August Lass (party official)

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August Lass , also Helmuth Lass (born October 21, 1903 in Berlin ; † November 18, 2001 in Alt-Mariendorf ) was a German party functionary of the KPD . He headed the communist youth association in Berlin-Brandenburg and was the political leader of the party in Danzig . After his arrest in November 1933, he became an undercover agent and betrayed officials of the illegal KPD to the Gestapo .

Life

The son of a blacksmith learned the trade of mechanic. In 1920 he became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association and the Communist Youth of Germany (later: KJVD). In February 1923 he joined the KPD. In the mid-1920s he became a functionary of the KJVD in the Berlin-Brandenburg district. In 1925 he took part as a delegate at the 10th party congress of the KPD in Berlin and married Wilhelmine Pauly .

Lass became editor of the Red Flag and the KPD press in Danzig. In the party he was known under the name "Helmuth". In May 1933 he took over the leadership of the now illegal KPD in Danzig. He was arrested on November 4, 1933 by the criminal police in Danzig and taken to Marienberg (sic!) And then to Koenigsberg . On November 18, he traveled to Berlin with Gestapo officials and worked there as an undercover agent. He was responsible for the fact that 25 KPD functionaries in Berlin-Brandenburg fell into the hands of the Gestapo. Those arrested included Rudolf Reutter , Hans Lübeck , Ulrich Brurein and Lambert Horn . Lass is said to have drawn attention to the importance of the already imprisoned Alfred Kattner within the KPD. Herbert Wehner , who at the time was head of the KPD in Berlin-Brandenburg, reported in his memoirs: “Laß had explained to his wife in a letter that he was faced with the choice of either dying or taking on this role. He decided to do the second because it was difficult to die, especially for a lost cause. ”In February 1934, the KPD warned in its magazine Rundschau that Lass was a traitor.

At the end of April 1934, Lass joined the SS . He first worked as a mechanic at the Königsberg works and trams. From February 1936 he worked for the SD Upper Section Northeast ("Marxist Organizations"). During World War II he was from 1939 to 1943 following member in the armed forces and then navigation squad leader at the air base company in Neuhausen . He was captured by the Red Army near Königsberg in April 1945 . At the beginning of 1949 he was released from captivity . He worked again as a mechanic in West Berlin .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lass, Wilhelmine . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 . ( online )
personal data
SURNAME Leave it, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leave it, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German party functionary of the KPD
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 2001
Place of death Alt-Mariendorf