Erich Boltze (communist)

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Memory of Erich Boltze in front of the Frei-Zeit-Haus in Weißensee

Erich Boltze (born September 2, 1905 in Berlin ; † October 11, 1944 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German carpenter and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Boltze was born into a working-class family in Berlin and completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter there. He joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany at an early stage . At the age of twenty, in 1925, Boltze joined the KPD and subsequently took on numerous functions in the Berlin sub-district north of the KPD. Through his training he was also a member of the woodworkers' association. He lived in Berlin-Weißensee , Pistoriusstrasse 28.

With the coming to power of the Nazis , he dived into illegality because the Communist Party was banned. In the former districts of Neukölln and Prenzlauer Berg , however, he actively supported the resistance against the regime and was finally arrested on December 21, 1937. A court sentenced him to three years in prison , which he served in Luckau prison. Afterwards he was not released, but as a political prisoner directly in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Here he found like-minded people and became part of a secret communist network in the camp. Through his work in the office he was able to make things easier for many camp inmates, for example by "making corrections" in their curriculum vitae. In return, Boltze was successfully relocated to the Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg satellite warehouse . Boltze was able to organize acts of sabotage in the manufacture of the aircraft, stayed in contact with the main camp of the concentration camp through a Soviet prisoner and set up a courier and message system in the main camp.

Finally, the SS guards exposed the resistance network. After long and torturous interrogations and the toughest detention work, a special commission of the camp administration came to the conclusion that "the relevant communist functionaries [should] be rendered harmless". A total of 27 German and French camp inmates were shot and cremated directly in the Sachsenhausen crematorium in autumn 1944 after a simulated transport , including Erich Boltze.

Honors

Memorial plaque on the residential building

On September 4, 1974, the East Berlin magistrate honored Erich Boltze by renaming Gnesener Strasse in what was then the Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg district to Erich-Boltze-Strasse. At that time, a granite tablet was placed on the house on Pistoriusstrasse, where the family lived until his arrest. Furthermore, a bronze memorial plaque was unveiled at the Weißensee community center, directly in front of the former restaurant of the large festival hall, today's Frei-Zeit-Haus. A polytechnic high school in Weißensee was given the honorary name Erich-Boltze-Oberschule . In 2007 the grammar school was renamed after the Italian-Jewish writer and chemist Primo Levi , who was also imprisoned in concentration camps as a resistance fighter during the Nazi era (see Primo Levi grammar school ). Some students had researched Erich Boltze's life data in 2008/09 and published the results within the step 21 project in the white spots .

Web links

Commons : Erich Boltze  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b An idealist in a concentration camp. The Erich Boltze School in Berlin-Weißensee lost its name almost 20 years ago. Students at the school, now named after Primo Levi, have rediscovered the fate of the communist who was murdered in 1944 . In: Neues Deutschland , July 14, 2009
  2. ↑ Erich-Boltze-Strasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Boltze, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anti-fascist, carpenter
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1944
Place of death Sachsenhausen concentration camp