August Kraak

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August Kraak , (born January 26, 1902 in Fritzen ; † June 5, 1947 in Emden ) was a German communist resistance fighter against National Socialism and an interbrigadist .

Life

During the global economic crisis , the seaman August Kraak came to Emden from his home in the Königsberg area (East Prussia). There he became politically active in 1930, he joined the KPD . After the seizure of power of the NSDAP and its German national allies he helped political refugees to cross the nearby border to the Netherlands. But he was arrested as early as the spring of 1933. He was taken to a concentration camp in " protective custody " and was severely tortured . However, he was released at the end of October. Kraak went back to Emden. From there he organized political contacts to Oldenburg, Bremen and to Danish and other Scandinavian ports. It was about the protection of comrades, the distribution of illegal documents and the removal of endangered people from Leer, Oldenburg or Emden to the Netherlands. Kraak escaped a wave of arrests by fleeing to Delfzijl . Here he worked with the International Red Aid . After Francist troops tried to overthrow the Popular Front government in Spain , he organized donations to anti-fascists fighting there and finally joined the International Brigades himself in December 1936 . This was followed by missions in the Ernst Thälmann Battalion on the Jarama Front, among others . With the victory of the Francists, Kraak had to flee to France. There he was interned in the Saint-Cyprien transit camp , then in the Gurs and Argelès-sur-Mer camps and finally in the fortress of Mont-Louis . From there he fled at the end of 1940. In deep illegality he made his way to unoccupied France and reached Toulouse in April of the following year, from where the illegal party organization sent him to Septfonds . There he was arrested a little later by the authorities of the Vichy regime , after a few weeks transferred to Montauban , capital of the Tarn-et-Garonne department , and sentenced to three years in prison. He appealed, the verdict had to be changed in his favor and he was released in February 1942. Arrested again, he fled again and lived in the forest until 1943. From May 1944 he worked in Colomiers with the Resistance against the German occupation . After the end of the Nazi regime, he returned to Emden, suffering from tuberculosis , where he died of his illness.

Honors

Web links

Literature (selection)

  • Werner Abel / Enrico Hilbert with the assistance of Harald Wittstock, Friedrich Villis and Dieter Nelles, “You will not get through”. Germans on the side of the Spanish Republic and the social revolution, Lich 2015
  • Rien Dijkstra, Cross-Border Antifascism 1933–1945. A stumbling block for Little August, in: Fighters and Friends of the Spanish Republic 1936–1939, June 14, 2017, [3]
  • Gottfried Hammacher, Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement, Berlin 2005
  • University of Oldenburg, Under the tyranny of National Socialism, Oldenburg 1985
  • Heinz Schramm, obituary for August Kraak, in: Tribüne der Demokratie in Norddeutschland published organ of the KPD, 1 (1947), No. 20.
  • Ruud Weijdeveld (red.), Rode Hulp De opvang van Duitse vluchtelingen in Groningerland - 1933–1940, Groningen 1986
  • Ruud Weijdeveld, Het communistische verzet in Groningen - 1940–1945, Bedum 2014
  • Hans-Gerd Wendt, In memory of August Kraak, in: [4]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rien Dijkstra, Border Crossing Antifascism 1933–1945. A stumbling block for Little August, in: Fighters and Friends of the Spanish Republic 1936-1939, June 14, 2017, [1] .
  2. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, all information is based on: A stumbling block for “Little August”. Cross-border anti-fascism. Remembrance of the Spaniard Kraak, in: Junge Welt, June 14, 2017, p. 15.
  3. ↑ On the tribune of democracy see: The Resistance. Willy Hundertmark is dead, in: taz, December 18, 2002, see: [2] .
personal data
SURNAME Kraak, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION anti-fascist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Fritzen
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1947
Place of death Emden