Friedel Heymann

Friedel Heymann (born August 9, 1919 in Königstein , Taunus, † March 28, 1945 in Aschaffenburg ) was a German officer and lieutenant in the artillery . He was the victim of an end- stage crime in the final days of the war .

Life

Friedel Heymann moved with his mother and brother at the age of eleven after the death of his father to Schweinheim , which is now part of Aschaffenburg. He passed his Abitur at the Kronberg-Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg and completed his labor service in the Odenwald in 1938 . In the autumn of 1938 he was drafted into an artillery division of the Wehrmacht and later used on the Eastern Front. After being injured in the war in 1941, he was assigned to a replacement division of the light artillery. On the Eastern Front again in January 1945 he was wounded in his left arm and left hand by shrapnel. On February 2, he was transferred to a partial hospital in the Aschaffenburg artillery barracks, where his left index finger had to be amputated. On March 23, 1945, he married officially in Aschaffenburg and one day later in the Schweinheim parish church of the Nativity of Mary, his childhood sweetheart Anneliese Büttner from Schweinheim.

arrest

After the amputation, Heymann was referred to a reserve hospital for further outpatient treatment, which was set up in the Schweinheim gymnasium and lived with his wife in Schweinheim. After the American troops had crossed the Main, the Schweinheim hospital was closed and Heymann was referred to a hospital that was still in a safe location. On Holy Week Tuesday, March 27, 1945, two strips appeared at his home and checked his papers without objection. He was advised to report to the combat troops, which Heymann refused because of the inflamed wound and the impending amputation of the whole hand.

On the same evening, on the order of the combat commandant of the city of Aschaffenburg, which had been declared a fortress, Major Emil Lamberth, a military patrol took him, withdrew his papers and brought him to a court martial that was set up in the basement of the headquarters building of the Jägerkaserne (today Aschaffenburg University). He was accused of desertion and disruption of the military , but was unable to present the discharge papers that had been removed from him and the confirmation of the auxiliary hospital set up in the Haibach school where he had last had his association changed. After 15 minutes of discussion with the officers present, the death sentence was announced.

Public execution

Friedel Heymann was hanged on Wednesday, March 28, 1945 at around 9 a.m. in front of the Herstallstrasse 5 property in Aschaffenburg from a makeshift scaffolding on an advertisement for the Höfling pastry shop in front of a large crowd. The bandage on his left hand was replaced by a glove. Shortly before, Lamberth tore his wounded badge, the iron crosses 1st and 2nd class and the shoulder pieces away, threw them at his feet and called him a coward and traitor. After the execution, Lamberth had a poster placed next to Heymann with the following text: "Cowards and traitors are hanging! Yesterday a candidate officer from Alsace-Lorraine died in the destruction of an enemy tank. He lives on. Today a coward hangs in an officer's coat because he is a leader and betrayed the people. He is dead forever! "

As a deterrent, the corpse was left hanging, guarded by a post, until after the city was handed over to American troops. On April 3, 1945, the body was removed and buried on April 4, 1945 in the Schweinheim cemetery. The inscription on the tombstone reads: / death is the / gate / to life / rests here / by henchman / directed / Ltd. Friedl Heymann / stud. jur. / * August 9th, 1919 in Königstein / + March 28th, 1945 in Aschaffenburg.

Statutory repeal of the NS judgment

The judgments of the regional court in Würzburg in 1949 and 1950 characterized the death sentence against Friedel Heymann as injustice. In 1998 it was officially repealed under the law to repeal unjust judgments during the Nazi era. Friedel Heymann is now completely rehabilitated. In April 2004, the Aschaffenburg public prosecutor's office confirmed to his widow Anneliese Heymann-Heßler that the death sentence had officially been overturned.

Stumbling block for Friedel Heymann

Commemoration

• Gravestone in the Schweinheim cemetery
• After 1945, a street named after Gauleiter Adolf Wagner in the Schweinheim district was renamed Friedel-Heymann-Straße
• 2005: A memorial stone for Friedel Heymann from the city of Aschaffenburg was set in Herstallstrasse 5 .
• 2013: A stumbling block for Friedel Heymann was laid in Freundstraße 20 .
• 2016: A stele for Friedel Heymann from the city of Aschaffenburg was erected in front of Herstallstraße 5.

literature

• Elisabeth Kohlhaas: 1945 - War within. Nazi crimes in Aschaffenburg and against Aschaffenburg residents. History and Art Association, Aschaffenburg 2005, ISBN 3-87965-102-7 .
• Monika Schmittner: Persecution and Resistance 1933 to 1945 on the Bavarian Lower Main , Alibri, Aschaffenburg 2002, p. 356 f.
• LG Würzburg, December 3, 1949 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. V, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1970, No. 185, pp. 637–642 Death sentence and execution of an army lieutenant and an aviation engineer under circumstances not apparent in the judgment
  • LG Würzburg, May 19, 1950 : Stand court death sentence against a Wehrmacht lieutenant under circumstances not apparent in the judgment

Web links

• Monika Schmittner: Murdered in the last days of the war , in: Asyl am Untermain No. 25, August 2001, republished on kommunal.blogsport.de
• The National Socialists took her husband after five days , obituary for Anneliese Heymann-Heßler on Main-Netz.de
• City of Aschaffenburg commemorates Nazi victim Friedel Heymann Main-Netz.de
• Bloodlust and excesses Mainpost.de
• Aschaffenburg: Memory of Friedel Heymann press release- Bavaria.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elisabeth Kohlhaas: 1945 - War within. Nazi crimes in Aschaffenburg and against Aschaffenburg residents. Aschaffenburg 2005, p. 90f.
2. ^ Elisabeth Kohlhaas: 1945 - War within. Nazi crimes in Aschaffenburg and against Aschaffenburg residents. Aschaffenburg 2005, p. 92 f.
3. ^ Elisabeth Kohlhaas: 1945 - War within. Nazi crimes in Aschaffenburg and against Aschaffenburg residents. Aschaffenburg 2005, pp. 93-96.
4. ^ Elisabeth Kohlhaas: 1945 - War within. Nazi crimes in Aschaffenburg and against Aschaffenburg residents. Aschaffenburg 2005, p. 126.
5. ↑ Reminder of Friedel Heymann ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Aschaffenburg im Dialog , April 2005, p. 8  
6. ↑ Who were the victims, who were the perpetrators? - Dispute over a memorial plaque , addendum to: Monika Schmittner: Persecution and Resistance 1933 to 1945 on the Bavarian Lower Main , 2002 on the publisher's website
7. ↑ Stumbling blocks are being laid , press release City of Aschaffenburg, September 2, 2013
8. ^ Stele for Friedel Heymann , press release City of Aschaffenburg, October 6, 2016
9. ↑ Schmittner's text can also be found in: “And the fruit of justice will be peace ...” , reader with background information and suggestions for the organization of worship on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on May 8, 1945, published by the EKD Church Office in Hanover , pp. 24-26