Barbara Reimann

Barbara Reimann , née Dollwetzel (born January 29, 1920 in Hamburg , † April 21, 2013 in Berlin ) was a contemporary witness of the political resistance against National Socialism and a survivor of Gestapo imprisonment and concentration camps .

biography

Childhood in a working-class family

Barbara Dollwetzel described her life as “a child from a completely normal Hamburg working class ”. Her father Max Dollwetzel had been a locksmith and trade unionist since 1900 and was a co-founder of the Hamburg KPD in 1919 . Her mother Clara Clasen was a women's rights activist and was involved in the education and the political fight against the abortion paragraph §218 as well as in the Red Aid and the International Workers Aid . Her brothers Heinrich Dollwetzel and Erich Dollwetzel were members of the "Red Young Front" and the " Red Front Fighters League ". When the National Socialists " seized power " , the family was exposed to repression , especially through house searches . The brothers Heinrich and Erich Dollwetzel were forced to dive into illegality .

Resistance to National Socialism

At the same time, Bärbel Dollwetzel organized in the resistance against National Socialism and was active underground in a socialist youth organization in Hamburg-Harburg . She supported the politically persecuted and wrote anti-war letters to soldiers. In 1943 the prosecution authorities succeeded in introducing the informer Alfons Pannek to the group. The group was exposed in June 1943 when one of their anti-war letters was intercepted by the Gestapo .

Gestapo detention and concentration camp

During the Gestapo interrogation, she was forced to sign a protective custody order with the note “ return undesirable ”. In it she was accused of undermining military strength , preparing for high treason and listening to foreign broadcasters . This was followed by imprisonment in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison until April 20, 1944. On April 28, 1944, she was deported with her mother and her godmother, Emmi Wilde, to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp . In April 1945 they were sent on the death march by the SS and liberated by US soldiers on May 3.

Political work after the liberation

After her liberation, she became a member of the “Committee of Former Political Prisoners” in Hamburg. In 1946 she moved to East Berlin . There she worked in the "Central Administration for Health Care of the Soviet Zone" and in the General Secretariat of the "Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime" ( VVN ).

After training as a judge and studying law at the Academy for Political Science and Law in Babelsberg , she worked in the GDR's judiciary.

From 1970 the focus of her work was on her support of the "Ravensbrück Camp Community". She gave lectures at the memorial and at schools as a contemporary witness. After five years of collaboration with the journalists Franziska Bruder and Heike Kleffner , her biography of eight decades in Germany was published in 2000 .

literature

Franziska Bruder, Heike Kleffner (Ed.): … Memories must not die. Barbara Reimann - A biography from eight decades in Germany . Unrast Verlag , Münster, ISBN 3-89771-802-2 .

Individual evidence

^ Dollwetzel, Max . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst: German Communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . Second, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Reimann, Barbara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Reimann, Bärbel; Dollwetzel, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German members of the political resistance against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH	January 29, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	April 21, 2013
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Dollwetzel, Max . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst: German Communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . Second, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .