Marie Jalowicz Simon

About the Author

Marie Jalowicz Simon was a pioneering scholar of ancient history and a survivor of the harrowing realities of Nazi Germany. Born in Berlin in 1922 to a Jewish family, she evaded deportation during World War II by going underground, relying on a network of ordinary Germans who hid her in plain sight. After the war, she pursued an illustrious academic career at Humboldt University, becoming one of the first female professors of classical studies in East Germany. In her later years, she recorded her wartime experiences in a series of interviews that formed the basis of her memoir, offering a raw, firsthand account of resilience and human kindness amid atrocity. Simon's work bridges personal testimony with scholarly insight, illuminating the complexities of survival and resistance.