Erika Heymann

In 1921, Erika Geck married Stefan Heymann, a veteran of the German Army in World War I and a communist.

The couple lived in Mannheim, were active in civic and labor union affairs, and contributed articles for the communist daily on topics ranging from politics to the performing arts.

In 1930, Stefan took a job with the communist newspaper Rote Fahne (Red Flag) as its editor in Berlin.

Erika took in several people she knew to be Jewish to live at the house: Erwin Geismar, Abraham "Appie" Keizer, and Hendrik "Henkie" Westermans, whose real name was Chanan Floersheim.

After the war, the Dutch resistance organization "Vrije Groupen Amsterdam" (VGA) issued a certificate that Erika had participated in various underground activities during the occupation.On 4 September 1943 Floersheim's relatives the Polaks (Frits, Berni and Ilse) arrived at the house at his suggestion because they had been forced to leave the place they were hiding.

The next day, German police, acting on a tip, raided the house, arresting the Polaks, Erwin Geismar, and Erika Heymann.

Chanan Floersheim escaped through Belgium and France into Spain, where he remained until 1944, eventually moving to British-controlled Palestine.

[5] Erika Heymann was sentenced to confinement through the end of the war for the crime of Judenhilfe, aiding Jews.

Erika was at Vught during the Bunker Tragedy of January 1944, during which 74 women were ordered by the camp commander into a cell measuring about 9 square meters.

A Dutch neurosurgeon who had assisted in removing a bullet from the brain of a high German officer was allowed to submit a list of prisoners to be released from Vught.

The Heymann family, at Floersheim's suggestion, applied to Yad Vashem to have Erika declared one of the "Righteous Among the Nations"; this was granted in 2010.