Born: 5 November 1921, Germany
Died: 4 March 1943
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: Marianna/Marianne Prager
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Marianne Joachim (born Marianna/Marianne Prager) was a Jewish German resistance activist during the Nazi era, actively involved with the “Prenzlauer Berg Antifascist Group” (Antifaschistischen Gruppe im Prenzlauer Berg Berlin / AGiP).
The most renowned action of the Baum group, to which she belonged, took place on May 18, 1942, with an arson attack targeting the “Soviet Paradise” exhibition in Berlin’s “Lustgarten” pleasure park. This exhibition aimed to showcase the “poverty, misery, depravity, and need” in the “Jewish Bolshevist Soviet Union.” While the physical damage from the arson attack was relatively minor, the news of it had a significant and enduring impact.
Marianne’s dedication led to her arrest in June, and she was executed by decapitation at Plötzensee on March 4, 1943.