 1935 she worked as a vacuum cleaner sales representative. A year later she divorced Paul Carney. From 1937, she lived in an attic room in the Hildebrandhaus at Maria-Theresia-Straße 23. The Jewish owner of the Villa, Elisabeth Braun, provided refuge for victims of Nazi persecution. After Charlotte Carney’s trade permit was taken away in 1938, she worked for the Jewish community. She unsuccessfully tried to emigrate to Rio de Janeiro to live with her half-brother Carl Herrmann. From Autumn 1941, Charlotte Carney had to work as a forced labourer for the company Kammerer. The Gestapo (Secret Police) deported her to Auschwitz concentration camp on March 13, 1943. The circumstances of Charlotte Carney’s death are still unknown. After the war, the Municipal Court established her date of death as April 30, 1943. (text Ruth and Klaus-Peter Münch, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)