Ernst Wiechert

He incorporated his humanist ideals in his novels among which Das einfache Leben (The simple Life, 1939) and Die Jeromin-Kinder (The Jeromin children, 1945/47) are the best known today.

He appealed in 1933 and 1935 to the undergraduates in Munich to retain their critical thinking in relation to the national socialist ideology.

The minutes of the speech circulated illegally in Germany and reached Moscow in 1937 baked in bread.

But Wiechert went even further and dared to openly criticize the imprisonment of Martin Niemöller by the Nazis in 1938.

He wrote down his memories about his imprisonment and buried the manuscript; it was published in 1945 as Der Totenwald (Forest of the dead).