Hans Abraham Ochs

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Hans Abraham Ochs (born on June 10, 1928 in Cologne ; died on September 30, 1936 there ) was beaten up at the age of eight by a group of Hitler Youth in Cologne's Römerpark and died a little later of the consequences.

Life

Hans Abraham Ochs was the oldest child of the Jewish employee Fritz Ochs and his wife Luise, who converted to Judaism before they married . In the early 1930s the family lived in an apartment at Trajanstraße 41, near the Römer- / Hindenburgpark. The father died in 1932.

On September 30, 1936, the mother and her two sons, the younger son Gerhard in a stroller, went for a walk in the Roman Park. Eight-year-old Hans Abraham spoke to an older boy in the park who saw himself being provoked by the " half-Jew ox". A group of five to six Hitler Youth cursed the child, beat him up and beat the boy lying on the ground. The seriously injured child was admitted to the Israelite hospital on Cologne's Ottostraße, where it died a short time later. In the official death report of the surgeon Trude Löwenstein , " peritonitis " was entered as the cause of death .

The obituary was posted in the Cologne Jewish Community Gazette in October 1936 with the following wording:

“On September 30, 1936, 7 pm, my dear child, our dear brother, nephew and grandson Hans was taken away from us after a short, serious illness. In deep sorrow Mrs. widow Luise Ochs and relatives. Cologne, October 1, 1936, Trajanstrasse. "

Grave: Hans Abraham Ochs

Hans Abraham Ochs was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Cologne-Bocklemünd (Hall 16b No. 7). His gravestone bears the inscription: “Hans Abraham Ochs. Perished by a misguided youth. ”It is assumed that the explanatory inscription was added afterwards. The month of death is incorrectly stated.

The mother did not report the crime - obviously for fear of reprisals - and the crime was forgotten and went unpunished . A short time later, out of concern for his future, she gave her younger son Gerhard to a foster family in the Netherlands , where it can be proven that he lived until the end of the 1990s.

Commemoration

Stumbling stone for Hans Abraham Ochs in front of the house on Trajanstrasse 41
Laying point of the Stolperstein at the Römerpark

In November 1988 the journalist Kirsten Serup-Bilfeldt began to research the fate of the child. She was able to fall back on various contemporary witness reports. Hans Abraham's uncle Henry, who had also lived in Cologne, emigrated before the crime, but returned to Cologne at short notice for the funeral in 1936. In the late 1990s he lived in a Jewish retirement home in Laguna Hills , California .

The Nazi Documentation Center in Cologne remembered in 2009 in the exhibition Remembering - A Bridge to the Future. Exhibition of works for the 12th Youth and Schoolchildren Remembrance Day 2009 on the fate of Hans Abraham Ochs.

The Public Against Violence Initiative , supported by Ralph Giordano , Dieter Wellershoff and Alphons Silbermann , campaigned for a public memorial to commemorate Hans Abraham Ochs. In October 2001, a path through the Roman Park was initially unofficially named after the boy. In September 2002 - also due to the great public interest - the Cologne City Center District Council decided to officially name a street in the Friedens- / Römerpark after Hans Abraham Ochs.

The artist Gunter Demnig laid stumbling blocks in memory of him in front of his last place of residence at Trajanstrasse 41 and in the Römerpark .

The fate of the eight-year-old was dealt with by the filmmaker and radio play author Georg Wiekhaus in a short film for the WDR and a radio play.

Web links

literature

Kirsten Serup-Bilfeldt: Between the Cathedral and the Star of David - Jewish life in Cologne - from the beginning until today . 1st edition. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-462-03508-8 , pp. 144-152 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ death certificate Nr.513 from October 1, 1936 the registry office Ehrenfeld
  2. ↑ welt.de: Did you know why there is a Hans Abraham Ochs-Weg in Cologne's Neustadt-Süd? , accessed October 4, 2015
  3. ↑ bundesarchiv.de: Gedenkbuch Hans Abraham Ochs , accessed on October 4, 2015
  4. ↑ a b c Ingrid Müller-Münch: Unpunished act of a “misguided youth” . Frankfurter Rundschau, September 2, 1998
  5. ↑ museenkoeln.de Special exhibitions in the EL-DE-Haus , accessed on October 4, 2015
  6. ↑ ksta.de: Memorial for Hans Abraham Ochs , accessed on October 4, 2015
  7. ↑ ksta.de: Street reminds of Hans-Abraham Ochs , accessed on October 3, 2015
  8. ↑ museenkoeln.de Stolperstein for Hans Abraham Ochs in the Römerpark , accessed on October 4, 2015
  9. ↑ museenkoeln.de Stolperstein for Hans Abraham Ochs in front of Trajanstrasse 41 , accessed on October 4, 2015
  10. ↑ Tod im Römerpark , screenplay, accessed on October 4, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Ochs, Hans Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German victim of a Nazi violent crime
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1936
Place of death Cologne