Günter Pappenheim

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Günter Pappenheim (born August 3, 1925 in Schmalkalden ; † March 31, 2021 in Zeuthen ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and became a politician and SED functionary in the GDR . He was chairman of the Potsdam district council and chairman of the Buchenwald-Dora camp working group and first vice-chairman of the international Buchenwald-Dora committee.

Life

Pappenheim grew up in a social democratic family. His father Ludwig Pappenheim was a well-known social democratic SPD functionary in Schmalkalden who published the daily Volksstimme . His mother Frieda Pappenheim had also been a member since 1925; she was a factory worker and was involved in the women's movement . Pappenheim had two sisters and a brother. Since the father came from a Jewish family , Günter and his siblings were regarded as "first degree half-breeds" during the National Socialist dictatorship . After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Ludwig Pappenheim was arrested, disregarding his immunity as a member of the Hessen-Nassau Provincial Parliament. After he was tortured in prison , he was deported to the Breitenau camp and later to the Neusustrum concentration camp . Here he was murdered in January 1934.

Even as a schoolboy, Günter Pappenheim refused to give the Hitler salute and to serve in the Hitler Youth . He also did not write school essays in praise of Hitler and National Socialism.

Registration card of Günter Pappenheim as a prisoner in the National Socialist Buchenwald concentration camp

After finishing school he began an apprenticeship as a fitter in the Schmalkalder tool factory "Gebrüder Heller". Here he had contact with foreign forced laborers who had to work in the company. He regularly slipped them bread or other small rations. On the occasion of the French national holiday on July 14, 1943, he played the Marseillaise on his accordion for the French slave laborers . They were denounced and Pappenheim was interrogated by the Gestapo . Playing the French national anthem was - according to the interrogator - "no contribution to Germanness" and shows Pappenheim's anti-subversive tendencies. Pappenheim was also accused of having built up illegal groups. After five days of interrogation in the Suhl prison, Pappenheim was deported to the Gleichberg labor camp near Römhild , then he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp on October 15, 1943 - inmate number 22514. Here he first worked in a road construction team, later the trained fitter was sent to the Gustloff factory on the site of the concentration camp. Together with other inmates, he manipulated parts of guns in order to make them unsuitable. When too many deficiencies appeared and Pappenheim was suspected of being one of the culprits, fellow inmates arranged for him to be admitted to the prisoner infirmary. Then Pappenheim worked in the straw sack embroidery and the equipment room. Pappenheim saw the liberation of the camp at his place of work on April 11, 1945 . He took part in the funeral rally on April 19 and was present when Buchenwald's oath was taken on the roll call square .

As early as April 22, 1945, Pappenheim went home, but suffered a collapse in Arnstadt and had to be taken to the local hospital. When he was more or less fit, he continued on his way to Schmalkalden. In his hometown he sought contact with social democrats, among them comrades of his murdered father. In an honorary capacity, he was the youth representative of the SPD. He initially worked in the district office as a porter, caretaker, stoker and operator. In Schmalkalden he actively campaigned for the union of the SPD and KPD and in 1946 became a member of the SED . Pappenheim belonged to different leaderships in the party and was also active in the FDJ , the FDGB and the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime . He qualified at the state administration school and from 1951 was head of management and training at the Bad Salzungen Social Insurance Institution, 1952/1953 instructor for culture and popular education at the SED district management in Bad Salzungen . After attending the district party school in Meiningen , he was head of the organization department of the SED district leadership in Bad Salzungen in 1954/1955 and then from 1955 to 1957 instructor or deputy head of the parties and mass organizations department of the SED district leadership in Suhl . In 1957 Pappenheim was delegated to study at the party college of the CPSU in Moscow , where he graduated in 1960 with a degree in social science. From 1960 to 1964 he was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Schmalkalden and was a candidate or member of the SED district leadership in Suhl.

From 1964 to 1966 he studied at the Berlin School of Economics with a degree in economics. From 1966 to 1971 he was first secretary of the SED district leadership in Luckenwalde . From 1971 to January 1974 Pappenheim was chairman of the Potsdam district council and member of the district assembly. From 1974 until the turning point in 1989 he was a member of the Central Party Control Commission .

Since April 2001 Pappenheim has been the first vice-president of the International Buchenwald-Dora and Commands Committee and since 2005 chairman of the Buchenwald-Dora e. V. He was also a member of the Federal Committee of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists and the Honorary Presidium of the Fédération Internationale des Résistants (FIR). He was an honorary member of the Alliance for Social Justice and Human Dignity and a member of the Left Party .

Pappenheim was married from 1952. At the end of March 2021, he died at the age of 95 in Zeuthen in Brandenburg .

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Günter Pappenheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Pappenheim - Exclusion and self-assertion. (PDF) In: Worksheet Change of Perspective. March 31, 2021, p. 1 , accessed April 1, 2021 .
  2. ↑ prisoner to 75 years Buchenwald liberation: "We asked ourselves, how will I live?" In: bild.de . March 31, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  3. ^ Declaration by the Buchenwald-Dora camp association. V. here (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  4. ↑ Contemporary witness from the Buchenwald concentration camp Günter Pappenheim lives the Buchenwald oath. In: Märkische Allgemeine . March 31, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  5. ^ Concentration camp survivor Günter Pappenheim dead: Weimar is in mourning. In: Zeit Online. March 31, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  6. ^ Concentration camp survivor Günter Pappenheim dead: Weimar is in mourning. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. March 31, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 3, 1985, p. 5
  8. ^ High French distinction for a former beech forest prisoner
  9. ↑ A strong heart stopped beating Obituary of the VVN-BdA
personal data
SURNAME Pappenheim, Günter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pappenheim, Günther (wrong spelling of the first name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SED functionary, chairman of the Potsdam district council and functionary of prisoner committees
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Schmalkalden
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Zeuthen