Ferdinand Thomas

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Ferdinand Thomas (born April 30, 1913 in Heidelberg , † November 20, 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden ) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Memorial plaque on the house at Köpenicker Strasse 76 in Berlin-Mitte

Thomas became politically active as a teenager. His parents, the editor Otto (1886–1930) and Gertrude Thomas, were members of the KPD . Thomas grew up in Munich , attended a secondary school in Jena and became a member of the Young Spartakusbund. Together with Magnus Poser he was in a group of the KJVD . Through his parents' contacts, he got to know Fritz Bernt and Emil Wölk . In 1929 he moved with his family to Berlin and began studying economics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University , he because of his activities in the Communist student group in 1933 relegated was. He joined the KPD , which had already been pushed underground , and took part in the resistance against the coalition government made up of NSDAP , DNVP and national-conservative politicians, which was formed on January 30, 1933.

For three years, Thomas was particularly active as a courier for the KPD district leadership in Berlin-Brandenburg. In May 1936 he was arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to three years in prison for preparing for high treason . He spent his time in prison in Brandenburg prison and in the Dessau-Rosslau prison camp . After his release from prison he got a job at the machine factory Grauel & Co. According to the Nazi race laws , Thomas was considered a " first degree mongrel " because of his mother, who was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto .

Because of his "independent, anti-Stalinist thinking", Thomas had contacts in the resistance that went well beyond those close to the KPD, including social democrats and union resistance. He got in touch with Adolf Reichwein through Fritz Bernt . On his behalf, Thomas established a connection to the KPD domestic leadership around Franz Jacob and Anton Saefkow through Fritz Emrich , Judith Auer and Magnus Poser in 1944 . This resulted in the connection and the first meeting of Anton Saefkows and Franz Jacobs with Adolf Reichwein and Julius Leber on June 22nd. Since Saefkow's adjutant and "Abwehr" commissioner Ernst Rambow was a Gestapo spy whose denunciation had previously arrested Bernhard Bästlein , the next meeting on July 4th also led to the arrest of Saefkow, Jacob, Reichwein and Leber. On July 19, 1944, Thomas was also arrested. On October 4, 1944, he was sentenced to death by the 1st Senate of the People's Court under the chairmanship of the District Court Director Martin Stier and murdered in Brandenburg prison on November 20, 1944.

Honors

  • The Studentenwerk Berlin named a dormitory in Berlin-Lichtenberg after Ferdinand Thomas
  • A memorial plaque for Ferdinand Thomas in Schönhauser Allee 134b was removed in 1995. The homeowners then filed a criminal complaint for theft.

literature

  • Annette Neumann, Susanne Reveles, Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow: Berlin workers' resistance 1942–1945. "Away with Hitler - end the war!" The Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein-Organization. Berlin Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and Antifascists eV: Berlin 2009, p. 73.
  • Annette Neumann, Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow: The Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein-Organization 1942 to 1945 , in: Hans Coppi , Stefan Heinz (ed.): The forgotten resistance of the workers. Trade unionists, communists, social democrats, Trotskyists, anarchists and forced laborers . Dietz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-320-02264-8 , pp. 144–157, in particular pp. 154 ff.
  • Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : Resistance in Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee. Series of publications by the German Resistance Memorial Center , Berlin 2000, p. 196.
  • Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. Dietz, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-320-02044-7 .
  • Johannes Tuchel : Contacts between Social Democrats and Communists in the summer of 1944. On the significance of June 22, 1944. In: Dachauer Hefte 11 (1995), pp. 78-101.
  • Ursel Hochmuth : Illegal KPD and movement “Free Germany” in Berlin and Brandenburg 1942-1945. Biographies and testimonials from the resistance organization around Saefkow, Jacob and Bästlein. Writings from the German Resistance Memorial Center, Series A, Vol. 4; Berlin 1998, p. 245.
  • Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters. Dietz-Verlag: Berlin 1970, pp. 351ff.

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Thomas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: Resistance in Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee. Series of publications by the German Resistance Memorial Center , Berlin 2000, p. 196.
  2. ↑ For details of the meetings and the betrayal, cf. Annette Neumann, Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow: The Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein-Organization 1942 to 1945 , in: Hans Coppi , Stefan Heinz (ed.): The forgotten resistance of the workers. Trade unionists, communists, social democrats, Trotskyists, anarchists and forced laborers . Dietz, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-320-02264-8 , pp. 144–157, here p. 154 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1944
Place of death Brandenburg-Görden