Helmut Masche

Helmut Masche (also Helmuth Masche ; born March 16, 1894 in Berlin ; † August 28, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Masche, a carpenter by trade , was already organized in the woodworkers' association and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before 1933 .

Masche joined the resistance organization led by Robert Uhrig and other communists during World War II . He took over the protection of the leadership during deliberations and at their meetings with the instructor of the Central Committee of the KPD, Alfred Kowalke, who had returned from the Netherlands in 1941 . He also kept in touch with the operating groups in the AEG turbine factory and at the Gaubschat company .

Masche was arrested on February 4, 1942 as part of the uncovering of the Uhrig organization. He was imprisoned in the Wuhlheide labor education camp and in the Landsberg prison. Masche was sentenced to death by the People's Court in the summer of 1944 and executed on August 28, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison.

Honors

A memorial plaque was placed on Masche's former home at Schwedter Strasse 5 in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg in 1960. It was restored in 1984, but after the fall of the Wall in 1991 it was removed by strangers. The non-profit association Active Museum Fascism and Resistance in Berlin installed a replacement plaque in May 1993, but it has since been stolen as well.

The Helmut-Masche-Schule , a special school with compensatory classes, in Scherenbergstrasse 7 (Prenzlauer Berg) was named after him.

literature

• Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 2. Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 524.
• Luise Kraushaar: Berlin communists in the fight against fascism 1936 to 1942. Robert Uhrig and comrades . Dietz, Berlin 1981, passim.
• Hanne Job (epilogue): Fight for the human right. Life pictures and last letters from anti-fascist resistance fighters . 1st edition, unchanged reprint. Verlag Neuer Weg, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-88021-180-9 , p. 670.
• Ulrike Puvogel, Martin Stankowski: Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism. Documentation II: Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2000, p. 141.