Alfred Benjamin

Alfred Benjamin (born January 8, 1911 in Elberfeld , † September 1942 in France ) was a German anti-fascist and resistance fighter of the Resistance .

Life

Alfred Benjamin was the son of a Jewish iron trader. He learned the profession of a bank clerk. By studying Marxist writings in Düsseldorf he found his way to the labor movement . In 1930 he became a member of the KPD and the General Free Employees' Association . As a result of the global economic crisis , he too lost his job. In the KPD sub-district of Düsseldorf he then took on the preparation of information materials for the employees of large department stores and companies and he founded the cabaret group Kolonne Stehkragen , for which he wrote the lyrics mostly himself. In 1932 he was sentenced to prison for distributing leaflets.

In March 1933 he was taken into “ protective custody ” in the Düsseldorf penal institution (“Ulmer Höh”) and later transferred to the Esterwegen concentration camp . In December 1934 he was released. The Gestapo order to emigrate to Palestine . he did not follow. Instead he made contact with his comrades again and took part in the KPD's resistance struggle. When he was threatened with arrest, he emigrated to France in the summer of 1935 .

In September he was arrested by French police after speaking at a trade union meeting to call for solidarity with Alfred Kayser , who was sentenced to death in Germany . It was difficult to prevent his deportation to Spain . From 1936 he published the magazine Trait d'Union , with which the French workers were informed about the situation in Germany and the anti-fascist resistance struggle. He was also the editor of the KPD magazine Question and Answer .

In September 1939 he was interned by the French government. During the internment he married his partner Dora Davidsohn . In August 1942 he fled the labor camp in Chanac and had a fatal accident while trying to escape to Switzerland .

His name is listed in the memorial of the socialists in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde as a member of the anti-fascist resistance.

literature

• Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters 1933–1945. Biographies and letters. Dietz-Verlag: Berlin 1970, Volume 1, pp. 109-111
• Dora Schaul: Resistance - Memories of German members of the French Resistance and the "Free Germany" movement for the West. Dietz Verlag: Berlin 1973