Stella Goldschlag was a Jewish woman in wartime Berlin who became one of the Gestapo’s most feared informants. Known as the “Blonde Poison,” she helped hunt Jews hiding from the Third Reich after German officers threatened her parents’ lives. Her story raises haunting questions about survival, betrayal, coercion, and moral responsibility during the Holocaust, revealing one of the most disturbing gray areas of World War II.
0:00 Intro
1:03 Stella’s early life
2:38 Jews hiding in Berlin
3:28 Captured by the Gestapo
5:24 Saving her parents
7:02 Becoming a Greifer
8:44 How Stella hunted Jews
11:18 The promise collapses
13:02 Doubts, sabotage and survival
14:08 Postwar capture and trials
16:16 Monster or victim?
Sources
Goldschlag, Stella. The True Story of the Woman Who Betrayed Fellow Jews During WWII. YouTube, uploaded by YouTube, 9 Aug. 2020
Kasindorf, Jeanie. “Woman Labeled ‘Blonde Poison’ Is Freed from Prison.” Los Angeles Times, 21 Dec. 1992
Marcuse, Harold. Jewish Life in Nazi Berlin: Stella Goldschlag. University of California, Santa Barbara
“Stella Goldschlag.” TracesOfWar.com
“The True Story of the Woman Who Betrayed Fellow Jews During WWII.” Grunge, 14 Apr. 2021
Subscribe and turn on your notifications so you don’t miss future uploads!
https://www.youtube.com/UNPACKED?sub_confirmation=1
Recommended video – Did Jews Fight Back Against the Nazis? https://youtu.be/AxcxLnszte4?si=qTf_FRnhqm3zTWaS
We have merch! – http://shop.Unpacked.media/?utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=video-description&utm_campaign=merch
Let’s connect:
Website — https://www.Unpacked.media
Instagram — /unpackedmedia
Twitter — /unpackedmedia
TikTok — /unpackedmedia
Facebook — /unpackedmedia
——
Image and footage credits:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
Leo Baeck Institute, New York
Arolsen Archives — International Center on Nazi Persecution
Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv
Landesarchiv Berlin
Jüdisches Museum Berlin / Jewish Museum Berlin
Yellow star of the Lehmann family, Berlin, 1941–1945 — Jewish Museum Berlin, acc. 2000/265/5, gift of Roselotte Winterfeldt, née Lehmann; photo by Roman März
Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
National Archives and Records Administration
Prelinger Archives / Internet Archive
Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927), directed by Walter Ruttmann
Gedenkstätte Stille Helden / German Resistance Memorial Center
Warsaw Ghetto footage, 1942 — Bundesarchiv
——
With Assistance from Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance
Executive Producers:
Michael Steinhardt
Co-Executive Producers:
Marc Shmuel Levine
Iris & Shalom Maidenbaum
Gold Level:
The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life
———–
Translation credits:
Portuguese: Saymon Pires
About Explainers: From ancient Jewish traditions to the modern State of Israel, we explain it all. Diving into anything and everything related to Jewish culture, history, and even religion.
Understand Jewish holidays, Israeli politics, Jewish diasporic communities, and more. Learn about Judaism in pop culture, debunking myths about Jews, and explore obscure Israeli landmarks. We’re asking questions as basic as “What is the Talmud?”, and as obscure as “How did hip-hop boost Kosher wine sales?”, and everything in between.
About Unpacked: We provide nuanced insights by unpacking all things Jewish. People are complex and complicated — yet we’re constantly being pushed to oversimplify our world. At Unpacked we know that being complex makes us more interesting. Because of this, we break the world down with nuance and insight to drive your curiosity and challenge your thinking.
#germany #wwii #jewishhistory
35 Comments
It's not her fault it's the indoctrination of the system
Here is a Food for Thought: There were Jews corroborating with Nazis Against its Own Jewish People. “Measure the Person, Not the Religion, Ethnicity, Race, Politics, etc.”. Simple. 😳😳🤔🤔👌👍🏾✌️🙏😉
This is nothing new, especially for someone Aryan- paying: like light- skinned/Anglo-passing biracial who were slave owners.
You don't blame the victim. But you do.
A tragic story, but unfortunately not unique. The few Jews that collaborated with Nazis are a reminder of how important it is to give children a proper Jewish education.
Jewish law is very clear on this issue, you can't particapte in murder to save a life. Even if the life of your child, G-d forbid, is being threatened, you can't murder someone else to save their life. In addition, the prohibition against informing on another Jew, which is a capital crime under Jewish law, is also something that any religious Jew understands.
It's no surprise that the vast majority of Jewish collaborators were secular Jews with almost no Torah education.
There are never clear lines of distinction between enemies. Those who learn Torah correctly, and none of the rabbis did or do, do not create such terrible worlds for themselves in the first place.
I'm sorry but she was a monster.
Stella resembles the characters Albert Camus has written about.
I’m curious why her Berlin parents stayed after 35. Lots of German Jews got out.
I am not surprised.
She was a monster. She chose to betray her own people. She could have done what others did hide or fight instead she turned in her own people.
ב"ה
האם אתה מקבל את דברי דוד המלך או לא?
תהלה צ"א
they take both sides
During the days of torture, her mind was already disconnected, and really week.
You are loved and enough.
Brings to mind George Soros, another Jew who helped the Nazis. Soros became a currency trader and somehow wormed his way into the United States. The destroy from within, Fifth Columnist, odiferous personality of George didn’t take long to resurface after his relocation to the Western Hemisphere. Soros accumulated great wealth since like a cesspool the really big chunks always rise to the top. He uses his financial speculation grabbings to be a king maker by funding politicians who mostly have a soft on crime and an ‘America Last’ agenda.
So much ai and bs never trust a women until there dead 😊
Jewish text says "Do not judge anyone befor you have been in their shoes"… This is true. Yet I think she should have jumped out of that window. Helping the Gestapo find 600+ Jewish Men, woman and children, knowing they will be murdered, all to save herself and her parents is so morally wrong, she was clearly not an idiot, she knew how to survive, yet she took the nasty role of hunting her own people. I have some symapthy for her situation, yet what you described her actions were made me sick. I would prefer to die then let 600 Jewish people die just to stay alive…
The bigger story obviously is how cruel the Nazis were, using weakly moral Jews to hunt down other Jews. That's even more sick.
He got an easy d€@th for someone who committed those atrocities.
At the end of the day, her 10 years served in prison was nothing compared to the guilt and pain she had to live with every day of her life. Most people have done things they are ashamed of, but not many have been guilty of something as severe as what Stella Goldschlag did. Any one of us may have done the exact same thing under the same circumstances. It's one of those things we can never know about, without actually being in her shoes.
Thank you for your excellent research.
This is exactly the tactics & schemes used by the IRGC in Iran to identify & entrap freedom fighters.
The world remains Silent! 😢
She ended up committing suicide. She could not save her parents.
She was a fool to trust the devil.. she was really wicked to betray her community to the Gestapo. Good she was punished.
Many many Jewish people have fair hair & blue eyes. In my family everyone had these features!
Her own people 😮
what would you have done if you were in her shoes, what she did is normal
Crazy story, but all too common in times like wars. Beware of all traitors!
Stella's story is such a sad story. Let the one who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.
I heard that George Soros had helped the Nazis round up Jews in Hungary.
Let me explain… jewish people are divided on beliefs too. There were jews who absolutely 100% sided with the naxis and those who were 100% against them. There are jews 100% pro communism in America and those 100% against it. There are pros zionist jews and anti zionist jews.
No jew has one mindset and one set of ideas only.
There are religious jews and arheist jews. There are toeah jews and jews for jesus there are rabbinical pharisee jews and jews that believe in Buddhism. There are jews that tuened muslim.
There are communist, fascist, christian, secular, etc etc etc.
Some are double and teiple agents.
Basically. Jews are people of verious individual thoughts and feelings and alignments… like every other group.
Ausome video!
I specialize in world war 2 Europe, and i think i herd of her once, but other than that, i've never come accross her.
Your telling of her story is excellent!
They gotta make a movie of this!
I think playing stella would be a dream role for so many actresses.
Stella is what's called in the literary world a, 'flawed hero'.
Yes, she's a villain, but that's the point, she's just trying to save her parents, and then daughter. And then just stay alive herself.
A sympathetic character.
Unless your Jewish. Then, of course, then you just hate her, which is fine.
But you told Stella's story in a way that we can see her point of view, and the horrible situation she was in.
But i think everything about her story was even worse. I believe, some SS guards sexually assaulted her when she was in a concentration camp, and after she was repeatedly broken, day after day, that's when she worked for the nazi's.
I also don't think she was, 'the best person in the world', and that's without her, 'jew hunting'.
But it's still an amazing story, that should be told
My mother was in Auschwitz and her parents were killed there. It was surprising to me to find out that my last name "Greifer", which means "Catcher" in German, was used in that way.
she's still alive and well today reporting on her sisters on YT and elsewhere who oppose Israel's ironic disregard for human life and decency.
She’s a self hating Jew.
😢
A Nazi yenta… Gestapo queen… revolting history yet to be expected…