Abraham Adolf Kaiser
Abraham Adolf Kaiser (born March 6, 1874 in Herlinghausen ; died 1942 in the Riga Ghetto ) from Duisburg was a German Jew who opposed National Socialism in Germany .
Life
During the Olympic Games in Berlin , which were supposed to contribute to the recognition of the Nazi system abroad, on August 6, 1936, Kaiser wrote an anonymous letter to the American sprinter Jesse Owens , signed "civis german" (a German citizen) . According to the Gestapo report , which allegedly found a copy during the search of Kaiser’s apartment , the letter described Germany as “a country of barbarian rule and terror,” “in which criminals were at the helm, two million political prisoners languished and German judges compliant executioners of the rulers ”. Kaiser asked Owens "to throw the gold Olympic medal at the blood man Adolf Hitler's feet and ostentatiously leave to give these murderers and barbarians a lesson for their arrogance." In court, Kaiser pointed out that he was hoping for such an action from the negro Owens, since he was also being denounced as a non-Aryan .
It is not known how the Gestapo identified Kaiser as the sender of the letter. Kaiser was sentenced to eighteen months in prison on October 2, 1936 by a special court in Düsseldorf for the letter. After the night of the pogrom in November 1938, Kaiser, like many Jews, was placed in protective custody ; he was held in Dachau concentration camp for eight months . When the Jewish star was introduced in autumn 1941 , Kaiser refused to wear the symbol on his clothing. He was arrested again in October 1941 and deported to Riga on January 13, 1942 , where the bulk of the German Jews deported there became victims of the Holocaust .
Nothing is known about the further fate of the Kaiser.
Stumbling blocks in Duisburger Mainstrasse 15 remind of Abraham Kaiser and Mathilde Kaiser.
literature
- Julius H. Schoeps : Was there a Jewish resistance? Defense strategies against Hitler and the Nazi terror . Lecture on July 18, 1997 in the Henning-von-Tresckow-Kaserne, Potsdam German Resistance Memorial Center (PDF; 75 kB) ( Memento from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- L. Joseph Heid : Hitler abused the Olympic spirit , Die Welt , July 30, 2011
Web links
- Kaiser, Adolf Abraham , in: Gedenkbuch - Victims of the persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist tyranny 1933–1945
Individual evidence
- ↑ Owens was a four-time Olympic champion
- ↑ Quotations from Schoeps
- ↑ Jenny Bühning, Kurt Walter: stumbling blocks in Duisburg II , fbw-Duisburg ( Memento of 8 March 2012 at the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kaiser, Abraham Adolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resister against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Herlinghausen |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1942 |
| Place of death | Riga ghetto |