Fight Fascism

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Fight fascism , as KDF group called, was a hamburger resistance group in the era of National Socialism . She chose the abbreviation "KdF" in conscious reference to the National Socialist leisure program Kraft durch Freude (KdF). Their political goal was the "elimination of National Socialism and an end to the war on all fronts". Eight members of the group were murdered in the Neuengamme concentration camp in April 1945 after their imprisonment in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp for the final phase crimes .

history

1930–1932: 15-pfennig premium stamp “Fight against Fascism” from the SPD for extra contributions in the party book

The name of the resistance group goes back to the slogan “Fight against Fascism”, which was in use everywhere in Germany at least since the 1930s or at the end of the Weimar Republic . For example, the Social Democratic Party of Germany printed it on the contribution stamps for party book extra contributions of its members on a larger scale.

The later Hamburg KdF group, about whose history and members only little information is available, was initially a “loose circle of friends” in the period before the Second World War, which developed into a resistance group. This group included people from different social classes, such as entrepreneurs, workers, craftsmen and small businesses, doctors, lawyers and architects as well as people working in administration in authorities and industry. Since 1942, forced laborers and prisoners of war who had been deployed in Hamburg companies were included in the group, and in the final phase of the Second World War, air protection officers and members of the Volkssturm were also included .

Since the beginning of the Second World War, there was a connection to the Leipzig resistance through the mechanical engineer Carl Schultz and the metalworker Heinrich Schröder, who were among the leading members. The contact person was a "Dr. Carl Schmidt ”, which was possibly an alias.

After an exchange of experiences, the KdF group formed the first operating groups in Hamburg plants such as HEW and AEG . For reasons of confidentiality, the members had little contact with one another. Members of the KdF group were able to successfully hide politically persecuted people and Jewish children. It supported foreigners with ration cards and occasionally committed sabotage in production plants.

Since 1942/43 the KdF group was in contact with other resistance groups at home and abroad, such as the Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen group and the National Committee Free Germany . Through liaison officers in the NSDAP , they learned details from meetings of the Hamburg Gauleitung . From 1944 onwards, the group set up arms stores and worked out plans to support the Allies during the liberation from National Socialism , including the liberation of prisoners from Neuengamme concentration camp .

Organization and goal setting

According to a post-war report by the Hamburg resistance group, "Carl S." (Carl Schultz) was the founder. Resistance cells were set up in various districts of Hamburg, which were subordinate to group and cell leaders. According to the report, there were a total of 18 group leaders, about 164 cell leaders and about 3800 members. If there were lists of members, they were destroyed after Schröder, one of the group leaders of the KdF group, was arrested.

According to the report, before the intensified air war began , the resistance group had set itself the goal of establishing connections with the surrounding areas, hiding persecuted Nazi opponents and helping Jews . The members' duties also included listening to Allied news broadcasts and relaying the information. After the increased bombing raids on Hamburg and the foreseeable defeat of the National Socialist German Reich , the main task was to distribute the leaflets dropped by the Allies, "in the event of a forced defense of Hamburg [to] avoid unnecessary bloodshed and destruction", to hinder the Volkssturm and the Prepare for the liberation of the prisoners in Neuengamme concentration camp. Likewise, in order to achieve an early end to the war, a faster advance of the Allies should be made possible through acts of sabotage and the prevention of bridges being blown. For this reason, the KdF group set up an ammunition store in Eidelstedt .

As a liberal-bourgeois and anti-fascist resistance group, the members agreed to contribute to the creation of a democratic form of government and a reconstruction by working people and members of the middle class after the end of the war . In terms of foreign policy, the prerequisites for friendly relations with neighboring countries should be created.

Arrests and end-stage crimes

After the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, the Hamburg Gestapo intensified the search for resistance groups. Thanks to the targeted use of informants , many details about this resistance group were soon known.

Since September 1944 at the latest, the Gestapo spy Alfons Pannek had been assigned to members of the resistance group Fight against Fascism , which he persecuted until April 1945. Pannek had met the resistance fighter Heinrich Schröder, one of the group leaders of the KdF group, as early as 1942 through his reading portfolio sales. However, Schröder initially treated him with reluctance until after July 20, 1944, he let it be known that he belonged to a resistance group. According to the directive issued by the Reich Security Main Office to also look for foreign connections, Pannek spied on Carl Schultz, whom he had met through Schröder, from September 1944, and learned that a connection to "a man from Leipzig" (Carl Schmidt) and to the NKFD passed.

Despite intensive manhunt and surveillance, Schmidt could not be tracked down. The Gestapo therefore arrested Heinrich Schröder in December 1944, because he had to know Schmidt's identity. Despite severe torture, Schröder's questioning remained inconclusive. Schröder's wife, who was also briefly imprisoned, was then able to inform Carl Schultz about the arrests.

Carl Schultz was arrested on April 5, 1945 and subjected to "intensified interrogation" in the bunker at Heiligengeistfeld . The next day further members of the KdF group were arrested. Since it became known that there was a Gestapo liaison officer to the resistance group, he should not be warned by the arrest, and so Schultz was sent to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp under the code name "Walter Schüler".

The identity of the “Dr. Carl Schmidt ”from Leipzig was never clarified. Allegedly he was staying at the Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg at the end of January and was arrested there.

Several imprisoned members of the resistance group, who had been brought to the Gestapo prison in Fuhlsbüttel , had to start an " evacuation march" with other prisoners on April 12, 1945 to the reception camp in Kiel-Hassee . During the march, the French slave laborers André Baptiste and Jupp Luve, the Dane Knud Reimond and the Russian Iwan Stotzkuat died from exhaustion or shooting. Another member of the group, Arthur Schulze, who survived the death march, died on May 28, 1945 in the Bordesholm naval hospital as a result of his imprisonment.

The uncovered detention bunker in Neuengamme concentration camp, in which several members of the resistance group were murdered

The eight members of the resistance group who remained in Fuhlsbüttel were on a Gestapo liquidation list and were transported to Neuengamme concentration camp on April 20, 1945 . In the period from April 21 to 24, 1945, the following members of the KdF group were murdered in the final phase crimes in Neuengamme concentration camp :

  • Anna Jakuditsch, "Eastern worker", forced laborer from the Soviet Union
  • Annemarie Ladewig (born June 5, 1919), graphic artist, arrested on March 22, 1945
  • Rudolf Ladewig Sr. (* April 30, 1893), architect, father of Annemarie and Rudolf Ladewig junior, arrested on March 22, 1945
  • Rudolf Ladewig jun. (* February 19, 1923), arrested on March 22, 1945
  • Karel Racmann (born December 20, 1883), master carpenter, member of the Czech Svornost Association , SPD, arrested on September 9 or 13, 1944
  • Elisabeth Rosenkranz (born March 6, 1908), housewife and partner of Rudolf Ladewig
  • Heinrich Schröder, metal worker, communist. In addition to membership in the KdF group, he also had connections to the Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen group . He was arrested in mid-December 1944, and shortly afterwards his wife and stepson, who were released.
  • Vincent Smok, member of the KPD and the Czech Svornost Association

Carl Schultz, who was arrested on April 5, 1945 and was also on the liquidation list, survived due to a mix-up because he was listed under the false name of "Walter Schüler" in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp for reasons of secrecy, and then on April 12, 1945 the "evacuation march" was sent.

Work-up

After the liberation, Carl Schultz provided a lot of information and reports that became part of the KdF Group's criminal complaint from January 21, 1947 against the Hamburg State Police Headquarters and used in the Hamburg Gestapo trial from May 9 to June 2, 1949. After his death, however, no documents were found in his estate that could provide further information about the KdF group, so that many details remain unresolved.

The indictment against members of the Gestapo department, dated October 20, 1948, dealt with other crimes as well as the arrest and murder of members of the resistance group:

“The last major resistance group was formed in April 1945. . . so-called KdF group rolled up after prolonged observation by the accused Alfons Pannek. Their goal was also the elimination of the Nazi state. It was first active in propaganda and was in radio contact with Switzerland and Denmark. . . "

The informer Pannek and his superior, the criminal secretary Henry Helms, were sentenced to several years' imprisonment in the Hamburg Gestapo trial in 1949, but were released from prison in 1951 and 1953 respectively.

literature

  • Maike Bruchmann, in: Ulrike Sparr (Ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Biographical search for traces. State Center for Civic Education Hamburg , 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , pp. 134-138.
  • Herbert Diercks : Memorial Book Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . In it: Victims of the resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus , Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, pp. 52–55.
  • Ursel Hochmuth and Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945 . Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1969, unaltered reprint 1980, therein: Contribution by Gertrud Meyer: KdF Group , pp. 449–464.
  • Gertrud Meyer: Night over Hamburg. Reports and documents 1933-1945. Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971.
  • Günther Weisenborn : The silent uprising. Report on the resistance movement of the German people 1933-1945 . second duplicated and distributed edition Rowohlt 1954, (based on the material collected by Ricarda Huch ), reprint: Library of Resistance, Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1974, reprint 1981, ISBN 3-87682-022-7 , pp. 123-124, and note 18, pp. 408-409.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For example in Ursel Hochmuth and Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance , 2nd edition 1980, p. 449.
  2. ^ Herbert Diercks: Kola-Fu memorial book , Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 53.
  3. ↑ Quoting from Ursel Hochmuth and Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 , 2nd edition 1980, p. 462.
  4. ↑ Herbert Diercks: Freedom lives. Resistance and persecution in Hamburg 1933-1945 , Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 2010, p. 70, footnote 3.
  5. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945. KdF Group , 2nd edition 1980, p. 449.
  6. ↑ a b c d Maike Bruchmann, in Ulrike Sparr (ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude , 2008, pp. 135–136.
  7. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 450, and p. 460-461.
  8. ↑ a b c Günther Weisenborn: The silent uprising. Report on the resistance movement of the German people 1933-1945 . Röderberg, reprint 1981, p. 123.
  9. ^ Günther Weisenborn: The silent uprising. Report on the resistance movement of the German people 1933-1945 . Röderberg, reprint 1981, p. 124.
  10. ^ Quote from the report, printed by Günther Weisenborn: The silent uprising. Report on the resistance movement of the German people 1933-1945 . Röderberg, reprint 1981, p. 123.
  11. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 451, as well as Herbert Diercks: Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 52.
  12. ↑ a b c Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance , 1980, p. 460.
  13. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance , 1980, p. 463, with reference to the indictment against members of the Gestapo Department IV 1a, 14 Js 259/47
  14. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, pp. 458-459.
  15. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 459.
  16. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, pp. 459-460, footnote 8.
  17. ↑ a b Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945 . Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, 2nd edition 1980, p. 462.
  18. ↑ Information from Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 464.
  19. ↑ List of victims in Herbert Diercks: Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu , 1987, pp. 53–55 and in Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 464.
  20. ↑ Peter Offenborn: Karl Racmann . Biography at stolpersteine-hamburg.de
  21. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, pp. 460-461.
  22. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, pp. 462-463.
  23. ↑ Quote from the indictment 14 Js 259/47, printed by Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945 . Second edition 1980, p. 462.