Elise Saborovsky Ewert

Elise Saborovsky Ewert
woman facing camera head-on, black and white photograph
Ewert around 1936
Other namesBerger, Elisabeth, Machla, Macha Lenczycki, Sabo

Elise Saborovsky Ewert (born November 14, 1886[1][2] in Hanover, Germany; died February 2, 1940, in Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a German communist activist who worked around the world, but is most known for her work in Brazil during the 1930s.

Biography

Ewert was born in Hanover to Polish parents.[3] She worked as a secretary and typist.[3] She met and became a partner to Arthur Ewert in the 1914, though they would not marry until 1922.[4][5] She became politically active in 1913.[3] A year later, she and Ewert moved to Canada and was interned due to her political activities.[3][5] Traveling to the United States, she became a photographer.[5]

She later returned to Germany and, in 1920, joined the Communist Party of Germany. Ewert then became a member of the Comintern.[6] She and her husband traveled to China on a secret mission in 1932.[3] They were in the Soviet Union during 1934.[3]

They arrived in Brazil in March 1935 (under false names with American passports) and were fundamental to the establishment of the National Liberation Alliance in July.[4] A few days later, President Getúlio Vargas declared it illegal and it became an underground organization dedicated to planning the government's overthrow.[4]

After the failure of the Brazilian communist uprising of 1935, they were arrested in Rio de Janeiro.[2] The Ewerts were tortured, including in front of each other, and Elise was sexually assaulted.[6] In 1936[4][3] or 1937, she was deported to Germany and handed over to the Gestapo.[6][2]

She was first held at Lichtenburg concentration camp.[5] Though some sources state that she escaped to France, Ewert most likely died in Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1939 or 1940.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Ewert, Elise – Deutsche Biographie". Deutsche Biographie (in German). Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  2. ^ a b c "Ewert, Arthur". Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (in German). May 2008. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Jeifets, Victor; Jeifets, Lazar (2015). "E". América Latina en la Internacional Comunista 1919–1943 (in Spanish). Ariadna Ediciones. pp. 189–200. ISBN 978-956-8416-39-3. OCLC 1031325844.
  4. ^ a b c d e Coutinhou, Amélia. "Arthur Ernst Ewert". CPDOC – Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  5. ^ a b c d Friedmann, Ronald (2011). "Arthur Ewert und Elise Saborowski". Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung (in German). 10: 5–21. ISSN 1610-093X.
  6. ^ a b c Smallman, Shawn C. (1999). "Military Terror and Silence in Brazil, 1910–1945" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (PDF). 24 (47): 15–16. doi:10.1080/08263663.1999.10816774. ISSN 0826-3663. PMID 19967828. Retrieved September 26, 2022 – via CORE.