Mirjam Heydorn was born on July 20, 1954, in Hamburg, the daughter of Irmgard Heydorn (née Hose) and Heinz-Joachim Heydorn.
Both parents, born in 1916, were active in the resistance against National Socialism. From 1936 until 1945, Irmgard Heydorn worked illegally in the banned International Socialist Combat League (ISK), a group of ethical socialists in Hamburg.
Heinz-Joachim Heydorn joined the Confessing Church in 1934, establishing contacts with the Czech resistance. He wrote for the political exile circles around Breitscheid and Münzenberg in Paris, transported information, later deserted from the Wehrmacht, and was sentenced to death in absentia while in hiding.
Mirjam Heydorn became a lawyer, long representing restitution claims in the new federal states relating to Jewish property confiscated under the Nazis.
Since the death of her mother—who herself had spoken in schools as a witness—Mirjam has worked publicly on her parents’ history, the legacy of resistance, and the transgenerational consequences and traumas. She also does so because resistance in Germany is often overlooked, to preserve the narrative that “there was no other choice.”