It was at AEG that her political engagement began when in 1922 she became a member of the Metal Workers' Union ("Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband" / DMV).
Through skillful gaming of the unprecedented parliamentary deadlock, in January 1933 the Nazi Party took power and lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship.
With (non-Nazi) political activism now illegal, Ella Trebe nevertheless joined the "Sicherheitsapparat Norden" ("Security Apparatus north") which was part of the (now "underground") Berlin region leadership team ("Bezirksleitung") of the Communist Party.
By the time the Second World War broke out in September 1939 Ella Trebe was clearly viewed as part of this resistance movement.
[4] During the first part of 1943 Trebe arranged accommodation and contacts for Ernst Beuthke, a communist hero of the Spanish Civil War.
There are strong indications that Beuthke had conducted himself "imprudently", for instance visiting the home of his parents (whom he had not seen since 1933) for a family reunion.
Following express orders from Heinrich Himmler, on 11 August 1943 these "Berlin communist prisoners" were taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and killed by shooting.