August Groel

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August Groel (born February 12, 1898 in Erfenbach , † February 17, 1989 in Rostock ) was a German fighter in Spain , resistance fighter against National Socialism , prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp and employee in the GDR foreign trade ministry .

Life

August Groel worked as an employee in Mannheim after an apprenticeship as a businessman and was drafted into military service in 1918. In 1919 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) through the Spartakusbund and held various functions in the party until 1922. He then worked in his family's body shop, with whom he went to Buenos Aires in 1924 . Together with his wife Gusty (1888–1966), Groel took part in illegal activities of the KPD in Argentina. In February 1937, the couple and 20 other Germans followed the Comintern's call to "defend the Spanish Republic against the Franco putschists ". From 1937 to 1939 he fought as an interbrigadist in the German brigade . Groel was imprisoned in the Le Vernet (internment camp) and Camp de Gurs and extradited to the National Socialists by the French government. In 1941 he was interned in Buchenwald concentration camp and assigned to the "laundry" work command and later to the "work statistics" work command. During this time he participated in the inmate resistance . After the liberation, August Groel devoted himself to the political organization of the former prisoners. On April 23, 1945, he headed the “Buchenwald Popular Front Conference ”, at which Hermann Brill gave a lecture on “The next tasks of the Popular Front”.

From 1948 August Groel was head of the trade policy department in the head office of interzonal and foreign trade of the German Economic Commission and was involved in the GDR's first foreign trade agreements. He then worked as the head of the foreign trade college. From 1954 to 1966, Groel headed the German Institute for Market Research , which was later renamed the Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Trade . Most recently he lived in Rostock and worked for the " Committee of the Antifascist Resistance Fighters ". He died a few days after his 91st birthday and was buried in the New Cemetery in Rostock.

Awards

literature

  • Emil Carlebach / Willy Schmidt / Ulrich Schneider (eds.): Buchenwald a concentration camp. Reports - Pictures - Documents , Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89144-271-8 .
  • Author collective: Buchenwald. Reminder and obligation. Documents and reports , Berlin 1983, p. 754.
  • Roman Guski, Johanna Jawinsky, Hannelore Rabe: Memorials for victims and persecuted of the Nazi regime on the New Cemetery in Rostock (published by the VVN-BdA Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Rostock 2011, p. 31. ISBN 978-300-0350-375

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice in Neues Deutschland from March 1, 1989
  2. ^ Obituary notice in Neues Deutschland from December 3, 1966
  3. ↑ Author collective ... p. 645
  4. ^ New Germany of September 3, 1949
  5. ↑ Congratulations on your 70th birthday in Neues Deutschland on February 12, 1968
personal data
SURNAME Groel, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighters in Spain (KPD) and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfenbach
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1989
Place of death Rostock