Bernhard Nicodemus

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Bernhard Nikodemus (born April 17, 1901 in St. Johann , Saarbrücken ; † September 23, 1975 there ) was a German government official and member of the SPD . He was also active as an interbrigadist and was awarded the Hans Beimler Medal of the German Democratic Republic for his commitment .

Life

Bernhard Nikodemus grew up as a working class child in Saarbrücken. Limited in his professional opportunities by the First World War , he earned his living as an unskilled worker in various companies. In 1919 he joined the trade union and in 1920 the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). From 1929 to 1932 he attended the adult education center and thus qualified in 1933 for a position in the government commission of the Saar region as administrative assistant for statistics . After the Saar was reintegrated into the German Reich , he lost his job for political reasons.

At the beginning of May 1937 the Gestapo carried out a search of his house. He then emigrated to his brother in Bourges in the Cher department . Through Max Braun , a friend from the SAJ, he made contact with the International Brigades and fought against Francisco Franco's troops in the final phase of the Spanish Civil War in 1938 . After his squad was defeated, he tried to get to France on his own, but was captured while on the run. In Burgos , the headquarters of the Condor Legion , he was interrogated several times by the Gestapo. His German citizenship was revoked on August 30th. He was then taken to the former monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña , where he was detained for 13 months. In November 1939 he was taken to Belchite , where he remained in custody until May 1941. He then had to work in a quarry in Palencia .

On October 16, 1941, after voluntarily reporting, he was brought back to Germany and naturalized again. Contrary to the assurances of the German authorities, after six months of “ protective custody ” in the Lerchesflur , he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp in May 1942 and to the external camp command in Neustift in the Stubai Valley in October . There he was liberated by US troops on May 3, 1945.

After the war he worked as a government employee in the Directorate for Labor and Welfare, headed by Richard Kirn , and from 1947 to 1949 took over the provisional management of the Saarland State Statistical Office . From the summer of 1949 until his retirement he worked as a councilor in the department for labor and social statistics.

In 1956 he was awarded the GDR Hans Beimler Medal for his work in Spain. He was one of 632 winners of this medal, one of the few West Germans and one of two Saarland Social Democrats (next to him Karl Friedrich Großklos ) who was awarded this medal.

In 1973, Bernhard Nicodemus testified as a witness about his time as a concentration camp prisoner in a trial.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus-Michael Mallmann ; Gerhard Paul : The fragmented no. Saarlanders against Hitler . Bonn 1989, p. 208-209 .
  2. ↑ a b c Klaus-Michael Mallmann ; Gerhard Paul : The fragmented no. Saarlanders against Hitler . Bonn 1989, p. 210-212 .
  3. ^ Klaus-Michael Mallmann ; Gerhard Paul : The fragmented no. Saarlanders against Hitler . Bonn 1989, p. 208 .
  4. ^ Gerhard Paul ; Klaus-Michael Mallmann : Milieus and Resistance: A Behavioral History of Society under National Socialism . Ed .: Hans-Walter Herrmann (=  resistance and refusal in Saarland 1935–1945 . Volume 3 ). Dietz , Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-8012-5012-1 , p. 206 .
  5. ^ Günter Falser: The Nazi period in the Stubai Valley . Studien-Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-7065-1161-2 , pp. 144 .
personal data
SURNAME Nicodemus, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German government official and SPD member
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Johann (Saar) , Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH 23rd September 1975
Place of death Saarbrücken