Alfred Eickworth

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Alfred Eickworth (born June 11, 1907 in Gablenz , † November 29, 1943 in Karpathos ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Monument created by his son Hans in memory of the victims of National Socialism

Eickworth grew up in the community of Gablenz near the Saxon town of Crimmitschau and worked here as a locksmith , weaver and hairdresser . In 1931 he first became a member of SAP , but switched to the KPD the following year . He eventually became the local KPD chairman and, after the National Socialists came to power in 1933 and 1934, actively organized the resistance in the Crimmitschau area. The resistance movement, also known as the Alfred Eickworth Group , was finally crushed in April 1934. A total of 165 people were arrested in this context, including Alfred Eickworth, who was sentenced to two years in prison.

After Alfred Eickworth was drafted into the notorious Penal Division 999 in Greece at the beginning of February 1943 , he deserted on the island of Karpathos in autumn 1943 in order to reach local partisans . He was seriously wounded and subsequently died of the injuries. A young Greek who helped Eickworth escape was subsequently tortured to death. Eickworth's tomb on Karpathos has existed to the present day and is tended by locals.

During the GDR era , a monument with a bust of Alfred Eickworth in his home town of Gablenz, which is now part of Crimmitschau, commemorated him. In addition, today's Gablenzer Hauptstrasse and the local Polytechnic Oberschule (POS) bore his name. After the fall of the Wall , the Gablenz Eickworth memorial was demolished and the street renamed. The Gablenz-born writer and politician Gerhard Zwerenz addressed this critically in his 2004 work Slavonic Language and Revolt, the Bloch Circle and its Enemies in East and West in a separate chapter.

His son was the sculptor Hans Eickworth (1930–1995).

literature

  • Wolfgang Gärtner: The anti-fascist resistance 1933/34 in the Crimmitschau area. (The Alfred Eickworth Group) . Ed .: SED district leadership Werdau. Commission for the Study of the History of the Local Labor Movement. 1977.
  • Gerhard Zwerenz: slave language and revolt, the Bloch circle and its enemies in east and west. Schwarzkopff Buchwerke, Hamburg / Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-937738-11-6 .
  • Gerhard Zwerenz: The missing monument . On Friday March 6, 2005

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c Gerhard Zwerenz: " The disappeared monument " in Friday , March 6, 2005
  2. ^ Entry in the person wiki of the SLUB Dresden ( memento from June 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 16, 2016
  3. ↑ From the history of the city of Crimmitschau , accessed on June 16, 2016
  4. ↑ Gerhard Zwerenz: " The defense of Saxony and why Karl May loved the Indians " at www.poetenladen.de, accessed on June 16, 2016
  5. ↑ Chapter: The missing monument
personal data
SURNAME Eickworth, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter and communist
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Gablenz (Crimmitschau)
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1943
Place of death Karpathos