Karl Dürkefälden

Karl Dürkefälden , before 1938 Karl Drückefärken , (born April 12, 1902 in Peine , † October 24, 1976 in Celle ) was a German mechanical engineer . He became known for his posthumously published records, which are widely used as sources , and which reveal what politically interested parties learned about the mass deaths of Soviet prisoners of war and the Holocaust during the Nazi era .

Life

Karl Dürkefälden grew up as the third child of a foreman at the Peiner Walzwerke , attended a one-class elementary school for eight years and completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith and draftsman in a Peiner mechanical engineering company by 1919. He then worked in the foundry operations office of the Eisenwerk Wülfel company in Hanover and trained as a mechanical engineer at the Leibniz Academy . At the end of 1924 he became unemployed and only found temporary work with various companies. Only in June 1926 did he find a permanent job again. In 1931 Dürkefälden became unemployed again due to the global economic crisis and only got a long-term position as a designer at the Celle machine factory, Gebrüder Schäfer, in June 1934 . He stayed there - later as chief designer - until the end of his professional career in June 1967.

Dürkefälden was released from military service because of his work in a war-important company . He had never belonged to a political party.

records

The published records from the years 1932 to 1935 are written on single sheets of paper and initially have the character of a diary. Summarizing records of the Reichskristallnacht 1938 and its effects can be found in booklet-like folded double sheets, which are supplemented by an extensive collection of newspaper clippings. The records from 1941 to March 9, 1943 about war and the murder of Jews are provided with subheadings. Notes and documents were apparently available for these summaries, but almost all of them were lost.

The records were in a bedroom closet and could have been easily found if a house had been searched.

The sources of information in Dürkefälden were family members, friends, neighbors and acquaintances who trusted his secrecy and expressed themselves surprisingly openly - apart from their own observations. Chance acquaintances, some with vacationers from the East, and targeted research expanded the spectrum. He could also learn a lot from the regional press because he read and questioned between the lines. Dürkefelden did not have its own radio until March 1939; he secretly continued to listen to the German service of the BBC when it became a criminal offense as a broadcast crime.

When Dürkefälden heard about the evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto on the London radio in the autumn of 1942 , he considered this to be credible; because he linked this message with a speech by Hitler in February 1942 to the founding congress , in which he had loudly proclaimed newspaper headline: ". The Jew is exterminated" From his was staying on holiday Schwager he learned that Soviet POWs were starving en masse and the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and of the SD shot the Jews in the east.

reception

Dürkefälden's records were used as a source for many historical accounts, such as Saul Friedländer as evidence that politically interested Germans knew about the relentless murder of Jews as early as the first few months of 1942. Even Peter Longerich and Bernward Dörner they quote several times. The records make it clear that there were many opportunities to learn about the crimes of National Socialism when information was gathered, questions were asked and there was skepticism.

literature

• Herbert Obenaus and Sibylle Obenaus (eds.): 'Writing how it really was' ... Karl Dürkefälden's notes from the years 1933–1945. Fackelträger Verlag, Hannover 1985, ISBN 3-7716-2311-1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The family name Drückefärken struck him as offensive because it describes the professional castration of piglets in the Low German dialect. See Herbert and Sibylle Obenaus (eds.): 'Writing how it really was' ... Karl Dürkefälden's notes from 1933–1945. Fackelträger Verlag, Hannover 1985, ISBN 3-7716-2311-1 , p. 17.
2. ↑ Herbert and Sibylle Obenaus (eds.): 'Writing how it really was ...' Hanover 1985, ISBN 3-7716-2311-1 , p. 30.
3. ↑ Max Domarus: Hitler - Speeches and Proclamations. Würzburg 1963, Vol. 2, pp. 1843f - Hitler did not give this speech in front of an audience, but rather sent it as a message from the headquarters. Hitler repeated his prophecy that "the war will not destroy Aryan humanity, but rather the Jew will be exterminated."
4. ↑ Saul Friedländer: The Third Reich and the Jews. Seen through. Special edition in one volume, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56681-3 , pp. 715–716.
5. ↑ Peter Longerich: We didn't know anything about it! The Germans and the Persecution of Jews 1933–1945 Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-88680-843-4 , et al. P. 331.
6. ^ Bernward Dörner: The Germans and the Holocaust. What nobody wanted to know, but everyone could know. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-549-07315-5 , s. Register p. 882.