Chinese action

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Memorial plaque to the Hamburg Chinatown and the Chinese action; Schmuckstrasse, corner of Talstrasse (2020)

As Chinese action one on May 13, 1944 line is Gestapo in Hamburg Chinatown in St. Pauli conducted raids and arrests against living there Chinese nationals , migrants befriended and Asian-looking people, and with them women referred.

procedure

During the action on May 13, 1944, especially in the neighborhood around Schmuckstrasse, the streets were completely cordoned off by criminal and order police armed with submachine guns . Around 200 deployed officers under the direction of the Gestapo arrested the small ethnic group of around 130 Chinese, first brought them to the Davidwache and from there to the remand prison on Holstenglacis. Passports, valuables and money were taken from them there. They were then taken by truck to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison , where most of them were held for several months. According to witness statements, many of them were severely ill-treated and tortured there, and some did not survive the torture.

The order for the Chinese action was given by Albert Schwelm, head of Gestapo Section IV 1c, and Gestapo officer Erich Hanisch was responsible for carrying it out. In September 1944, 60 to 80 Chinese imprisoned were deported to the Langer Morgen labor education camp , from where they had to do forced labor in the surrounding port and industrial areas . They intentionally remained in the Gestapo's sphere of influence, unlike those who were exposed to the SS after being transferred to Neuengamme concentration camp . Seventeen Chinese people demonstrably did not survive the camp; their names were on a list that was later lost. The total number of victims is assumed to be considerably higher.

The Chinese action also affected women who were friends with the arrested Chinese, lived in partnerships or worked in the Chinese restaurants. They were also arrested, interrogated, in some cases taken into protective custody or sent to institutions and concentration camps.

Some survivors fought in vain for compensation after the war . The reparation authorities took the view that the persecution was not racially motivated. The courts seized confirmed this view and ruled that the Chinese action was a normal police act.

Individual fates

  • Chan Ho Bau (born 1887 or 1897) was arrested during the Chinese action and died on October 22, 1944 in the Langer Morgen labor camp. A memorial stone has been laid for him on the burial ground of victims of various nations in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .
  • Chong Tin Lam (1907 Canton - 1983 Hamburg) came to Hamburg in 1926 and bought the Hong Kong Bar at Hamburger Berg 14 in 1938. His partner was Lina Donatius from Poland, with whom he had a daughter, born in 1942. Chong was considered very much helpful, during the war, in cooperation with the Chinese consul in Berlin, he organized exit papers for Chinese former prisoners of war. In 1944 he was arrested during the Chinese action, imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttel and mistreated. Until the end of the war he passed through several camps. He returned to Hamburg and became a member of the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime (VVN). He was able to rebuild the Hong Kong bar, but his request for reparation was rejected.
  • Kam Sing Fok (from Canton) was the owner of the Wong Fu at Schmuckstrasse 18 around 1930. He had a relationship with a woman from St. Pauli and with her a son, born in 1930. Kam Sing Fok was arrested during the Chinese action, and survived stayed in Hamburg after the war and opened a Chinese restaurant on Talstrasse.
  • Liang Wong (1904–1945) was arrested during the Chinese action and died on February 28, 1945 in the Langer Morgen labor camp. He was buried on the grave field of victims of various nations in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .
Stolperstein Schmuckstraße 7 (Woo Lie Kien) in Hamburg-St. Pauli.JPG
  • Woo Lie Kien (September 8, 1885, Kaiping - November 23, 1944, Hamburg) came to Europe as a stoker on a steamship and settled in Hamburg in 1926. He lived at Schmuckstrasse 7 and in 1936 took over an inn at Schmuckstrasse 9, which was a meeting place for Chinese sailors. He was arrested in June 1944 and severely ill-treated in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison. He died on November 23, 1944 in the Barmbek General Hospital as a result of the ordeal.

Commemoration

Old commemorative plaque in front of the Schmuckstrasse football field, 2011

In 1996, the artists Gerd Stange and Michael Batz installed a commemorative plaque on Schmuckstrasse, which pointed to the Chinese quarter and its end due to the Chinese action. In September 2012, the St. Pauli Archive replaced the sign, which had become ailing over the years, with a plaque on the green strip of Schmuckstrasse at the corner of Talstrasse.

For three of those affected (Woo Lie Kien, Ho Danshan and Chong Tin Lam), the artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block each in Schmuckstrasse and Hamburger Berg . With the documentary film Fremde Heimat four students thematized the history of Hamburg's Chinatown, the Chinese action and the life of Chong Tin Lam, the founder of the Hong Kong bar. There is a memorial plaque for Chong Tin Lam at the Hong Kong bar.

literature

  • Lars Amenda: "Chinese Action" . On racial politics and persecution in National Socialist Hamburg. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. tape 91 , 2005, p. 103–132 ( uni-hamburg.de [accessed February 12, 2013]).
  • Lars Amenda: Strangers, Port, City. Chinese migration and its perception in Hamburg 1897–1972 (= Forum Contemporary History. Vol. 17). Dölling and Galitz, Munich et al. 2006, ISBN 3-937904-36-0 (also: Hamburg, University, dissertation, 2004).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lars Amenda: "Chinesenaktion": On racial politics and persecution in National Socialist Hamburg , Hamburg 2005, p. 119 ff.
  2. ^ Lars Amenda: "Chinesenaktion": On racial politics and persecution in National Socialist Hamburg , Hamburg 2005, p. 124.
  3. ↑ Renate Hücking, Ekkehard Launer: Chinatown - No great freedom. In: Renate Hücking, Ekkehard Launer: Tuten & bubbles. Hamburg harbor tours through eight centuries. Galgenberg Verlag, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-925387-42-0 , pp. 67-72, here p. 72.
  4. ↑ Lars Amenda: Fremde, Hafen, Stadt: Chinese migration and its perception in Hamburg 1897 - 1972 , p. 124.
  5. ↑ Lars Amenda: "Chinesenaktion": On racial politics and persecution in National Socialist Hamburg , Hamburg 2005, p. 131.
  6. ↑ Must Die 1945 - Hamburg Individual Fates , accessed on May 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ Renate Hücking, Ekkehard Launer: Chinatown - No great freedom , p. 71.
  8. ↑ Hanna Huhtasaari: Opium and Pils on tap - Hamburg's forgotten Chinatown , Spiegel online, September 6, 2011 ; A piece of China on St. Pauli , Hamburger Abendblatt from January 26, 2012
  9. ^ In the middle of Hamburg - a journey through time to Chinatown , Hamburger Abendblatt from July 26, 2008
  10. ↑ Must Die 1945 - Hamburg Individual Fates , accessed on May 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ stolpersteine-hamburg.de: Woo Lie Kien
  12. ↑ St. Pauli Archive: Memorial plaque to the Chinese Quarter in St. Pauli ( Memento from December 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 389 kB), accessed on May 8, 2014.
  13. ↑ A foreign home. A documentary