Anja Tuckermann: Back Then on Rosenstraße

• 

  Anja Tuckermann – Eine lächelnde Person mit lockigem Haar trägt ein weißes Spitzenoberteil und eine silberne Halskette. Text: © Bernd Sahling.

• 

  Tuckermann, Anja, Sperber, Anja, Damals in der Rosenstraße, S. Fischer – Illustration von Menschenmenge vor einem Gebäude. Text: Anja Tuckermann Annabelle von Sperber Damals in der Rosenstraße Fischer Sauerländer.

Late February 1943. In the heart of Nazi Berlin, hundreds of women gather in front of a building on Rosenstraße—visible, determined, and vocal. Most of them are not Jewish. They want to bring back their Jewish husbands, fathers, and relatives, who are being held there and are slated for deportation. And they achieve something that seems almost unthinkable in the Nazi state: Many of the detainees are released.

How do you tell children about persecution, fear, and courage? Anja Tuckermann finds a special way to do so: drawing on historical sources and eyewitness accounts, she weaves the story of the Gumpel family. Father Joachim is Jewish; mother Helga is not. Together with their children, Doris and Helmut, they try to maintain a sense of normalcy in their daily lives—but persecution is encroaching ever deeper into their lives.

SS men march through the streets, Hitler Youth boys threaten the siblings on their way to school, and even at dinner, fear sits at the table with them. When Joachim is arrested and taken to Rosenstraße, Helga doesn’t give up: She brings him bread, smuggles messages to him—and, together with other women, stands up against the regime’s tyranny.

Time and again, the book focuses on individual people—and in doing so, makes history tangible. Anja Tuckermann tells not only of persecution, but also of solidarity and the question of when people find the courage to stand up for others. She says: “For children, there must always be a ‘present’ as well; you can’t tell a purely historical story. And in the present, we must show that it’s worth defending others and offering resistance.”

The book’s origins are also linked to Rosenstraße: When S. Fischer Verlag moved there in 2023, the exploration of the site’s history began. At the same time, the story traces back to Samuel Fischer, the Jewish founder of the publishing house and one of the most important publishers of his time.

Anja Tuckermann, born in Berlin, works as an author, journalist, and director of writing workshops. In her multi-award-winning books, she repeatedly tells the stories of people whose histories have long been overlooked—including the fate of the Sinti and Roma during the Nazi era.

Annabelle von Sperber studied illustration in Hamburg and has been working as a freelance illustrator since 2000. She lives in Berlin and the Black Forest.

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 17/November/2026 10:30
• Venue Neue Synagoge Berlin
• Address Oranienburger Straße 28-30, 10117 Berlin-Mitte