Heinrich List (farmer)

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Heinrich List (born February 15, 1882 in Vielbrunn , † October 5, 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp ) was a German farmer and is a Righteous Among the Nations . After he and his wife had offered a fellow Jewish citizen protection from deportation , he was arrested by the National Socialists , taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died.

Life and family

Tomb of Marie and Heinrich List (2011)

Heinrich List lived in Ernsbach , now part of the city of Erbach in the Odenwald. There he ran an agricultural property together with his wife Marie . He served as a soldier in the First World War . His son Jakob (1914–1944) was a soldier in World War II and was reported missing in 1944. The couple also had a daughter, Margarethe.

In November 1941 List took on Ferdinand Strauss, who came from Michelstadt and was then living in Frankfurt, with whom he had been on friendly terms since his youth. Strauss was the son of a family of textile merchants with whom List had had a good business relationship, and List's sister-in-law Katharina Weyrauch was an employee in the Strauss parents' shop in Erbach. Strauss asked Marie List to hide from the persecution by the National Socialists ; Heinrich List was at the time working in the fields. After he returned home, Strauss explained his plans to the Lists, asking them to stay in Ernsbach until he could implement them. Heinrich and Marie List took him in and from then on offered him permanent shelter except for a short time between Christmas 1941 and New Year 1942.

Arrest and death

On March 22, 1942, List was reported to the gendarmerie post in Erbach by Leonhard Freidel. He stated that he had received information from the Polish farm worker Wojciek Klack about the whereabouts of a Jew hiding with List. Klack was a slave laborer employed by List, and the relationship between Klack and List is described as tense. There had already been rumors in Ernsbach about a Jew who was hiding at List, but the Pole's statements were not believed because he had shown himself to be stubborn towards List and his statements were viewed as an act of revenge against List. During a house slaughter there had been an argument between List and Klack, whereupon the Pole reported to Freidel about the hidden Jew. List was interrogated with his wife and Klack the day after the complaint and, despite detailed information from the Pole, denied Strauss's stay. In the course of the interrogation, Klack and List's wife came up against each other, who under the pressure of interrogation finally confirmed the worker's statements. The Hidden Strauss had already left on March 16, 1942 - a few days after the confrontation and in view of the threat of discovery - and fled to Switzerland. Whether Klack denounced the Lists, as described in the gendarmerie protocol, or whether he only testified under pressure and actually betrayed the family to someone else has not yet been clarified. List's son Jakob also made inquiries into this matter during a home leave from the Eastern Front , but it was unsuccessful. On April 17, 1942, List was transferred to the Gestapo in Darmstadt and interned in the Dachau concentration camp on July 17, 1942 . Although the mayor of Ernsbach , Jakob Bär, had the opportunity to intercede to save List from the concentration camp , he remained inactive and later even withheld a petition for clemency submitted by Marie List . In his first letter from the concentration camp, List wrote hopefully:

"Dear woman, hold your head up, this too will pass."

- Heinrich List

On October 10, 1942, Marie List received an official letter from the camp commandant in Dachau, in which she was informed of the death of her husband on October 5, 1942, and his body had been cremated. Heinrich List died in the camp hospital as a result of phlegmon in his lower leg. It is assumed, however, that abuse during detention and the external circumstances in the camp are the main causes of death.

Posthumous honors

  • In 1992 Heinrich List and his wife Marie were honored as Righteous Among the Nations . In 1993 the Israeli ambassador presented Heinrich List's grandsons with the medal and the certificate of appointment at a ceremony in the reconstructed Michelstädter Synagogue .
  • In 2002 the Heinrich-List-Weg was named after him in the city of Erbach .
  • The Silent Heroes Memorial Center in Berlin commemorates Heinrich List, his courage and his fate.

Whereabouts of the tombstone

In December 2014 the descendants of Heinrich List decided to give up the grave a little early. Three options are currently being considered for preserving the tombstone as a memorial. One of them would be to declare the grave as a grave of honor .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the auxiliary birth register of the community of Vielbrunn ( Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS); accessed on September 29, 2018)
  2. ↑ a b c Police report of 23 March 1942 ( English ) Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Tamara Krappmann: The death of a righteous man . In: Darmstädter Echo Verlag und Druckerei GmbH (Hrsg.): Darmstädter Echo . 67th year, no. 22 . Darmstadt January 27, 2011, p. 28 .
  4. ^ A b Protocol of the Gendarmieriepost in Erbach ( English , JPG) Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. March 23, 1942. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  5. ^ "I felt sorry for him" - Heinrich & Maria List ( English ) Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. 1992/2011. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  6. ↑ Paul Thoben: Library: Chronological list of the Germans who have been awarded as "Righteous Among the Nations" in Yad Vashem . 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  7. ↑ Mordecai Paldiel: Saving the Jews: Amazing Stories of Men and Women Who Defied the "Final Solution" . Schreiber Pub, Rockville 2000, ISBN 978-1-887563-55-0 , pp. 149 (English).
  8. ^ Minister of State for Culture and Media : Silent Heroes Memorial Center reopened , accessed on February 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ Echo-online.de (beginning of the article) ( Memento from December 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 18, 2020
personal data
SURNAME List, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German farmer, Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Vielbrunn
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 1942
Place of death Dachau