Charlotte Kroll

Charlotte Kroll born Charlotte Görner (born March 6, 1922 in Freital in Saxony ; † December 13, 2016 ) was a German forced laborer and a victim of the Nazi dictatorship . Because she was helping a pregnant Russian forced laborer, she was arrested, sent to prison and taken to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp , where she did forced labor in the Siemens camp.

Life

Growing up in Freital, Charlotte Görner gave birth to a daughter. Shortly afterwards she married her husband and was then called Charlotte Kroll. They moved to Hamburg . After her husband was drafted into the Wehrmacht , she went back to her parents in Freital.

In 1942 Charlotte Kroll began to work in an armaments factory. Here she had to instruct Soviet female forced laborers in their work. She was arrested and sent to Freital Prison for giving her daughter's used children's clothing to a pregnant forced laborer. After two days she was transferred to the Dresden prison. She stayed there for a year and was transported to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp in the summer of 1943.

Site plan of the Ravensbrück concentration camp with details on the Texled SS operation

Ravensbrück women's concentration camp

In the concentration camp, her hair was shaved off and all personal items were taken away. She worked for a short time in the SS's own Texled concentration camp sewing shop . This was one of the profitable productive operations of the SS on the concentration camp grounds. After an aptitude test, she came to the Siemens warehouse next to the concentration camp and had to adjust coils for electrical components for the armaments industry . As in the Texled factory, she was repeatedly beaten by the SS guards during this work for reasons inexplicable to her. She and her fellow prisoners disfigured machines and tools in order to sabotage production. In secret contact with other inmates, she learned from one of Jehovah's Witnesses that they had black pudding with their bread every Saturday. Because Jehovah's Witnesses did not eat blood sausage for reasons of faith and threw them away regularly, Charlotte was able to take a few sausages with her.

Site plan of the Siemens camp in Ravensbrück south of the main camp of the Ravensbrück concentration camp

Release from the Ravensbrück concentration camp

She was released from the Ravensbrück concentration camp in the summer of 1944, which she found just as inexplicable as her arrest. After her arrest, her daughter was taken to a home and the marriage was automatically divorced while she was in the concentration camp. It was only years later that she realized that she had been arrested for the gift to the Russian slave laborer. In 1945 she moved back to Hamburg, brought her daughter back, married and gave birth to a second daughter. She later moved with her daughters to her parents' home in Freital and, before the Wall was built, to West Berlin . In 1998, Charlotte received compensation from Siemens.

Awards

In 2010 she received the Order of Merit of the State of Brandenburg for her commitment as a contemporary witness and in 2014 she was awarded the “Medal for the Recognition of Services to the Community”.

On March 10, 2015, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany . The reason given was that she was one of the few contemporary witnesses who could still describe the consequences of the National Socialist dictatorship to the younger generations from direct suffering. She has been involved in the Ravensbrück memorial since 2003, has been available to students for guided tours, projects, work camps and interviews and has introduced hundreds of young people to the history of National Socialism in a unique way.

Web links

Siemens Ravensbrück. Werner-von-Siemens-Werkberufsschule - Independent school of Siemens AG, accessed on September 20, 2015 .
Charlotte Kroll on projekt-ravensbrueck
Charlotte Kroll on contemporary witness projects

Individual evidence

↑ Brandenburger honored with Order of Merit. In: www.moz.de. June 14, 2010, accessed April 9, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Ilse Heinrich and Charlotte Kroll receive the Cross of Merit on ribbon. In: www.berlin.de. Senate Department for Culture, March 10, 2015, accessed on April 9, 2018 (press release).

personal data
SURNAME	Kroll, Charlotte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Görner, Charlotte (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German forced laborer, prisoner in the Ravensbrück concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH	March 6, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH	Freital , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 2016

[moz-1] Brandenburger honored with Order of Merit. In: www.moz.de. June 14, 2010, accessed April 9, 2018 .

[berlin-2] Ilse Heinrich and Charlotte Kroll receive the Cross of Merit on ribbon. In: www.berlin.de. Senate Department for Culture, March 10, 2015, accessed on April 9, 2018 (press release).