Virtual Lunch & Learn: Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind: Resistance and Rescue in Nazi Berlin

The experience of blind people under Nazism is an important – though often overlooked – part of Holocaust history. In honor of Blindness Awareness Month, join us for a special virtual program presented by Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Director of Education, Leah Rauch, that will highlight the profound Upstanderism that one member of the blind community contributed in resistance to the Nazi regime. 

Otto Weidt’s Workshop was a small workshop that produced brushes and brooms in Nazi Berlin. Under the guise of making products essential to the war effort, Weidt, who was blind himself, employed Jewish workers who were mainly blind, visually impaired, and hearing impaired. The workshop not only provided a source of income and protection from deadly forced labor assignments, but once deportations began, Weidt secured false papers, food, and hiding places for those selected for deportation – including a hidden room in the workshop itself.   

Weidt was not able to save everyone from deportation, but never stopped trying to save lives, including an attempt to secure the release of one of his employees from a concentration camp.   

Free to the public. Reservations required.