 The objective was to preserve the memory of Nazi war crimes against comrades so as to inform future generations.It was in the course of her work for the Central Committee that Emmi Thoma came across Georg Handke whom she had last seen in September 1934 when the two of them were among those arrested for participating in an illegal political meeting.The two were married in 1947, united in their a commitment to building up what was relaunched, in October 1949, as the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).