August Dickmann

August Dickmann (born January 7, 1910 in Dinslaken ; † September 15, 1939 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was the first conscientious objector to be executed under the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany during World War II .

Life

August Dickmann, after attending the elementary school in a sawmill . Around 1932 he began a Bible study with the Jehovah's Witnesses together with his brothers Heinrich and Fritz . All three remained missionary, even after the activities of the religious community were prohibited after the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933. After his brother Fritz had been sent to the Esterwegen concentration camp in 1935 , August Dickmann was arrested by the Gestapo in October 1936 and sentenced to prison. After the end of his imprisonment, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in October 1937. From March 1939, his brother Heinrich was also imprisoned there.

Conscientious objection

Years later, the political prisoner Willi Michalski quoted in a newspaper report from a speech by the camp commandant Hermann Baranowski about what happened in the camp four days after the start of the Second World War on September 1, 1939, after Dickmann's wife received her husband's military ID card , who first submitted it His home address had been forwarded to the camp: “On September 5th of this year, the prisoner Bible researcher August Dickmann was called to the political department of the camp to sign his military ID card. In misunderstanding the political situation of the Reich and the existing state of war, Dickmann did not sign despite the most emphatic advice. He went on to say that he can never become a soldier and will never kill people in war because Jehovah did not sanctify and command war. He also stated that he did not recognize Adolf Hitler as the leader of the German people, because Adolf Hitler was malice personified and an instrument of Satan . Having been made aware of the consequences of this behavior, Dickmann stated that he was ready to bear the consequences ... ". First Dickmann was beaten up for his refusal, then he was arrested in a solitary cell in the storage bunker.

Camp commandant Baranowski, angry about Dickmann's stiffness, reported the case to Berlin and asked Heinrich Himmler , Reichsführer SS , for permission to have Dickmann in the presence of all the other camp inmates - including around 380 Jehovah's Witnesses at the time - in front of his brother To have Heinrich shot. Baranowski hoped to be able to dissuade a considerable number of Dickmann's fellow believers from their position. Himmler reacted immediately and ordered the execution of Dickmann, the first public execution in Sachsenhausen.

Execution by shooting

On September 15, 1939, all around 8,500 prisoners had to remain in the camp after the evening roll call. Then all Bible Students with the purple triangle were asked to stand at the very front where a wooden wall had been built to serve as a bullet trap. August Dickmann was brought before some SS officers. The camp commandant Baranowski answered the camp loudspeakers. According to Wilhelm Röger, an eyewitness to the execution, he said the following: “The Bible researcher August Dickmann refused to sign the military passport. The reason: He no longer feels like a German, but as a citizen of the New Kingdom . That is why the Reichsführer of the SS Himmler sentenced him to death, which sentence is now being carried out. The verdict was submitted to him an hour ago. ”However, Arnold Eickmann describes in his memoirs that a list of the Jehovah's Witnesses who stood up for compulsory military service went through the ranks. Dickmann and his brother wrote on the list: “Whoever kills by the sword will perish by the sword. Whose blood you will shed, whose blood will come upon you one day. "

The firing squad was under the direction of Rudolf Höß , who later became the camp commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , who at that time served as the adjutant of the camp commandant Baranowski and as camp leader. Dickmann, whose body had slumped after the execution, received a " catch shot " in the left temple of his head from his pistol .

Reactions to the shooting

The German radio announced the execution of Dickmann on September 16, 1939. The report was repeated several times in the following days. In the German newspapers a “message from the Reichsführer SS” appeared about the shooting of the “ pest ” August Dickmann. The text read: “Was shot on September 15, 1939 for refusing to fulfill his duty as a soldier, August Dickmann, born on January 7, 1910, from Dinslaken. Dickmann justified his refusal by stating that he was 'Jehovah's Witness'; he was a fanatical follower of the international sect of 'serious Bible Students'. "

On September 17, 1939, the New York Times reported : "August Dickmann, 29 years old, ... was shot dead here by an execution squad." As the newspaper stated, he was the first German conscientious objector in this war.

Sixty years later, on September 18, 1999, the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation commemorated the death of August Dickmann. A plaque in the Sachsenhausen memorial now reminds visitors of his courage.

Literature and Sources

Günter Morsch and Astrid Ley (eds.): September 1939. Execution of August Dickmann. In: dies., The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936-1945. Events and developments. Series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, vol. 23, Berlin 2008, p. 66 (p. 34, 71).
Günter Morsch (Hrsg. / Ed.), Stephanie Bohra and others: " Conscientious objection" for religious reasons: August Dickmann, September 15, 1939. / "Conscientious objects" on religious grounds: August Dickmann, September 15th, 1939. In: dies. : Murder and mass murder in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp 1936-1945. Murder and Mass Murder in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936-1945. An exhibition by the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum / Brandenburg Memorials Foundation / An Exhibition by Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum / Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, Berlin 2005, pp. 78–84.

Johannes Wrobel: The public execution of Jehovah's Witness August Dickmann on September 15, 1939 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , manuscript of the lecture on the occasion of the installation of a plaque for the shooting of Dickmann, held on September 18, 1999 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial and museum ( PDF. )

Andreas Seeger (Ed.): Arnold Eickmann: The concentration camp gardener ... from a health policy point of view an enemy of the state. recorded by Karl-Heinz Wegner, Donat, Bremen 2007, p. 150, ISBN 978-3-938275-33-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Detlef Garbe (2008). Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, The University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 415-416. ISBN 9780299207946
^ Arnold Eickmann : Der KZ-Gärtner ..... from the health-political point of view an enemy of the state , Donat Verlag 2007, p. 149.
↑ Detlef Garbe (2008). Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, The University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 415-416. ISBN 9780299207946
↑ http://www.jwhistory.net/text/morsch2005.htm

personal data
SURNAME	Dickmann, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German conscientious objector, Jehovah's Witness
DATE OF BIRTH	January 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dinslaken , Germany
DATE OF DEATH	September 15, 1939
Place of death	Sachsenhausen concentration camp

[1] Detlef Garbe (2008). Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, The University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 415-416. ISBN 9780299207946

[2] Arnold Eickmann : Der KZ-Gärtner ..... from the health-political point of view an enemy of the state , Donat Verlag 2007, p. 149.

[3] Detlef Garbe (2008). Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, The University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 415-416. ISBN 9780299207946

[4] ttp://www.jwhistory.net/text/morsch2005.htm