Karl Gröger

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Memorial plaque in Amsterdam

Karl B. Gröger (born February 7, 1918 in Vienna ; † July 1, 1943 in Amsterdam , executed ) was a medical student from Vienna who was active in the Dutch resistance during the time of National Socialism .

Life

After the " Anschluss of Austria ", Karl Gröger fled from Vienna to Amsterdam, where he continued his medical studies, which he had already started in Austria. After the German invasion, Gröger was drafted into the Wehrmacht , but released again after a few months because, as a so-called “ quarter Jew ”, he was considered “unworthy of defense”.

Through his work as a dental technician, he met several people who were already active in the resistance, including Coos Hartogh and Henri Halberstadt . From August 1942 they began to publish an underground newspaper called Rattenkruit ( German : "Rattengift"), in which they called for an armed struggle against the occupation.

Together with a resistance group around the artists Willem Arondeus and Gerrit van der Veen , Karl Gröger, after lengthy preparations, carried out an attack on the Amsterdam residents' registration office on March 27, 1943 . They also benefited from the knowledge that Gröger had gained during his time in the Wehrmacht. In the attack, in which the members of the group broke into the building disguised as Dutch police officers, numerous files that were needed for the organization of the deportation of Jews to labor or extermination camps were destroyed. The control of forged identity cards should also be made more difficult. However, the action had only limited success, as the resistance group knew nothing of the existence of a second, identical register.

After the attack, Gröger hid on a farm, but betrayed himself through a telegram to a friend; the SS arrested him on April 8th. A German court martial thereupon sentenced him to death together with 13 other members of the group . After an appeal for clemency by Heinrich Himmler had been rejected, Karl Gröger was born on July 1, 1943 shot .

Awards

literature

  • Daniel Fraenkel, Jakob Borut (ed.): Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germans and Austrians . Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2005; ISBN 3-89244-900-7 ; P. 315 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yad Vashem: Karl B. Gröger , accessed February 14, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Groeger, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gröger, Karl B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter against the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1943
Place of death Amsterdam