Arthur May (resistance fighter)

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Stumbling block Arthur May in Aachen

Ernst Arthur Robert May (born December 21, 1902 in Veilsdorf Monastery ; † June 22, 1933 in Bourheim ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . As a trained journalist , he was most recently editor-in-chief of the Aachener Arbeiter Zeitung and a functionary in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He is considered one of the early victims of the fascist dictatorship. In memory of him, a stumbling block was laid by the artist Gunter Demnig on February 6, 2019 at his last residence in Aachen .

Live and act

The son of basket maker Franz Friedrich May (1874–1918) and factory worker Hedwig Antonie Alma, née Bohsecker (* 1882), grew up in Coburg . After the First World War he moved to Cologne , where he first joined the SPD and later switched to the KPD. From 1928 he worked under Wilhelm Pinnecke and Ismar Heilborn as an editor for the Socialist Republic , the KPD's daily newspaper for Cologne and the surrounding area.

In the summer of 1932 May moved to Aachen and became editor-in-chief of the Aachener Arbeiter-Zeitung, which appeared as the head page of the KPD newspaper Sozialistische Republik in Cologne and was printed and published by Colonia-Verlag in Cologne, with only the local section from the editorial office in Aachen was created by myself. In addition, May took over the political leadership of the sub-district Aachen Stadt und Land of the KPD and appeared as a counter-speaker at many National Socialist events .

He came increasingly in the sights of the National Socialists, especially since the seizure of power by Adolf Hitler on January 30, 1933. First of all, the Aachener Arbeiter-Zeitung was banned with effect from February 21, 1933, making May unemployed. He and other comrades tried to reorganize the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) and the Fighting League Against Fascism (KgdF), but the actors did not succeed in anything more than conspiratorial meetings. May himself was now under surveillance and was at constant risk of arrest. As a result, he could no longer stay in his registered apartment at Muffeter Weg 57 and was finally arrested on June 16, 1933 in a hiding place in Alsenstrasse. He was interrogated and severely tortured at the headquarters of the Prussian police authority in the Yellow Barracks in Aachen. At the request of the SS-Sturmbannführer Erwin Rösener, who was active in Aachen, May was to be brought to Jülich for further interrogation and an alleged confrontation with witnesses . The police leadership then handed May , who was in protective custody, to two SS men who were supposed to transfer him to the Jülich citadel .

The transport was carried out in an open vehicle on the night of June 21st to June 22nd, 1933. Shortly after midnight and before arrival, the prisoner "alleged" attempted to escape near the Jülich district of Bourheim, whereupon he was immediately shot.

A first investigation into murder against the shooters was "allegedly" abandoned in 1933 due to a lack of evidence. Due to a complaint from the KPD Jülich from 1946, the May case was finally heard again in 1954 before the Aachen jury court. The basis of the procedure was the accidental discovery of a leaflet by the KPD with the title “A Martyr of the Social Revolution. Arthur May murdered! ”, Which claims that May was shot at very close range, that his body was covered with bloodshot welts, his head and face were horribly gashed out and his eyes were gouged out. These claims were based on photographs of the corpse that had been unofficially exhumed a few weeks after his death and brought to Holland for assessment. She was then buried again in Bourheim.

These leaflets were distributed in Aachen, Cologne and Stolberg in 1933, of which the GeStaPo was able to collect more than 700 copies. Although the evidence again clearly indicated murder, one of the SS men involved was acquitted during the trial in 1954, and the second alleged perpetrator had since died. In both legal proceedings, the officially involved police officers, doctors and judges were closely linked to National Socialism and were members of various party organizations.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stumbling block for Aachen resistance fighter Arthur May , press release from the Bertram Wieland Archive of February 1, 2019
  2. ↑ Arbeiter Zeitung No. 218 of September 30, 1932. In: Stadtarchiv Düren, holdings of the district archive, file L 34
  3. ^ Albert Kirschgens, Gerd Spelsberg: Unity instead of law and freedom: Aachen 1933 , publisher: Alano, 1983, ISBN 3-924007-00-4 , p. 112/113 and p. 157
  4. ↑ Jürgen Küppers: Workers Resistance and Persecution in the Border Region 1933–1945 , research work as a student at RWTH 1981, Aachen 1983, pp. 18–20
  5. ^ Horst Wallraff: National Socialism in the Düren and Jülich districts . Hahne & Schloemer, Düren 2000, p. 184.
  6. ^ Elmar Gasten: Aachen in the time of the National Socialist rule: 1933-1944 , Verlag Peter Lang 1993, ISBN 3-631-45697-2 , p. 15 and p. 86/87
  7. ↑ The German people accuse : Hitler's war against the peace fighters in Germany , Éditions du Carrefour, 1936, p. 261
  8. ↑ Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933-1945) , Verlag Mainz 2003, ISBN 978-3-86130-181-3 , p. 239
  9. ↑ Shots near Bourheim - The murder of Arthur May . Documentation on the project pages of the Bertram-Wieland-Archiv from February 25, 2016
  10. ^ Cologne, Aachen and Düren: Stolpersteine , published in the Porzer Illustrierte on April 26, 2016
  11. ^ Stefan Noethen: Old Comrades and New Colleagues - Police in North Rhine-Westphalia 1945–1953 . Verlag Klartext 2003, ISBN 3-89861-110-8 , pp. 325/326
personal data
SURNAME May, Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES May, Ernst Arthur Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, politician (KPD) and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Veilsdorf Monastery
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1933
Place of death Bourheim