Josef Mildenberger
Josef Mildenberger (born April 16, 1905 in Schwalbach-Derlen , Saarlouis district , † 1959 in Saarbrücken ) was a bricklayer, victim of National Socialism and later a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Saarland and, after its self-dissolution in 1956, of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .
Mildenberger became involved at a political level at an early age: at the age of 18 he became a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) , in 1925 he was a founding member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold in the Saar area , a kind of social democratic protection organization that existed in times of the occupation of the Ruhr and the Hitler coup intended to act against violence and radicalization. When he came of age, Mildenberger switched from the SAJ to the SPD in 1925.
In 1932, Mildenberger was arrested after clashes with the Sturmabteilung (SA) and sentenced to four months in prison. In 1934/35 he was the personal bodyguard of Max Braun , at the time chairman of the SPD in the Saar area.
After the “lost” Saar referendum on January 13, 1935, Mildenberger fled to France with Braun , but returned alone in April. His boss Braun remained in exile until the end of the war. This episode prompted the Gestapo to interrogate him, which ultimately led to his arrest in 1936 ( pre- trial detention in the Lerchesflur ). Eventually he was given protective custody , which made him a prisoner in concentration camps until 1945 . First he came from the end of 1936 to July 1937 to the Lichtenburg concentration camp , which was one of the first to be set up as a “concentration camp for male prisoners” in Lichtenburg Castle (former seat of the Electorate of Saxony ). When the Buchenwald concentration camp was completed in 1937, all inmates of the Lichtenburg concentration camp were moved there. Mildenberger received the prisoner number 430 and became a Kapo tiler in 1938 , later in the construction team in the Kassel subcamp. There are records of the misconduct of his guard, the Higher SS and Police Leader Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont , about this time .
Towards the end of the Second World War, Mildenberger fell ill with typhus and returned to Saarland , which had now been occupied by French again. For the SPS founded in 1946 he took over the chairmanship of the local association St. Johann. In addition to this purely political function, he took over the leadership of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN) in Saarbrücken. Due to serious health problems that can be ascribed to his long imprisonment, he retired from all offices in 1955.
Individual evidence
Web links
- Alfred F. Groeneveld: In the Kassel external command of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Verlag Gesamtthochschul-Bibliothek Kassel, 1991
- Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937-1945, Wallstein-Verlag, 2000, page 299
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mildenberger, Josef |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (SPS, SPD) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 16, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schwalbach-Derlen |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1959 |
| Place of death | Saarbrücken |