Mathilde Jacob

Mathilde Jacob (8 March 1873 - 14 April 1943) was a German typist and translator who during the First World War became politically involved, working with the anti-war Spartacus League and as a founder member of the German Communist Party. She came to politics through her work for Rosa Luxemburg whose friend and close confidant she became. Although Mathilde Jacob continued to be politically engaged in the 1920s, her greater contributin to history comes from her having smuggled Luxemburg's letters and documents out of Luxemburg's prison cell during her friend's thirty month incarceration during 1916-1918. She then preserved much of Luxemburg's written legacy after the latter's murder.

By the time the Nazis took power early in 1933 Mathilde Jacob had for most purposes retired into obscurity, but her personal history of communist activism and her Jewishness nevertheless made her vulnerable. It is thought that she attempted to escape from Germany in 1936 but without success. In 1939 she did succeed in transferring some of the letters written to and by Rosa Luxemburg to the United States. She died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, having been arrested and deported at the end of July 1942. Following her death, the authorities attending to her estate recorded a claim from her landlord that she was liable to pay for some repairs on her apartment, also noting that rent on the property had not been received for three months.

Mathilde Jacob (* 8. März 1873 in Berlin; † 14. April 1943 im KZ Theresienstadt) war Übersetzerin und Stenotypistin. Als Sekretärin und enge Vertraute von Rosa Luxemburg schmuggelte sie deren Briefe und Manuskripte aus dem Gefängnis und rettete Teile deren Nachlasses.