Hedwig Klein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The stumbling block for Hedwig Klein in front of the University of Hamburg

Hedwig Klein (born February 19, 1911 or September 12, 1911 in Antwerp ; died after July 11, 1942 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German scholar of Islam .

biography

Hedwig Klein was born in Antwerp as the second daughter of the Hungarian oil wholesaler Abraham Wolff Klein and his wife Recha. In 1914 the family moved to Hamburg. Two years later, his father died as a soldier in World War I on the Eastern Front . In January 1927 Hedwig Klein, her mother and her one year older sister were naturalized in Germany.

Hedwig Klein first attended the Israelite girls' school in Hamburg and switched to the Lichtwark School in 1928 . Here she graduated from high school in 1931 and enrolled at the university in the subjects of Islamic Studies, Semitic Studies and English Philology . The university lecturers at that time, according to the later professor of Arabic studies Albert Dietrich , were liberal, cosmopolitan people, who had nothing further than anti-Semitic thoughts, which is why Hedwig Klein felt “safe” in the seminar. He said of Klein himself:

“She was of small, graceful stature, very nearsighted, quiet, reserved and infinitely modest. But she had a critical mind, was skeptical of thetical statements and from time to time voiced her doubts in a low voice. That earned her the […] respectful nickname Šakkāka, the habitual skeptic, which she accepted with a smile […] "

- Peter Freimark: Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 581

In 1937 Klein completed her doctoral thesis on the history of the people of 'Omān from their Acceptance of Islam to their Dissensus , the critical edition of an Arabic manuscript on early Islamic history. However, due to her Jewish origin, she was initially not admitted to the doctorate . She wrote to Fritz Jäger , the dean of the Philosophical Faculty , with a reference to her father's death in war, and was "exceptionally admitted". Her doctoral thesis received the grade “ summa cum laude ”. Her supervisor, Rudolf Strothmann, called her work "a valuable contribution to Islamic studies", and his colleague Arthur Schaade certified her with "a degree of diligence and acumen that one would wish for many older Arabists". She also passed the Rigorosum with “excellent”. When Jäger was supposed to grant the imprimatur necessary for the award of the doctorate , he withdrew after consulting the authorities on the grounds that the "situation had worsened" - shortly before the November pogroms had occurred in 1938 - and he refused Klein the imprimatur.

Hedwig Klein decided to leave Germany. Freimark: "In her desperate situation, Hedwig Klein receives help and support from a man whose energetic and courageous commitment can be praised and whose work in this matter has so far not received any recognition." The geographer Carl August Rathjens arranged an invitation to India for her to take up a job there. She left Hamburg on August 19, 1939 on board the Rauenfels . On August 21, 1939, Klein wrote a card to Rathjens from Antwerp: “In the fine weather I feel very comfortable on board and at the moment I am not worried about the future. Allah will help. I met one of his friends once and I've believed so ever since. "

The ship ran two days late and made a four-day stopover in Antwerp. Because of the threat of war it was ordered back to Hamburg. Freimark: "The race to rescue [...] was lost." In Hamburg, Hedwig Klein returned to her family and suffered "all the torture", as Rathjens later described, from wearing the Star of David to being driven out of her apartment and forced to admit it in a Jewish house . Rathjens himself was imprisoned in so-called “ protective custody ” for a month in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp in 1940 .

Professor Schaade brought Klein into contact with the Arabist Hans Wehr , who was working on a dictionary for contemporary Arabic . The main purpose of this dictionary should be, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler to translate into Arabic, in order to attract the Arab peoples as allies. For this dictionary, Hedwig Klein evaluated works from recent Arabic literature. She put notes on with meanings of words and sent them to the editorial office; She received a fee of 10 pfennigs for each piece of paper. Wehr's employees praised the “excellent quality” of their contributions. "Of course, it is absolutely impossible that she will later be named among the employees," wrote one of the participants to Arthur Schaade on August 8, 1941.

Her work in the military saved Klein from deportation to Riga in December 1941 , for which she had already been scheduled. Schaade had previously pointed out in a letter to the Nazi authorities that “the Wehrmacht and war propaganda are very interested in the completion of the work”. She is "excellently qualified" to work on the lexicon and "the number of Aryan employees is insufficient". Her sister Therese, however, was deported on December 6, 1941 and murdered in Riga. Despite Schaade's intervention, Hedwig Klein was deported on July 11, 1942 on the first train to travel from Hamburg to Auschwitz. Her mother was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto four days later ; like her daughter Hedwig, she is considered "lost" in Auschwitz. Hedwig Klein's grandmother died in Theresienstadt in November 1943.

Schaade never gave up after Hedwig Klein's deportation. In October 1942, for example, he asked his colleague Adolf Grohmann , who was based in Leitmeritz , to inquire about the young woman's whereabouts and to take care of her as an employee. The party loyal Grohmann was not helpful. In addition, he does not believe "that further cooperation by the named is possible, if only for reasons of prestige", he wrote to Schaade on a postcard with the imprint "Heil Hitler". After 1945, Schaade and Rathjens continued to try to clarify the fate of Hedwig Klein. At the end of 1945 Rathjens informed his former neighbor, the theologian Walter Windfuhr : “It can be assumed with 100% certainty that this was the first transport [the one with which Hedwig Klein was deported] that was sent directly to Auschwitz. So it will have wandered straight into the gas oven. [...] I could cry just thinking about it and keep getting attacks of hatred against the Nazis. "

Schaade, on the other hand, complained in a letter to one of the staff at Wehr's dictionary that he had “persuaded Hedwig Klein for a long time and often like a child” to finally finish her dissertation and leave on time. In the few surviving letters from Hedwig Klein, the writer always connects the topic of emigration with the question of scientific activity in her discipline, which is why she did not want to emigrate to the USA. According to Freimark, she apparently could not imagine the “extent and dimension of barbarism” due to her “sheltered life” and the existential threat she was under.

Commemoration

In order to relieve himself, Hans Wehr stated after 1945 when he was denazified that he had “Miss. Dr. Klein aus Hamburg ”from deportation by requesting her for“ an allegedly important war work ”(the dictionary). The book was first published in 1952; In the foreword Wehr thanked “Miss. Dr. Klein ”for her collaboration, but did not mention her fate. The fifth edition of the Wehr appeared in 2011, but there is still no reference to Klein's murder.

"In an act of remembering unusual for its time", Carl August Rathjens was appointed by the Hamburg District Court in the summer of 1947 as Hedwig Klein's absence nurse. He had 56 copies of her doctoral thesis printed, and on August 15, 1947, Hedwig Klein was officially declared a "Doctor of Philosophy". In 1951 she was officially declared dead at the instigation of Rathjens.

On April 22, 2010, stumbling blocks were laid in front of the main building of the University of Hamburg for Hedwig Klein and other murdered Jewish scientists .

literature

  • Ekkehard Ellinger: German Oriental Studies at the Time of National Socialism 1933–1945 . deux mondes, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-932662-11-3 .
  • Peter Freimark : PhD Hedwig Klein - at the same time a contribution to the seminar for the history and culture of the Middle East . In: Eckart Krause u. a. (Ed.): Everyday university life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933–1945 . Berlin Hamburg 1991, Part II, pp. 851-864, ISBN 3-496-00882-2 .
  • Ludmila Hanisch: The successors of the exegetes: German-speaking exploration of the Middle East in the first half of the 20th century . Harrassowitz , Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 978-3-447-04758-6 .

Web links

Commons : Hedwig Klein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b G. Werner / University of Hamburg: Stumbling blocks at the University of Hamburg moved. In: hamburg.de. Retrieved March 16, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Emilie Said-Ruete: An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds. BRILL, 1993, ISBN 978-9-004-09615-8 , p. 134 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ↑ a b Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 851.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Stefan Buchen: The Jewess Hedwig Klein and Mein Kampf : The Arabist who nobody knows. In: Qantara.de. March 16, 2018, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth : Lichtwarkschule / Lichtwarkschüler: "Hitler leads to ruin - don't greet!" , In: Ursel Hochmuth / Hans-Peter de Lorent (ed.): Hamburg: School under the swastika , articles in the "Hamburger Lehrerzeitung" (organ of the GEW ) and the State History Commission of the VVN / Bund der Antifaschisten , Hamburger Lehrerzeitung, Hamburg, 1985, p. 97
  6. ↑ a b Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 852.
  7. ^ Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 853.
  8. ↑ Michael Friedrich: History: About the department. In: University of Hamburg. Retrieved March 17, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 854.
  10. ^ Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , pp. 854/855.
  11. ^ Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 856.
  12. ↑ a b c Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 857.
  13. ^ Ellinger, Deutsche Orientalistik , p. 70.
  14. ↑ Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , pp. 858f.
  15. ^ Freimark, Promotion Hedwig Klein , p. 858.
personal data
SURNAME Little, Hedwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scholar of Islam
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH after July 11, 1942
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp