Cato Bontjes van Beek Cato Bontjes van Beek ( November 14 , 1920 – August 5 , 1943 ) was a German member of the resistance against the Nazi regime . Early years . Born in Fischerhude near Bremen , Cato was the eldest of three children . She spent her childhood and youth in the Worpswede / Fischerhude artists ' colony near Bremen . Cato ' s parents , potter Jan Bontjes van Beek and dancer and painter Olga Bontjes van Beek ( née Breling ) offered their children no material wealth , but rather an abundance of artistic and mental stimulation , which had a decisive effect on the children . The family ' s political leanings were unequivocally anti - fascist . Cato did not join the " Bund Deutscher Mädel " . In 1939 , Helmut Schmidt , who would become chancellor of West Germany thirty years later , was stationed in Vegesack for his military service . During this time he had an intense friendship with Tim and Cato Bontjes van Beek and their families . Schmidt eventually broke off this friendship because of their contacts with the Red Orchestra resistance group . From 1940 on , Cato and her sister Mietje lived with their father in Berlin , where he had moved in 1933 in the hopes of spreading his artistic work . They met friends at their father ' s house who opposed the Nazi regime . Cato also learned her father ' s craft , and caused her schoolteacher some problems by being outspoken , at a time when the Nazis had just come to power . " Children , " he had intoned , even though he was not a Party member , " one cannot swim against the current . " Cato retorted , " But we " can ! " " Both sisters saw the wrong that the Nazis inflicted upon others , were affected by it , and tried to help . Beginning in 1941 , this included giving humanitarian aid to French prisoners of war . Both Cato and Mietje would go to the Lehrter Bahnhof , the railway terminal where the prisoners were often to be found , to hand out cigarettes and matches , exchange letters , and give the prisoners gifts of soap and glove s . Resistance activities . Van Beek ' s active work against the Nazis began in the Red Orchestra resistance organization after she had gotten to know Libertas Schulze - Boysen . After this group was broken up , she undertook further action together with Heinz Strelow . She printed and distributed illegal writings and leaflets which sought to arouse readers to the struggle and resistance against the Nazi regime . Van Beek was arrested by the Gestapo on 20 September 1942 in her father ' s pottery shop in Berlin . On 18 January 1943 , she was found guilty at the Reichskriegsgericht ( " Reich Military Tribunal " ) of " abetting a conspiracy to commit high treason " and sentenced to death . She was guillotined on 5 August 1943 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin . Cato ' s younger sister Mietje Bontjes van Beek managed to escape Nazi persecution , despite her activities , and is still alive and living in Fischerhude as of 2008 . Places named after Cato Bontjes van Beek . A " Gymnasium " in Achim , a town near Bremen , has since 1991 borne the name " Cato Bontjes van Beek - Gymnasium " . A street in nearby Fischerhude also bears her name , and an explanatory notice . Both these places are in the Verden district . Literature . Hermann Vinke : Cato Bontjes van Beek . ' Ich habe nicht um mein Leben gebettelt ' . Ein Porträt ( " I Did Not Beg for my Life " ; A Portrait ) . Zürich , Hamburg 2003 : Arche . ISBN 3 - 7160 - 2313 - 2 Heidelore Kluge : Cato Bontjes van beek . ' Ich will nur eins sein und das ist ein Mensch ' . ( I only want to be one thing - and that ' s a Human . ) Stuttgart 1995 : Urachhaus . ISBN 3 - 8251 - 7003 - 9