Libertas Schulze-Boysen
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Libertas Schulze-Boysen (née Haas-Heye; born 20 November 1913 in Liebenberg near Berlin; died 22 December 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee) was a German opponent of the Nazis who belonged to the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle) resistance group during the time of the Third Reich.
[edit] Life
Libertas spent her childhood at her grandfather's estate near Berlin; this may have been her maternal grandfather Philip, Prince of Eulenburg (1857-1921). After her Abitur and a stay in the United Kingdom, she was hired by the motion picture company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Berlin branch office as a press officer.
In 1934, she became acquainted with Harro Schulze-Boysen, whom she married in 1936 in Liebenberg. Early in 1937, she left the NSDAP, to which she had belonged since 1933. In the time that followed she wrote film critiques, among other things. At the same time, however, she gathered pictorial material about German war crimes while in the Reich Propaganda Ministry. She supported her husband in the quest for likeminded opponents of the Nazi régime. In late October 1941, she met a Soviet Secret Service officer and put him in contact with her husband. Once their connections with the Soviet Union were discovered, Libertas and her husband were both arrested and brought before the Reichskriegsgericht ("Reich Court Martial") where they were charged. The trial ended on 19 December 1942 with death sentences for both her and her husband. Libertas Schulze-Boysen was put to death the same day as her husband at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
In the Berlin borough of Lichtenberg in 1972, a street was named after the Schulze-Boysens (see link below).
Her niece Rosita, Duchess of Marlborough (b. 1943) is named Dagmar Rosita Astri Libertas, with the last name apparently commemorating her aunt.
