Lisa Fittko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lisa Fittko (1909-2005) was a young woman who lived through the Nazi occupation of Europe.
For her bravery and actions during the occupation she is considered an "invisible hero of resistance."[citation needed]
Lisa Fittko's life was formed in her work in the underground resistance of Nazi-occupied Europe. She came to international recognition over forty years later through her two widely-translated memoirs, in which she describes her actions (considered inspirational by many who read about them) in the voice of a fearless young woman, a bohemian, an activist. It is, however, a voice altogether lacking in self-glorification or self-pitying victimhood. Her bravery in leading refugees, including many famous intellectuals and members of the anti-Hitler resistance from Nazi-occupied France across the Pyrenees into Spain, brought her international fame. Perhaps the best-known refugee she was able to help was Walter Benjamin, who reached Portbou, Spain with her help in September of 1940, only to commit suicide after being turned back by Spanish police. The rest of Fittko's group was subsequently allowed to proceed.
Born into an international Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1909, she died in Chicago on March 12, 2005. She was 95 years old and remarkably clear of thought for her age.
From the obituary in the New York Times, March 21, 2005. [1]:
-
- Ms. Fittko emerged from a leftist, artistic family to become active in the resistance to Hitler in the early months of his rule, then fled to continue the fight in other European countries for seven years. For seven tense months in 1940 and 1941, she escorted refugees on a tortuous path over the Pyrenees mountains so they could go on to Spanish and Portuguese ports to seek passage to safe havens. Many of the people she helped were intellectuals, artists and anti-Nazi organizers.
Catherine Stodolsky's biographical information on her aunt [2] is the best source for a full historical account of Lisa's life:
