Gottfried Ballin

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Stumbling block for Gottfried Ballin in Cologne

Gottfried Rudolf Johannes Ballin (born April 9, 1914 in Berlin ; died March 4, 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German resister against National Socialism .

biography

Youth and education

Gottfried Ballin came from a middle-class, wealthy family. His mother Anna Ballin was the daughter of Alexander Ganz, who owned the renowned and oldest bookstore in Cologne, the Lengfeld'sche Buchhandlung (founded in 1842). She studied painting; at the age of 27 she married the doctor Martin Ballin. After participating in the First World War , he committed suicide in 1919.

In 1928 the family - Anna Ballin and her three sons Gottfried, Wolfgang and Arnold - moved into their own house in the so-called "Göttersiedlung" in the Rath district of Cologne . Gottfried Ballin attended the Kreuzgasse grammar school . Since he was not allowed to study after graduating from high school because of his Jewish origins, he joined his family's bookstore as an apprentice after graduating from high school.

From 1932 Ballin was politically active in the left-wing Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP), together with his future wife Helene Sälzer, who moved into the family house as his fiancée.

Resistance and imprisonment

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists , the home of Jewish family was SS househusbands searched, the even aufstemmten the ground. But when they saw Martin Ballin's war awards, they left the house saluting. The walls of the house were still smeared with anti-Semitic slogans. The family then moved into an apartment in downtown Cologne.

Gottfried Ballin and Helene Sälzer nonetheless continued their now illegal resistance work; The meeting point was a tower in the Sülzburg between Rösrath and Lohmar . The head of the SAP group was Erich Sander , son of the photographer August Sander . In the summer of 1934 the group was betrayed and all members except for the two women active in the group were arrested. Ballin was first imprisoned in Klingelpütz and later in Dortmund. On May 31, 1935, 18 members of the SAP were convicted by the IV Criminal Senate of the Hamm Higher Regional Court for “crimes of preparation for high treason”. Ballin was sentenced to five years ' imprisonment sentenced: he had recruited two members, the magazine The Banner sold and forwarded donations to Sander.

Ballin was imprisoned successively in Munster, Herford and Siegburg . During this time he tried to improve his English by reading , since he assumed that after his release he would no longer be able to live in Germany. Meanwhile, his mother and wife were preparing to emigrate to South America , as Ballin was due to be released on September 17, 1939. The mother sold her house in Rath; she was expelled from the settlement association without her deposits being reimbursed. Because Ballin was Jewish, however, he was not released from prison, but instead deported from there to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in October 1939 .

Anna Ballin and her daughter-in-law Helene moved to Berlin and tried for a year with the financial support of Jewish friends to buy Gottfried Ballin through middlemen, which was supposedly possible, but were unsuccessful. Finally the two women returned to Cologne penniless. Ballin's last sign of life was a postcard from Auschwitz . Then his uncle received the message that Ballin's ashes could be picked up there. Richard Rosendahl, a Jewish fellow prisoner from Cologne and a former classmate, later told Helene Ballin that her husband had tried to escape and was then murdered in the gas chamber. Anna Ballin had always refused to emigrate while her son was in custody. She also declined offers to hide her because she did not want to get anyone into trouble. In 1942 she was deported to Theresienstadt and died there.

Gottfried Ballin's brothers, Wolfgang and Arnold, managed to leave Germany on time; Wolfgang Ballin emigrated to the USA , Arnold Ballin to Great Britain and then to South Africa . Arnold Ballin lost contact with his family and only found out about the fate of his mother and brother during a visit to Germany in 1957. After returning to South Africa, he committed suicide.

Commemoration

Stumbling Stone Vogelsanger Str. 1

In memory of Gottfried Ballin, a stumbling stone was laid in front of his former apartment at Steinfelder Gasse 8, Cologne's old town north . In 2014 another stumbling block for him and Richard Rosendahl was placed in front of their former school at Kreuzgasse Gymnasium .

At the former headquarters of the Belgian Haelen barracks in the current Stadtwaldviertel in Cologne- Junkersdorf , a sign with the name Gottfried-Ballin-Haus was unveiled in 2004 in the presence of the widow Helene Ballin ; further boards in the building explain his fate. There is an integrative housing project in the former barracks.

Fritz Bilz , long-time deputy chairman of the EL-DE-Haus association , together with his wife Brigitte published a book with Ballin's letters from Gestapo detention, which his wife Helene had kept. It was also Bilz who got involved in naming the Gottfried Ballin House .

literature

  • Liselotte Berschel: "... just a village". Rath-Heumar in the time of National Socialism. Self-published. Cologne 2012.
  • Brigitte Bilz / Fritz Bilz : These people were beaten to death for me: letters from Gestapo detention and concentration camps . Emons Publishing House. Cologne 1999. ISBN 978-3897051607

References and comments

  1. ↑ Gottfried Ballin. Memorial book. Victims of the persecution of Jews under the Nazi tyranny in Germany 1933-1945, accessed on September 30, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Cologne bookstores - Part 1: Lengfeld'sche is the veteran. In: ksta.de. September 30, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 279.
  4. ↑ Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 280.
  5. ↑ Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 280 f.
  6. ↑ A statement that the house was sold for 800 marks, i.e. for a fraction of its value, is probably based on an error by Helene Sälzer, from whom most of the information about the Ballin family comes. The purchase contract shows that the house was still encumbered with two mortgages of over 21,000 marks, which is why Anna Ballin only had a little more than 900 marks of the purchase price. See: Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 281 f., Corrections.
  7. ↑ Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 281 f.
  8. ↑ Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 283.
  9. ↑ Berschel: "... only one village" , p. 284.
  10. ↑ Gymnasium Kreuzgasse: Two stumbling blocks for Richard Rosendahl and Gottfried Ballin. In: report-k.de. March 30, 2014, accessed September 30, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Fought bravely against the Nazis. In: ksta.de. April 15, 2004, accessed September 30, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Kirsten Pieper: Drive out the old ghost. In: taz.de . Retrieved September 30, 2016 .
  13. ^ Fritz Bilz - Research on National Socialism. In: fritz-bilz.de. Retrieved September 30, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Ballin, Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ballin, Gottfried Rudolf Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resister against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp