Günther Schwarberg

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Günther Schwarberg (born October 14, 1926 in Vegesack ; † December 3, 2008 in Hamburg ) was a German journalist and author . His book Der SS -Arzt und die Kinder vom Bullenhuser Damm , in which he described the murder of 20 Jewish children, became widely known .

life and work

The son of a teacher was brought up in opposition to the National Socialist worldview. He describes his school days in the “ Third Reich ” as unhappy. At the age of 16, Schwarberg was deployed as an air force helper. The liberation, which, unlike many Germans, he did not see as a surrender, he experienced on a warship in the Baltic Sea. After a short, comparatively mild imprisonment, he was able to start as a volunteer at the Bremen Weser Courier . Via the Bremer Nachrichten , Radio Bremen and a free Düsseldorf news agency he came to the Hamburg weekly magazine Stern , where he stayed for more than 20 years. His journalistic contributions focused on the victims of fascism and the resistance fighters.

From a series of Stern articles about a Nazi war crime on Hamburg's Bullenhuser Damm, Schwarberg grew to a self-imposed life's work. It can only be thanks to Schwarberg's persistence that the names of the 20 Jewish children who were cruelly murdered in the basement of a school in the last days of the war have not been forgotten. He managed to identify most of the children and find loved ones. His book The SS Doctor and the Children from Bullenhuser Damm was widely distributed. With surviving relatives from all over the world, Schwarberg founded the Children of Bullenhuser Damm Association . The creation of the memorial on Bullenhuser Damm with the neighboring rose garden goes back to the initiative of this association, in which Schwarberg was chairman for a long time. In 1988 he was awarded the Anne Frank Medal for his commitment .

Schwarzenberg published his journalistic memoirs in 2007 under the title I'll never forget that . In it he criticizes his Weser-Kurier colleagues Felix von Eckardt and Manfred Hausmann . After Henri Nannen's abdication, Schwarberg had increasing difficulties in accommodating “social explosives” in the star - “the colorful harmlessness fills the magazine”.

Schwarberg died in 2008.

In 2014 the Günther-Schwarberg-Weg in Hamburg-Schnelsen was named after him.

Works

  • The SS doctor and the children from Bullenhuser Damm . Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1979 (first edition).
  • The Majdanek jeweler . Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1981.
  • Target of attack Cap Arcona . Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1983.
  • with Lea Rosh : The last day of Oradour . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1988.
  • Coping - Oradour . ARD documentary, 85 minutes. Director: Lea Rosh u. Günther Schwarberg.
  • The final voyage of the Exodus . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1988.
  • The ghetto . Illustrated book about the Warsaw Ghetto . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1989.
  • The killer washing machine . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1990.
  • My twenty children . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1996.
  • Once upon a time there was a magic mountain. A report from the world of the German magician Thomas Mann . Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1996.
  • Summer days with Bertolt Brecht. Diary sketches under the Danish thatched roof . Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1997.
  • Bremen stories . Donat Verlag, Bremen 1999.
  • My heart is all yours. The story of Fritz Löhner-Beda, who wrote the most beautiful songs in the world, and why Hitler had him murdered . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2000.
  • I will never forget that. Memories from a reporter's life . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See excerpt How beautiful freedom is, Ossietzky No. 20/2007 ( Memento of the original from June 10, 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. , accessed February 13, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sopos.org
  2. ↑ so in Detlef Garbe: memorial activists who are missing - on the death of Günther Schwarberg ... In: Herbert Diercks (Red.): Ausgbegrenzt. "Asocial and criminal" in the National Socialist camp system , Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4005-6 , p. 176.
  3. ↑ Detlef Garbe: Memorial activists who are missing - on the death of Günther Schwarberg ... In: Herbert Diercks (Red.): Excluded. 'Asocial and criminal' in the National Socialist camp system , Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8378-4005-6 , p. 176.
  4. ↑ Schwarberg received it together with the lawyer Barbara Hüsing , his partner since 1975
  5. ↑ I'll never forget that , Göttingen 2007, page 356
  6. ↑ Review , accessed February 13, 2012.
  7. ^ Reviews , accessed February 13, 2012
  8. ^ Reviews , accessed February 13, 2012

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schwarberg, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Vegesack
DATE OF DEATH December 3, 2008
Place of death Hamburg