Hauptabteilungsleiterin Dr. Adelheid Petmecky

[Igor Karpov]

A photo of Dr. Adelheid Petmecky from my personal archive. So, enjoy, Torsten.

Regards,
Igor

[Heimatschuss]

Hello Igor,

many thanks for this information. I had never heard of this woman before but she seems to have run the office 'Frauen' in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Rosenberg Ministry) since 1941. Do you know anything more about her role in the Reichsfrauenführung? This is almost completely terra incognita for me after 1942.

Best regards
Torsten

[Igor Karpov]

Hello Igor,

many thanks for this information. I had never heard of this woman before but she seems to have run the office 'Frauen' in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Rosenberg Ministry) since 1941. Do you know anything more about her role in the Reichsfrauenführung? This is almost completely terra incognita for me after 1942.

Best regards
Torsten

Hi there, Torsten,

After studying law at the Universities of Köln and Bonn, she worked at the Academy of German Law, lavishly visited France, Switzerland and Spain, where she got acquainted with the activities of women's movements. Since 1936 she was engaged in the work in Reichsfrauenführung, later as Hauptabteilungsleiterin (but which Hauptabteilung?).

Regards,
Igor

[Boby]

She published 2 booklets in 1943:
- Bolschewistisches Frauenschicksal im Spiegel der Sowjetpresse und -gesetze
- Das rote kinderparadies

[Heimatschuss]

Hello,

many thanks for additional information, Igor & Boby. I've looked around a bit for her and found out she was born in 1908. According the the Berlin address books she lived in Berlin-Halensee, Albrecht-Achilles-Straße No.10 from 1941 - 1943 (last address book from WWII). Interestingly the address books give her profession as 'Reichsangestellte', i.e. Reich clerk but not as Reich official. Obviously even for a woman like her it was impossible to overcome the aversion of the Nazi establishment against granting women official status in key sectors like legal affairs and general public administration.

I'm not entirely sure about her first name though. For her 1934 doctoral thesis she used the name 'Adele Petmecky'. Her later essays on legal issues, foreign policy as well as mentionings of her travels in the press of other countries also all stick with 'Adele'.

Her two books on the Soviet Union give the author's name just as 'Dr. A. Petmecky' while a review of her book on Soviet women in the nazi magazine 'Die Innere Front' again uses 'Adele Petmecky'.

It seems the first time 'Adelheid' came up was in the list the Soviet occupation administration issued in 1946 for purging all German libraries from books the Soviets didn't like. From there 'Adelheid' seems to have migrated into numerous library catalogues as the author's full first name.

Best regards
Torsten

[phaase]

Dear Igor,

could you please tell me the source of the photo of Adelheid Petmecky?

Thank you very much,
phil

[hortones]

So she's one of the scientists who did bad stuff to Jews?

[Halfdan S.]

... later as Hauptabteilungsleiterin (but which Hauptabteilung?).

Push

There is a short bio on her here: https://ns-reichsministerien.de/2020/06 ... -petmecky/

[Igor Karpov]

There is a short bio on her here: https://ns-reichsministerien.de/2020/06 ... -petmecky/

Thanks, Halfdan.

Regards,
Igor