Carl Domke
Carl Malerreich Domke , ( December 7, 1889 in Abbau-Lanken , Flatow district - January 6, 1962 in Gronau , Westphalia) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .
Life
Carl Domke came to Gronau in 1922 with his wife Elli Domke and their daughter Margarete . From 1931 he was a member of the KPD and the Red Aid . In 1932 he became head of the Red Front Fighter League (RFB) in Gronau. He was held from March 1933 to December 1933 in the Gronau and Münster police prisons and in the Brauweiler and Papenburg concentration camps.
Carl and Elli Domke and their daughter Grete Kusber brought eight to ten refugees from Wuppertal near Overdinkel across the border to the Netherlands . They risked their own lives and that of their family members. After their daughter Grete went into exile in the Netherlands on July 7, 1936, the couple took on responsibility for the illegal distribution of literature from Holland to Germany for the KPD. The couple were eventually betrayed by a neighbor who lived in house number 18 on the same street. On August 17, 1936, two Gestapo people disguised themselves as political refugees and asked the Domke family for help. They were admitted, given food and clothes. The couple also organized the escape to the Netherlands. Comrade Bernhard Klynsma was commissioned to bring the allegedly persecuted across the German-Dutch border at night. There the trap snapped shut, Klynsma was arrested and the entire street where the Domkes lived was cordoned off. The Gestapo immediately arrested the entire family.
Elli Domke, her son Walter Dittmann and Bernhard Klynsma were transferred to the court prison in Hamm , charged with high treason and convicted on March 16, 1937. Dittmann, a member of the SS , was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for failing to report his parents and sister to the Gestapo . Elli Domke and Bernhard Klynsma were taken to a concentration camp. What happened to Carl Domke is not yet known.
After the end of the Nazi regime , Carl Domke was politically active again and was involved in the rebuilding of the KPD , the IG Bau-Steine-Erden trade union and the DGB in the Ahaus district. As a result, he was also a member of the social committee of the city of Gronau , together with his wife Elli, as an expert citizen .
Commemoration
On April 29, 2015, three stumbling blocks were laid in honor of Carl Domke, his wife and their daughter Margarethe Kusber at Piepenpohlstraße 22 in Gronau . The move was initiated by Şahin Aydın, then a councilor in Bottrop and chairman of the German-Kurdish circle of friends. Mayor Sonja Jürgens welcomed the relatives of the three winners: “Today we bow to Elli and Carl Domke and Margarethe Kusber. It is important and I am proud to have had such courageous citizens in our city. "
literature
Sahin Aydin: One family - a struggle for humanity, against fascism and war. Political biographies. Publisher: KDFK e. V., Gronau / Westphalia 2015
Individual evidence
- ^ Frank Zimmermann: Stumbling blocks for Carl u. Elli Domke and Grete Kusber relocated . In: Westfälische Nachrichten of April 14, 2015
- ↑ YouTube : Gronau: April 29, 2015, Stolpersteine, Grete Kusber, Carl Domke, Elli Domke, Resistance , accessed on January 7, 2016
- ↑ Kommunisten.de: Stumbling stone laying for three resistance fighters from Gronau , accessed on January 7, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Domke, Carl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Domke, Carl Malerreich (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighters against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Abbau-Lanken , Flatow district |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 6, 1962 |
| Place of death | Gronau , Westphalia |