Lisa Fittko was a young woman who lived through the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 occupation of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

For her bravery and actions during the occupation she is considered an "invisible hero of resistance."

Lisa Fittko's life was formed in her work in the underground resistance of Nazi-occupied Europe. She came to international recognition over forty years later through her two widely-translated memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

s, in which she describes her actions (considered inspirational by many who read about them) in the voice of a fearless young woman, a bohemian, an activist. It is, however, a voice altogether lacking in self-glorification or self-pitying victimization. Her bravery in leading refugees, including many famous intellectuals and members of the anti-Hitler resistance from Nazi-occupied France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 across the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

 into Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, brought her international fame.

Perhaps the best-known refugee she was able to help was Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...

, who reached Portbou

Portbou

Portbou is a town in the Alt Empordà county, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. It has a population of 1,307 people.- Overview :It is located near the French border in the Costa Brava region, and frequently serves as a dropping off point for SNCF trains coming from Cerbère in France.Portbou...

, Spain with her help in September 1940. Benjamin was found dead in the small hotel in the border town of Port-Bou where they arrived on the morning after the Spanish police threatened to turn the small group of émigré

Émigré

Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....

s he was with back. The rest of Fittko's group was subsequently allowed to proceed. According to Fittko, Walter Benjamin carried with him a heavy briefcase which he claimed to be more important than his life. This story, a sensational discovery for his close collaborators and friends, was not confirmed by other accounts, causing some controversy. Authorities such as Chimen Abramsky, who was among the first to hear the story and from Fittko herself, give Fittko's account credibility. A briefcase was mentioned in the Spanish police records, but its contents are not described there. Speculations as to what may have been inside the briefcase have been the subject of scholarly articles and artistic works inspired by Benjamin's story and Lisa Fittko's account of it in her books.

Lisa Fittko was born into an international Jewish family (Simon

Simon

Simon is a common name, from Hebrew meaning "He who has heard/hears [the word of God]".Simon may also refer to:-Names:* Simon , including a list of people with the given name Simon...

, Ekstein. Her large family was active in many spheres of cultural and economic life of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. One branch of her family was active in the Czech National Movement, others were prominent industrialists and patrons of the arts. Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...

, the "Waltz King" was an in-law, and she grew up in the company of her aunt Malva Schalek

Malva Schalek

Malva Schalek, aka Malvina Schalková , was an Czech-Jewish painter.-Life:Malva Schalek was born in Prague, to a German-speaking Jewish intellectual family active in the Czech national movement. She went to school in Prague, Vrchlabi , and began to study art, first at the Frauenakademie in Munich ...

. After her family moved to Berlin, she witnessed the Nazi rise to power, and became involved in anti-fascist politics. She worked as an underground resistance fighter in Berlin, Prague (where she met her husband and comrade Hans Fittko, Zurich, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles and finally, in the Pyrenees.

With her husband Hans, she escaped to Cuba, and from there entered the United States. She died in Chicago at the age of 95. She was remarkably clear of thought for her age. Here excerpt from the obituary in the New York Times, March 21, 2005.:

Ms. Fittko emerged from a leftist, artistic family to become active in the resistance to Hitler in the early months of his rule, then fled to continue the fight in other European countries for seven years. For seven tense months in 1940 and 1941, she escorted refugees on a tortuous path over the Pyrenees mountains so they could go on to Spanish and Portuguese ports to seek passage to safe havens. Many of the people she helped were intellectuals, artists and anti-Nazi organizers.

Catherine Stodolsky

Catherine Stodolsky

Catherine Sylvie Stodolsky was a American Jewish historian and teacher whose PhD thesis was about German female schoolteachers in the 1800s...

's biographical information on her aunt http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~catherine.stodolsky/lisa/lisa.html is the best source for a full historical account of Lisa's life:

Literature

• Lisa Fittko, Escape through the Pyrenees. Northwestern University Press
  Northwestern University Press
  Northwestern University Press is the university press of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.- History :Northwestern University Press was founded in 1893, at first specializing in legal periodicals. Today, the Press publishes scholarly books of fiction, non-fiction, and literary...
  
  , ISBN 0810118033.
• Lisa Fittko, Solidarity and Treason: Resistance and Exile,1933-1940, translated by Roselyn Theobald in collaboration with the author Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press
  Northwestern University Press
  Northwestern University Press is the university press of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.- History :Northwestern University Press was founded in 1893, at first specializing in legal periodicals. Today, the Press publishes scholarly books of fiction, non-fiction, and literary...
  
  , 1993

External links

• Lisa Fittko's Obituary in the New York Times
• Lisa Fittko Page with Biographical Essay by Catherine Stodolsky
• "In Memoriam: Lisa Fittko, Holocaust Rescue Activist", by Rafael Medoff
• Page Dedicated to Lisa Fittko at the Varian Fry Institute
• Lisa Fittko on the Women Living with War website

Concerning the Controversy about Walter Benjamin's briefcase"

• Chimen Abramsky in the London Review of Books