workingclasshistory:

On this day, 31 March 1945 Latvian socialist, nun, poet and French resistance activist Maria Skobtsova died in Ravensbrück concentration camp. She was involved in the Russian revolution, and later planned to assassinate Bolshevik Leon Trotsky for repressing the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, but was dissuaded by colleagues. When the counter-revolutionary White Army took over her town, they put on trial for being a Bolshevik. Fortunately for her she knew the judge and was acquitted. She later moved to Paris and turned her rented house into a “convent” which helped refugees and the needy. After the Nazi takeover the convent began to provide baptism certificates for Jews fleeing the Holocaust, gave them shelter and helped many leave the country. Eventually the house was shut down by the Gestapo. Maria, her mother, son and the chaplain were all arrested. Maria was gassed at Ravensbrück on Holy Saturday, 1945. https://ift.tt/2U7rWHa