\nAfter the Nazis came to power, Mary\u2019s life was slowly dismantled. She was banned from school trips, later expelled from school entirely, and eventually forced to wear the yellow star. Her mother died of cancer in 1938, and her father passed away in 1941. As an only child, Mary was left completely alone. The city that once nurtured her had become a trap.<\/p>\n
A Life-Altering Decision<\/strong> So begins one of the most extraordinary survival stories of the Holocaust \u2014 not in a concentration camp, but right under the nose of the Nazi regime.<\/p>\n Living Under a False Identity<\/strong> A Daily Battle with Fear<\/strong> But she survived. Without family, money, or a home, Mary lived thanks to her resourcefulness and the kindness of a few. She never gave in.<\/p>\n A New Life, A Long-Held Secret<\/strong> After her death in 1998, her family discovered the tapes. They were edited and published in 2014 as the book “Untergetaucht” (“Underground” or “Submerged”), based on 77 audio recordings Mary had made.<\/p>\n A Bestseller That Moved a Nation<\/strong> In the fall of 1941, at the age of 18 and a half, Mary Jalowicz Simon stepped off the tram that was supposed to take her to a forced labor camp. She never returned home, and she would not use her real name again for years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":20694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2277,88],"tags":[4721,2116,2872,4725,2744,3017,4726],"class_list":["post-20693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-history","category-will-remember","tag-berlin","tag-holocaust","tag-holocaust-survivor","tag-life-story","tag-nazis","tag-remembrance","tag-survivor-testimony"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIn October 1941, Mary received a summons for forced labor \u2014 a death sentence in disguise. She boarded the tram as instructed but slipped away mid-route. It was the last time she used her real name. \u201cI want to live,\u201d she told herself \u2014 and chose to disappear.<\/p>\n
\nMary adopted the name Marianne Sch\u00fcler, a fully German-sounding name, and began living under an assumed identity. Armed only with fake papers, altered clothing, a timid expression, and raw courage, Mary evaded detection. She moved from hiding place to hiding place \u2014 sometimes sleeping in stairwells, occasionally lucky enough to find an old sofa for the night.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fake-id.avif\")
\nMary took any job she could find \u2014 as a secretary, housemaid, or factory worker. Each day brought the risk of discovery and death. She carefully mimicked the behavior of German women and never missed a detail. When a policeman or official passed nearby, her heart raced. A single misstep could be fatal.<\/p>\n
\nAfter the war, Mary reclaimed her name and returned to Berlin. She enrolled in university, became a philosophy professor, and lived a quiet life. For decades, she didn\u2019t speak about her wartime experience. Only in her final years, during the 1990s, did she begin recording her memories.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/book-cover.webp\")
\nThe book became a bestseller in Germany and Mary\u2019s story received wide attention across Europe. Though it lacks the imagery of concentration camps and barbed wire, it is a powerful testament to the courage of one young woman who chose life \u2014 in the very heart of Nazi Berlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"