Anna Proell

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Anna Proell (* 12. June 1916 in Pfersee as Anna Nolan ; † 28. May 2006 in Augsburg ) was a German resistance fighter in the era of National Socialism . As a teenager she was active in the Augsburg resistance and was sentenced in 1934 for “preparation for high treason” to a total of 21 months in prison. After she was released, she was sent to a concentration camp as a protective prisoner . Anna Pröll stood up to old age as one of the last survivors of the Augsburg resistance for anti-fascism and democracy, was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2002 and was the first female honorary citizen of Augsburg in 2003 .

Life

Memorial plaque for Anna Pröll in Augsburger Strasse in Pfersee

Her conviction was already shaped by her family: Anna Nolan experienced the arrest of her father and mother. In 1931, 15-year-old Anna joined the Communist Youth Association (KJVD) after she had picked up her father Karl Nolan from a KPD meeting and heard a speech there about the working conditions of women in Augsburg. When Anna's mother, Rosa Nolan , was arrested as a member of the Red Aid in 1933 , “our political work came to a standstill ... We boys, we had already carried out police interrogations. So one was already prepared that this could happen. Then, as my parents were arrested, every day after work I stood in front of the Katzenstadel, where my mother was imprisoned. ”Karl Nolan had been a war participant in the First World War. He had experienced so terrible things there that peace work became the most important part of his life alongside work in gymnastics and sports clubs. In 1932 he distributed leaflets against the war and was reported by a soldier for this. Nolan was sentenced to one year in prison for "decomposing the Wehrmacht". In 1932 he had to begin his sentence.

Anna Nolan was one of the most important figures in the group of young people who tried to resist in Augsburg. One of the leaflets distributed in Oberhausen in 1933 read: “Proleten! Comrades in arms! Murder fascism rages on inexorably. The vulture of capitalism claims new victims every day. 50,000 revolutionary workers languish in prison. Do you want to leave them exposed to the fascist tyrants like fair game? Workers out! Don't tolerate it any longer. It is blood of your blood. So fight with us communists! "Anna Pröll said in 1999:" You had a different language than today - we wanted to shake people up. "

In September 1933 the Augsburg youth group was blown up. Nevertheless, young people found again in the city who were not deterred by the brutality of the police and the SS and carried on with the work. Meanwhile, word of the atrocities in the Dachau concentration camp had got around. It was known that the Augsburg KPD chief Leonhard Hausmann had been murdered by the SS guard Ehmann. The circle of young resistance members expanded. They were also recruited from socialist and Christian groups.

In June 1934 Anna Nolan, her resistance group and Anna's father Karl, who had since been released from prison, were brought to justice. Father and daughter were convicted of "preparing to commit high treason". 17-year-old Anna was sentenced to a total of 21 months in prison in Aichach women's prison. When she made unauthorized contact with a comrade there, she was punished with dark detention . After her release she was put into “ protective custody ” like all politically convicted people and taken to the Moringen concentration camp . She was the youngest of the political prisoners in the Moringen concentration camp. She survived only with the help of the women who were also captured. “The mutual solidarity in the camp shaped me for my whole life,” she reported.

The women were later transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp . Anna Nolan was released beforehand. Heinrich Himmler had visited the Moringen concentration camp and asked Anna: “What do you think of our Third Reich?” Anna Nolan replied: “I only got to know the worst side of it.” She was released anyway. The only reason: she was blonde and had blue eyes.

From now on she had to report to the police in Augsburg every day. Her private life was also constantly monitored and spied on by neighbors on behalf of the police. She married Josef Pröll, who had been in a concentration camp for several years. The police had banned the wedding. Josef Pröll was arrested again on September 1, 1939 and spent more than eight years in various concentration camps. His two brothers Fritz Pröll and Alois Pröll died a violent death in the Dachau and Dora concentration camps .
Anna's father Karl Nolan was murdered at the age of 39 in the Dachau concentration camp .

Anna Pröll stood up well into old age as one of the last survivors of the Augsburg resistance for anti-fascism and democracy in Augsburg. She was a long-time member of the VVN-BdA . Because of their merits, the chairman of the Israelite religious community, Gernot Römer, and the historian Annette Eberle, on the occasion of Anna Pröll's 80th birthday in 1996 , suggested that the then Mayor Peter Menacher ( CSU ) be awarded honorary citizenship . This was rejected at the time.
The documentary film Anna, I'm Afraid for You by her son Josef Pröll and Wolfgang Kucera, which describes Anna Pröll's life from 1916 onwards, made her courageous life so well known that she was told by the then Mayor of Augsburg, Paul Wengert ( SPD ), in 2003 but was honored as an honorary citizen of the city of Augsburg. She is the first woman in 215 years to be awarded honorary citizenship in Augsburg.

One year before the honor in Augsburg, Anna Pröll was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on September 10, 2002 in the Bavarian State Chancellery in Munich . The Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber (CSU) presented the certificate. Anna Pröll said she only accepted the award as a tribute to those who did not survive the concentration camps. On behalf of the camp community Ravensbrück / Freundeskreis (LGRF), its chairwoman Rosel Vadehra-Jonas congratulated her . Among other things, she said: "This award is an appreciation of your long and self-sacrificing fight against fascism and your tireless commitment against oblivion."

Anna Pröll died two weeks before her ninetieth birthday on May 28, 2006. On November 1, 2008, a plaque with a quote from Anna Pröll was put up at the house where she was born at Augsburger Strasse 5 in Pfersee: “I want the children to be without fear the future can grow up. People should never again have to suffer war or fascism . "

In 2018 a school in Gersthofen was named after Anna Pröll.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ VVN / BdA Augsburg - Anni Pröll. In: vvn-augsburg.de. September 10, 2002, accessed March 7, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Source: Interview Anna Pröll 1999, Archive Josef Pröll
  3. ^ Archives Josef Pröll
  4. ↑ Bay court records. State Archives Munich
  5. ^ Quote from Anna Pröll: Interview 1999; Archive Pröll
  6. ^ Source: Word protocol, Himmler in the Moringen concentration camp
  7. ↑ Sources: Int. Red Cross Arolsen
  8. ↑ Echo des Inrechts , Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 1, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Proell, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nolan, Anna (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter in the time of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Augsburg-Pfersee
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 2006
Place of death Augsburg-Pfersee