Karl Kindermann
Karl Kindermann (born February 15, 1903 in Achern ; † October 17, 1983 in Freudenstadt ) was a classical philologist who worked for a time as a teacher, was active as a writer and became known in the 1920s through his arrest and conviction in a Moscow show trial. Dismissed from school as a Jew in 1933, he nevertheless actively participated as an anti-communist propagandist for the Nazis, looked for emigration destinations for Jews outside of Palestine, and emigrated to Japan himself in 1939 with National Socialist support. To this day, his stay there is surrounded by many rumors, most of which include that he was an agent of the Gestapo . Arbitration proceedings in Baden-Württemberg relieved him of these allegations in the early 1950s, but they continued to be the subject of many disputes and speculations about his person.
The early years
Karl Kindermann came from a Jewish family and grew up in the Black Forest. Before the beginning of the First World War he moved with his parents to Durlach , where he entered the Quinta (6th grade) of the local grammar school, today's Markgrafen grammar school , on April 5, 1914 . At the end of the school year 1920/1921 he passed his Abitur here.
Kindermann's father was the later "Durlach town councilor Hermann Kindermann, a KPD man from the USPD who worked as a businessman and employee at the municipal association" and from 1925, "after he had left politics, ran a debt collection company in Durlach". In an article, Susanne Asche reports on early anti-Semitic attacks on Hermann Kindermann, and in an interrogation protocol Karl Kindermann states that his father was arrested during the National Socialist era while attempting to cross the border into Switzerland and was brought to a concentration camp. He later succeeded in emigrating to the USA and accepted American citizenship.
After graduating from high school, Karl Kindermann studied classical philology with Otto Weinreich in Heidelberg in the summer semester of 1921 , before he moved with Weinreich to Tübingen for the following winter semester and the summer semester of 1922, where he also studied parapsychology with Traugott Konstantin Oesterreich “Professor Austria, whose lectures in I heard parapsychology and finally advised me to go to Berlin for further training. ”Kindermann followed this advice and studied classical philology with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff , Werner Jaeger and Eduard Norden from the winter semester 1922/23 .
Kindermann undertook a "successful polar trip to the northwest coast of Spitsbergen in the summer of 1923, during which I was able to arrange gifts from Norway and Denmark for my fellow German students who were suffering from inflation". On October 17, 1923, he gave a lecture on this trip to the upper school students of his former grammar school in Durlach. In the summer of 1924 he received his doctorate with a thesis on "Poisons in antiquity"; he was one of the youngest doctors in the German Reich at the time.
In his book Two Years in Moscow's Houses of the Dead, Kindermann suggests that it was above all the precarious living conditions that he found after his trip to the Nordland in Berlin that encouraged him to take new journeys. In the résumé of 1927 already quoted, it sounds more like a thirst for adventure that drove him away from Berlin again: “Inspired by a successful polar journey [] ..] I decided to go to Russia with two companions on the basis of various invitations to attend the Initiation of scientific relations between the German and Russian academic world to work. As a result, my well-known process developed from this, which ended with a triple death sentence. Even though our journey took a course that we, Theo Wolscht and I, were able to make important reports after our German government returned, as we experienced a lot in the notorious dungeons of the Cheka. We were exchanged for the Leipzig communists on September 15th [1926]. "
The years 1926 to 1933
After his release from Russian custody, Karl Kindermann resumed his studies in order to prepare for the teaching post. On November 29, 1927, he took the scientific examination in Karlsruhe and began his legal clerkship in Lahr on December 1, 1927 . The legal traineeship, which he also spent in Eppingen and Bruchsal in addition to Lahr , was extended because he had to stay in a lung hospital for several months in 1928. On September 1, 1929, he passed the pedagogical examination in Lahr. Following his legal clerkship, Kindermann was employed as a teaching assistant in Eppingen from September 1, 1929. In the following years he was transferred several times and worked either with half or full deputation at different schools in Baden, most recently at the Zeppelin Oberrealschule with Realgymnasium in Konstanz , before leaving school service with effect from April 18, 1933 due to the law to restore professional civil servants was released. He was never able to get an appointment as a student councilor even as part of his reparation proceedings.
Kindermann's school career before 1933 did not go smoothly. Since 1928 he had had a very close relationship with a then fourteen-year-old student (“Ma cher petite Lise”), with whom he secretly got engaged on Pentecost 1932. The complaints brought up by the young woman's father fizzled out after Kindermann had promised to stay away from the woman until she was of legal age.
Further complications in his academic career arose from his mission after his release from Russian dungeons. He describes this mission in a letter dated March 16, 1952 as follows: “I was innocently sentenced to death in the Moscow student trial in 1925, and I was exchanged for KPD people. Since then, I have uninterruptedly carried out an educational activity against Boschewism. ”He was so committed that in late 1929 / early 1930 there were several correspondence because of his frequent holiday requests for lectures. On April 19, 1930, he even asked to be transferred to a “humanistic institution”: “My political enlightenment, which has repeatedly been recognized in government circles, makes it appear desirable for reasons of personal security to work in a larger city. If it is possible, I ask that I use myself in Freiburg, because there I would have the opportunity to do Russian studies at the university and find the literature necessary for scientific work. ”But instead of Freiburg he ended up in Bruchsal and now apparently had enough time to finish his book about the trip to Russia, which appeared in 1931.
On April 23, 1931, Kindermann reported to his employer about a meeting on March 30, 1931 with “Reich Minister of the Interior, Dr. Wirth in Berlin ":"Mr. Reichsminister Dr. Wirth declared himself ready to take over the service of the Reich Ministry of the Interior as a scientific assistant. He suggested that I first ask the Baden teaching administration to grant them a leave of absence. "This request, leave for one year, was granted at the beginning of May 1931. But: On June 13, 1931, he was assigned to the Wilhelm Gymnasium in Rastatt with a full deputation from June 17, and on June 20 the Baden Ministry of Education and Teaching had "the teaching assistant Karl Kindermann ... open to him." Decree of May 4, 1931 No. B 16190 will be revoked because, according to the Reich Minister of the Interior z. There is currently no prospect of taking on the teaching assistant Kindermann in the service of the Reich Ministry. ”From a personal letter from Wirth to his Baden ministerial colleague, it emerges that although Kindermann had spoken about employment in the Ministry of the Interior, he was by no means given a firm promise .
It cannot be determined how Kindermann gained access to Wirth in Berlin and whether he believed he was on the same political line with the minister at the time. In 1951, Wirth also came into the focus of Kindermann's anti-Bolshevik mission. In connection with discussions that Wirth had with representatives of the Kremlin and the GDR leadership at the end of 1951, Kindermann accuses him of still standing in the shadow of the Rapallo Treaty and of doing too little for the repatriation of German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union . Kindermann published his allegations in an open letter to former Chancellor Dr. Wirth , published on January 13, 1952 in the Badische Rundschau :
“In your patriarchal age one usually sees things in this world as transitory. But no matter how old an old man might think about politics and its forms of expression, it follows for everyone who, like you, once taught the youth of high schools in Baden, humanistic sciences, that the human is high above the issues of the day. I am convinced that during the years of your voluntary exile in hospitable Switzerland you have come to this ultimate and lasting view of life from your own experience.
In a word: as things stand, you can only return to Freiburg with success in this area! If you do not have the courage to speak up for your German brothers in European and Asian Russia publicly and in a suitable place, then your trip to the Eastern Zone will ultimately become a matter for your Freiburg Stammtisch, a prospect that neither your ambition nor your wishes will be can fulfill with satisfaction. "
The years 1933 to 1939
Anti-Bolshevik propagandist in the service of the Nazis
At the time of his discharge from school, Kindermann was a teacher in Constance. The district office of Konstanz announced on April 16, 1956 that he had been registered there until May 27, 1933 and then moved away unknown. He himself claims to have gone to Switzerland immediately after his release. On April 6, 1933, the Baden State Police Office informed the Baden Ministry of Culture:
"According to the radio communication from the Ministry of the Interior State Criminal Police Office in Berlin dated April 5, 1933 No. 171, Dr Karl Kindermann was allowed to inspect the Sohutz prisoners because of the atrocity lie on the instructions of the Minister for Propaganda, in order to gain his impressions on the lecture tour he intended spread through Switzerland and France.
Kindermann is a Baden teaching assistant and of Jewish descent. "
On April 20, 1933, the Propaganda Ministry denied having forwarded such an invitation to Kindermann, but articles had already appeared in the press confirming the information from the Baden State Police Office .
"Dr. Kindermann's defense action. Berlin, April 4th. (Own wire report) On Saturday evening, Dr. Karl Kindermann - Konstanz at the invitation of the German broadcaster in Berlin radio about the situation of the political communist prisoners in Germany and Russia. Together with editor-in-chief Berndt - Berlin he talked about his impressions, which he had during the conversation with the previous leader of the KPD, Ernst Thalmann and a number of political prisoners from different camps. The Paris press paid great attention to this lecture, which means a vigorous refutation of the atrocities alleged to have been committed against arrested German Communist leaders, and in editorials it expresses that the gathering of all forces to fight against Bolshevism is the main merit the national government. In the next few weeks, Dr. Kindermann at the invitation of the Russian emigre organizations in a large rally in Paris on 'The National Government and Communism'. As we learned, another report about Dr. Kindermann's anti-communist work abroad can be brought by him. "
An article in the Badischer Beobachter from April 2, 1933 refers to some personal motives that Kindermann pursued with his prisoner visit, during which he came into contact not only with Thälmann, but with a number of other prominent Nazi prisoners, precisely because of them Prominence it is unlikely that the Propaganda Ministry should not have helped Kindermann to make this appearance. In addition to Thälmann, the article mentions: Erich Mühsam , Werner Hirsch , Ernst Schneller , Alfred Kattner , Fritz Küster , Max Hodann and Josef Römer . Thälmann was particularly interested in Kindermann:
“The conversation between Dr Kindermann, who, as already mentioned, was sentenced to death at the Moscow student trial after two years in Cheka prisons, and some of the communist prisoners was very interesting; Thämann hid in his cell and declared that he no longer wanted to hear about the whole Kindermann affair. Kindermann kindly reminded Thalmann that it was he who had sent telegrams to the Soviet Union calling for Kindermann to be shot. In discussions with the political prisoners, Kindermann contrasted the treatment of these people in Germany with the treatment he had received in Cheka prisons. He did not have an hour of free time a day, his cell was small and dirty and had no clean bed or furniture, only a wooden cot made of three boards. He received no morning coffee and no good lunch, only warm water and moldy bread. Unlike the German prisoners, he did not receive newspapers and books every day, but for two years had not seen a line of print. He was never allowed to write or receive a letter. The treatment of the German prisoners towards the prisoners of the Cheka is downright princely, their cells paradises compared to the cells of the Moscow prisons. "
Even if you look up to Kindermann that, in view of his own experiences in Moscow prisons, he took the opportunity to settle accounts with the German communists, he still denies his own experiences. He must have been aware that the prison conditions he described as "appropriate and decent" had been embellished for the press in the same way as his own Moscow cell before a visit to a group of German communists who were to report on his good prison conditions in Germany.
During his interrogation in 1948/1949 Kindermann did not mention these activities at all, but in a letter from him dated April 9, 1933 to the “State Commissioner Professor Dr. Fehrle ”in the Ministry of Culture and Education in Karlsruhe, with whom he had already had a conversation before his stay in Berlin, he boasted of his Berlin activities:“ On the other hand, during my stay in Berlin I was able to talk to the political police and the management of Horst-Wessel -Haus initiate important discussions about the defense against the Communist attempts at damage insofar as they are directed against Germany. In agreement with the Reich Propaganda Ministry, I visited the most famous communist prisoners and spoke about them the next day at the invitation of the German broadcaster on the radio together with a prominent man from the National Socialist press. My many years of experience in the fight against communism have of course helped me. I am enclosing two excerpts that have been published by most of the German press. ”And elsewhere in the same letter:“ Today, after consulting the responsible authorities, I am going to Switzerland, Italy and Austria to do so to give some lectures on the subject of 'The National Government and Communism'. From my knowledge of the psyche abroad, I can only emphasize how important it is for Germany at the moment to get out of this isolation in which we are at the moment. "
There are no indications that Kindermann confirmed himself as a propagandist for the Nazis in the same way in the following years. This is all the more astonishing as it is said that it was his book on Russia and his services to Germany from the National Socialist perspective that later enabled him to travel to Japan.
Door opener for a Nazi-friendly Turk
In the questionnaire of the French military administration about membership of the NSDAP, Kindermann lists the following stays abroad for the period between 1933 and 1938 on June 9, 1949:
- “Palestine in the summer of 1933 because of emigration issues
- Cyprus 1933/1934 emigration issues
- Egypt 1934 dto.
- Cyprus and Palestine 1934/35 dto.
- Greece 1938 visit "
His already mentioned propaganda trips of 1933 to Switzerland, France and Italy do not appear here, and neither is a momentous trip to Turkey and Bulgaria. In a letter to the American Talmudic scholar and novelist Marvin Tokayer , Kindermann reported that after his release from school he went to Smyrna (Izmir) in 1933 and met the "Turkish Hitler", Cefat Rivat Bey , there by chance . The latter thought he was a Nazi and had hoped for help with the plan to get Hitler's support for a Nazi coup in Turkey. Although he did not see the slightest possibility of being able to work for Cefat Rifat in this sense, he had promised to help him in order to gain his trust and thus perhaps get the opportunity to avert this dangerous plan.
While Kindermann stayed then still in Bulgaria, where he called the "splendid leader of comitadji , Wantsche Mikhailov visited who wanted to establish a new Macedonia", it had informed his Berlin landlady about the fact that Cefat Rifat had arrived and on the recommendation Kindermann's also a Room with her.
After Kindermann's return to Berlin, he was convinced that it was necessary to make Cevat Rifat acquainted with Hitler as quickly as possible and, despite the danger this posed for him as a Jew, to attend this meeting in order to better monitor and destroy Cevat Rifat's dangerous anti-Jewish plans . Via a cook in the Reich Chancellery, who had to promise Cefat Rifat to translate an “Aryan cookbook” she had written into Turkish, it was possible to come into contact with Hitler's adjutants Wilhelm Brückner and Rudolf Hess and to allow Cefat Rifat to meet with both of them accompany. After that, as Kindermann claims, things became too dangerous for him as a Jew, and the first thing he did was to look for new quarters for Cefat Rifat. He found it in Nazi acquaintances whom he asked at the same time to secretly observe Cefat Rifat. Soon afterwards he was confronted by Cefat Rifat with his knowledge of his Jewish identity, and a few days later he received a summons to the Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, where he first met Reinhard Heydrich . During the interrogation it turned out that Kindermann had been denounced by the kitchen staff, but he was able to dispel all concerns about himself and left the Gestapo unmolested.
In a letter from Kindermann to Joseph Walk, the aforementioned relocation of Cefat Rifat mutates into a conspiratorial act through which he “u. a. thwarted an intended Hitler coup in Turkey ”. He had had Cefat Rifat "monitored by Jewish people" (by which Cevat Rifat's new landlady and her acquaintances might be meant), and when Cefat Rifat submitted an application to Hitler, he had "completely changed his proposals (in German, he only spoke French). so that nothing came of it. This put my life in danger (Gestapo, Prinz Albrecht Str., But I could talk myself out of it. "
The continuation described by Kindermann then slips into the realm of the imagination:
“The Turk was asked by Streicher to go to Nuremberg, and since he had not yet received any money from the Nazis, Frau Schöppentau [Cefat's landlady] gave him the money for the ticket. He came back to Berlin very disappointed because Streicher wanted him to write an anti-Jewish book about Palestinian Jews. Cefat was an officer in the Turkish army during the First War and spoke with great esteem about the bravely fighting Jews (on the British ... he refused to falsify this fact despite Streicher's request. Then he was received by Hitler and was so disillusioned that he had had enough of Nazism. He found out that Alexander Schmerkes [the landlady's acquaintance] was a Jew and offered me to speak publicly against Nazism in Geneva. I immediately went to Dr. Franz Meyer , Head of the Palestine Office in Meineckestrasse in Berlin, but he replied that the matter was too dangerous. If Hitler found out about the relationship, he would probably arrest the representatives of the Palestine Office. Well, Cefat was returning to Izmir. "
The disillusionment of Cefat Rifat cannot have been that far: the magazine Millî İnkılâp , which he edited, was one of the most aggressive anti-Semitic publications in Turkey until it was banned in 1934 , and it has taken many articles and caricatures from the striker and the striker he remained connected as an author until at least 1937. Under the pseudonym “Djev” he was the Turkey correspondent of the striker and Ulrich Fleischhauer's Welt-Dienst , and according to Turkish research, Cefat Rifat's articles and books still have an important ideological influence on Islamist parties and groups in Turkey.
In 1945, Kurt Hellmer described in the German-Jewish emigrant newspaper Aufbau Kindermann in Berlin as “Secretary of an Arab Independence Party”. “It was an anti-Jewish group, apparently subsidized with Nazi money, which agitated against the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state. When Kindermann was subsequently boycotted by the Jews, he threatened to report to the Gestapo. ”Hellmer dated this activity of Kindermann following the Cyprus project to be described below, which is why it is not entirely certain whether Kindermann's secretary job is the same is also mentioned by Franz Meyer, but there is much to be said for it. Meyer's testimony relates to the aforementioned Ulrich Fleischhauer, who was appointed as an expert witness in the Bern trial in October 1934 to prove the authenticity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion .
"And Dr. K. --- was the private secretary of this Colonel Fleischhauer. He reported to me that a meeting between Colonel Fleischhauer and Julius Streicher and some pasha had taken place in the private Berlin quarters at which the organization of anti-Jewish work in the Near East had been discussed. He, K., listened to this conversation from the next room. "
Meyer, who was fully aware of the enormity of his allegations, stated that he had checked all of Kindermann's information at the time and also located the apartment in which the conversation between the butcher, Streicher and the pasha had taken place. He found no evidence to doubt Kindermann's role in this affair. Franz Meyer was able to contribute even more experience with Kindermann:
“Everyone knows, of course, what April 1, 1933 meant for the German Jews: boycott - yellow spot! On the day before April 1st, a Jew (full Jew according to race and religion) spoke on the Berlin radio on behalf of a National Social Party office. The day after the boycott has Agudath Jraelb angagiert these same Jews as political consultants, so that he at the Prussian Prime Minister Goering because of the shafts ban should intervene, and in the fall of that year has Reichsbund Jewish Front Soldiers him to Abyssinia sent so that he land to settle there to procure for the Jewish front fighters from Germany.
The man who not only received these three orders, but also carried them out, of course not in all three cases with success, was Dr. Karl Ki ......., who at the end of the twenties had already been urgently preoccupying the public because he and two colleagues had been arrested and sentenced to death in Moscow under strong suspicion of espionage. It was only with great effort that the Stresemann government managed to save the lives of the three students in exchange with political prisoners from the other side.
Since then, which incidentally throws a spotlight on the inner history of the Weimar Republic, Dr.Ki ... had been in close contact with the National Socialist party headquarters, which worked together with the government agencies in office in the fight against Bolshevism, and in particular enjoyed the protection of Rudolf Hess, the deputy of the 'Führer'. "
In order to confirm his statements, Meyer expressly points out that he has "seen the Berlin radio program, the letter of appeal from Agudath Yisrael and the telegrams with which Ki. from Cairo asked the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers to replenish his travel budget ”.
The Abyssinia Project
In the letter to the “State Commissioner Professor Dr. Fehrle ”, Kindermann prides himself on his activities in Abyssinia, without mentioning that he undertook them on behalf of and with payment from Jewish organizations in order to acquire settlement land for Jewish front-line soldiers (which he expressly emphasized during an interrogation in 1948/1949) . Opposite Fehrle, the Jewish background of the trip remains unmentioned and mutates into an economic promotion campaign in the interests of the German Reich.
“I was at the Foreign Office, at the main office of the Association for Germanness Abroad, in industrial circles and at the Propaganda Ministry to discuss my preparations for the trip to Abyssinia with the gentlemen responsible. As I told you, I intend to found the first trade school with an attached medical institute in Addis Ababa. After a few months of preparation, I hope to be ready to settle the question of the use of a number of German trade teachers who will later be followed by doctors through direct negotiations and agreements between the German legation and the Abyssinian government. The department heads of the Foreign Office very much praised my private initiative and emphasized the urgent need to expand German economic and cultural influence in the Orient in this way. People want to be ready to give me whatever support they can. The Reich Ministry for Propaganda was also extremely interested in it. It is believed that this quiet work abroad will make it possible to open up Abyssinia for German exports. "
In fact, he could be sure of the support of the Propaganda Ministry and the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie (RDI) for this project , because in a letter dated September 19, 1933 the Ministry informed the RDI: “At the request of Dr. Kindermann is informed that there are no concerns about the project. "
Kindermann traveled to Palestine, where he met an informant and where allegedly the Empress of Abyssinia was also supposed to go. For his adventure in Abyssinia he received a total of 7,500 Reichsmarks from the Reich Association of Jewish Front Soldiers, but achieved nothing. The contact to Abyssinia did not come about because his formerly known informant, who he met in Palestine, a Polish Jew, wanted nothing to do with German Jews. The Reichsbund had previously refused to invite Kindermann's informant to Berlin, allegedly because he wanted nothing to do with a Polish Jew.
The Cyprus Project
After the failure of the Abyssinia Mission, Kindermann stayed in the area and spent three months in Cairo . From there he traveled to Cyprus and allegedly found good conditions for immigration there. He then returned to Berlin and founded the Cyprus Emigrants Association . “But very soon I met with great resistance from the leading Jewish circles, because they saw this as a threat to Palestine ... In 1936 I came back [from Cyprus] and now negotiations with the Reich Ministry of Economics began. A Dr. Wohltat granted me a transfer of £ 100,000. The Zionists approached me to hand over the transfer to you. "
Kurt Hellmer essentially confirmed this story in the course of construction in 1945 and wrote that Kindermann had pretended to have been director of the Cyprus Settlement Society. Franz Meyer also went into detail on Kindermann's Cyprus project and indicated that he had worked closely with the German consul in Cyprus, who himself wanted to earn money from the property sales that Kindermann pretended to thread.
On December 7, 1945 in the published structure of a marked only with the initials "EB" letter in English to Hellmers article that allows a more nuanced view of children's Cyprus project. The editor's letter became aware of the project in June 1934 through an advertisement in the Hamburg Israelitisches Familienblatt and, after expressing interest, received mail from Kindermann from Alexandria about four weeks later , who pretended to be there to purchase equipment for an existing chicken farm. The prospect said they were willing to invest $ 10,000 if they had the opportunity to verify everything.
The two met at Christmas 1934 in Berlin. During a detailed discussion about the project, the interested party got the impression that Kindermann was very careful to get hold of the foreign currency. He found it confusing when Kindermann told him that 50 million chickens had already hatched in Larnaka. “EB” became completely suspicious when Kindermann offered to appoint him as his representative in Cyprus as soon as he had paid the $ 10,000. When the interested party insisted on a detailed preliminary examination, Kindermann lost interest in him and left, ostensibly to close an important deal in Amsterdam for the relocation of five interested parties from different parts of Germany.
On December 31, 1934, "EB" went to Cyprus without Kindermann's knowledge to meet with the two people mentioned in the discussion between him and Kindermann. But before that he learned that Kindermann had left after only a short stay and that neither a farm nor a single chicken existed. Kindermann's representatives were then a man who had been deported from the USA four months earlier and another, Brandt, who appeared to be running a real estate office. “EB” found out about an emigrant from Wroclaw to whom Kindermann and Brandt had sold an allegedly perfect orange grove, which in reality turned out to be a saltwater area. The man from Breslau had lost everything.
“EB” stayed in Cyprus for about four months. During this time he never saw Kindermann, but noticed that Brandt visited the German consulate in Larnaka on a regular basis. He ends his letter to the editor with the sentence: "I fear that quite a number of people have been cheated of their last resources by this criminal."
The project also had a legal aftermath in which Kindermann and one of his “representatives” faced each other. “In 1937 he fell out completely with his previous colleague in the management of the Cyprus Association. The two led an angry process, which luckily was pending before the arbitration board of the Reich Representation of German Jews . The two previous friends accused each other of incursion - racial disgrace - embezzlement and other crimes. It wasn't a pleasant file. Then there was a few months of rest. "
Between Cyprus and Tokyo
The Cyprus project was probably Kindermann's last major activity abroad before his emigration, although not his last. When he was interrogated in 1948/1949, he was bitter about how little his commitment “for the Jewish cause” had been appreciated at the time: “The fact that I had negotiated for the Jewish leaders had become known to various emigrants. I was soon hounded in the foreign press. I was made bad. The jew. Leaders all escaped abroad and the poor people stayed behind, they came to me and asked for advice. "
In the archives, April 8, 1936 is mentioned as the next relevant date after the Cyprus project. On that day, Kindermann was in Frankfurt am Main for his sister's wedding and got to know his future wife: the kindergarten teacher Lotte Henriette Ruhr, born on June 8, 1912 in Offenbach. The couple were married in Frankfurt on June 18, 1936. Nothing is known about his professional activities from this time and about his possibilities of making a living.
On April 1, 1937, Kindermann found a job in the Caputh Jewish children's and rural school home . In Joseph Walk's work notes there is a reference to this that Kindermann was "employed under pressure from Leschnitzer". Adolf Leschnitzer was the head of the school department, which was subordinate to the Reich Representation of German Jews, and the Caputher facility was dependent on support from Jewish welfare and nursing offices as well as subsidies from Jewish associations.
There are almost no reports about Kindermann's time in Caputh. Only Joseph Walk mentions that after the school was presented to Japanese visitors by the rulers as an example of autonomous Jewish education in the Third Reich on the occasion of the 1936 Olympic Games , a year later an educator - Karl Kindermann - received permission , "To visit Athens with a selected group of students at the invitation of the Greek king". Kindermann himself mentions, as already quoted above, a trip to Greece in 1938, but does not give any further information about it in the questionnaire of the French military administration. In his work notes, Walk indicated that an invitation from the Greek king was unlikely, and when asked by Kindermann, he received the following information on December 14, 1976:
“When I was 5 I went out from Caputh. Students took a trip to the island of Samos in 1937. I brought this because of my antikomm. Ready attitude to get permission. We were looking for opportunities for Jews to immigrate to Greece. "
Again, the stated purpose of the trip and the importance of Kindermann's anti-communism are hard to believe, but even harder to refute.
Despite this freedom of movement, which Kindermann was still able to enjoy in Caputh, he planned to move to another location in the spring of 1938: “In the spring of 1938 I received an unexpected request from the management of the Jewish high school 'Philantropia' in Frankfurt / Main to contact me The character and reputation of the 'teacher training candidate Dr. Ki 'who applied for a position as an assistant teacher. Given the long interruption in the aforementioned career, the school management must attach particular importance to precise information. And since Dr. Ki. would have referred to me as an expert [presumably a connoisseur] of his public work, I would be asked for a detailed (information) statement. "Meyer's statement was negative, and Kindermann stayed in Caputh.
In the reparation files there is a long report by Kindermann about the destruction of the school on November 9, 1938 , during which a large part of his household items including his library and his record collection were destroyed. He took part in the evacuation of the students to Berlin, but at the end of 1976 he still described it as if he had been the only rescuer of the children: “When the school building was stormed in November 38, I brought many children on a march through the night Forests to Berlin in safety. ”Kindermann did not need to mention that the entire teaching staff was involved in this rescue operation. But he took the opportunity to inform Joseph Walk about another heroic deed: "So I rescued a Mr. Friedmann, now USA with his family, from the prison in Braunschweig." Nowhere else is there a comparable statement, which actually contradicts Kindermann's urge to communicate, and it is also contained rather en passant in a paragraph of the letter on the occasion of the arbitration chamber and reparation proceedings. Joseph Walk checked the matter anyway. In the work notes he reported that Lotte Friedmann, whose husband it was about, and the employee (youth leader) at the Caputh Jewish children's and rural school home , had confirmed Kindermann's information in a letter to Marvin Tokayer. This positive act by Kindermann played no role in the interviews in 1948/1949, and so it must remain open for the time being how he managed to free the arrested man from prison.
After the end of the country school home, Kindermann moved with his family to Berlin because he had not been granted any further residence permits in Caputh. He found a job at “an orthodox grammar school in Berlin” of Adass Yisroel's Adass School , and reported on his work there: “I myself gave u. a. Contemporary teaching, d. H. I informed the children about the whole situation in which we lived. I also helped individual children to emigrate. Since the textbooks were all Nazi, I freely taught according to the old Plötz, history calendar. We used good, classical music. "
One of his students there was Nathan Peter Levinson , who later became the state rabbi of Baden-Württemberg. In his autobiography, Kindermann is “one of the most fascinating personalities I have ever met in my life. He used to say that he could only give geography lessons in relation to the countries he had already been to, and he had toured most of them. ”Walk adopted Kindermann's assessment as a“ great teacher ”, apparently based on a Levinson letter from the year 1976 in his work notes and added, citing another source: "Rumors about collaboration with the Nazis not accepted by the students." Levinson, who knew Kindermann's life story well, was convinced in his 1996 book that those against Kindermann The allegations raised, especially those from the Jewish side, were unjustified and Kindermann was deprived of the opportunity to “open his case or bring his accusers”. This is surprising insofar as Kindermann in some letters to Levinson asked Levinson quite clearly for support, but apparently did not receive a positive answer from him.
In his trial chamber proceedings, Kindermann stated:
“Now I said to myself, but it's over, and I wanted to be quiet. I didn't want to go to America. So I turned to the Japanese, I had good relationships there and they promised me that I could work as a professor there. I always showed my book at these points and that's how I managed everything. [...] On the occasion of my trip to Abyssinia, which had failed, I was summoned by a certain Mr. Dehmann from the Reich Propaganda Ministry Dept. - Defense against Lies - and interrogated in the direction that it was cleared up to what extent my statements etc. during my stay are likely to go abroad. The conversation naturally turned to my publication.
I had a German -J passport. I had to pass through a number of German positions before I was allowed to leave for Japan. I was generally told that there would be no trouble in my way and that it would be best for me to go away because measures would be taken that would affect me too. Everyone was extremely decent to me everywhere. "
Kindermann did not say why he did not want to go to America, where his sister and probably his father now lived, and he says nothing about where his good contacts with the Japanese came from, nor what kind of contacts they were. The later police attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo, Franz Paul Huber, gives a hint. On the other hand, after arriving in Japan, Kindermann boasted that he had “worked for the Foreign Office in the context of the Anti-Comintern ”. This alludes to the General Association of German Anti-Communist Associations founded in October 1933 , as Kindermann also pretended to have worked for the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP, but it could also refer to activities by him within the framework of the Anti-Comintern Pact concluded between Germany and Japan in 1936 and thus explain how Japan moved into the focus of Kindermann's interests.
With reference to the estate of Eugen Hoeflich (Moscheh Ya'akov Ben-Gavriêl), which is in the Central Zionist Archives (CZA) in Jerusalem, Hanan Harif reported that even before 1937 Kindermann had thought of “a To write a book about the Orient ”. In this connection, I politely recommended to him in a letter dated January 3, 1937: “Japan Institute: I recommend that you inquire about the address of Professor Kanokogi there. He - a friend of mine who I haven't heard from for many years - was the head of this institute at the time and can certainly tell you a lot. ”To what extent Kindermann followed this advice and whether the offer of a professorship came about in this way remains to be seen stay. The idea of the professorship came to an end six months after Kindermann arrived in Japan.
The stay in Japan
Departure with the help of the Nazi apparatus
As part of the reparation proceedings, the Hamburg-Amerika-Linie certified Karl Kindermann on February 11, 1960 that “you and your wife and daughter were in the cabin class (highest class) on our former MS 'ST.LOUIS' on February 2 , 1960 . March 1939 from Hamburg / Bremerhaven to New York and with the steamer 'TAIYO' from San Francisco on April 27, 1939 to Yokohama. ”According to the shipping company, the train journey New York / San Francisco was 1st class. The costs converted into Reichsmarks amounted to approx. 4,000 RM.
When asked where he got the money for this luxurious trip, Kindermann replied in a letter dated April 22, 1960: "Since I had a wealthy, meanwhile gassed uncle, he provided us with some equipment for emigration again." He provided clues as to how it was even possible for him and his family to obtain an exit permit from Germany. Karl Hamel, interpreter and translator at the German Embassy in Tokyo from 1941 to 1944/45, remarked in a written statement of February 10, 1949 about Karl Kindermann: “It may be true that the Gestapo gave its consent to the K.'s departure because nobody could travel abroad without their consent at the time, not even K. ”And in this special case one can add that Kindermann would probably not have been allowed to enter Japan without the help of high-ranking German government agencies , because the Japanese foreign minister had already ordered in a circular at the end of 1938 “that the entry of refugees into Japan and its colonial areas was prohibited”. This protection of Kindermann becomes even clearer in the statement of the aforementioned Franz Paul Huber of January 4, 1949.
“In 1939 or 1940, the Embassy in Tokyo received a letter from the Berlin Foreign Office, in which it was stated that a certain Dr. Kindermann will arrive. Kindermann is a Jew and therefore has to leave Germany, but because of his services in Germany he enjoys all the facilities, so one should try to find him with Japanese offices. However, employment within the embassy would not be an option. Kindermann appeared with his family a few weeks later in Japan and called on the embassy. The Kindermann affair was handed over to me for processing by the ambassador at the time, Eugen Ott, with the requirement to go to the Japanese army offices in order to possibly employ Kindermann in the context of Japanese anti-communist work. Kindermann had told me after his arrival that he had worked in Germany for the Foreign Policy Office, for military departments, for police departments and for the Foreign Office in the context of the Anti-Comintern. [...] The Japanese authorities showed an apparent interest in employing Kindermann with anti-Comintern work. On one or two later visits to the German Embassy, however, Kindermann complained bitterly that the Japanese were delaying his cooperation and that he had the impression that the Japanese were 'not right'. "
Heinrich Loy, in his own words "head of the Agfa-Gomei-Kaisha representation of the IG.-Farbenindustrie" and since "1934 local group leader of the NSDAP" even reports that about Kindermann's arrival in Tokyo "a newspaper note in an English. Edition of a Tokyo newspaper "had appeared," in which it was stated that a Dr. Karl Kindermann, a specialist in anti-Comintern issues, had arrived in Japan and would work with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Board. But apparently nothing came of this collaboration; because a few months after the publication of this newspaper article, Dr. Karl Kindermann in my office (Agfa-Gomei-Kaisha-) and asked me for help for himself and his family, as he could neither get a job nor any support from the German or Japanese authorities. "
In a résumé dated November 19, 1947, Kindermann describes his trip to and stay in Japan as a quasi-everyday affair: “I went with my family first to the United States, from there to Hawaii and later to Japan, where I went over the war stayed. I worked there as the head of a private school abroad. In addition to the educational work, I was active in literature and at the same time represented the 'White Zones' for Japan on behalf of the Swiss authorities. This led to an in-depth familiarity with the problems of the Far East and to extensive knowledge of foreign peoples and countries there. ”A year later, when he was questioned by the court, it was said:“ I was so good with the German authorities in Japan like no connection, with the exception of 2-3 families. I lived very much to myself because I was completely stranded. In Japan I went over to the Quakers because I was disappointed with Judaism. I lived in great need in Japan. In 1940 I gave lessons. "
As an emigrant on the edge of the German colony
Kurt Hellmer confirms: “In Tokyo he became a language teacher at the American Quaker School.” How long Kindermann taught at this school is not known, but this activity soon seems to have been replaced by just “giving lessons”. Heinrich Loy reported that the destitute child man had asked him “to give him the opportunity to take language lessons at the German school. In this direction I have also chosen Dr. Kindermann tried hard, but met resistance from the German teachers. ”He also reported two cases in which he was asked for advice by members of the German colony as to whether they could have their children given tutoring by Kindermann. As the local group leader, he said yes, but only one father followed his advice. The fact that Kindermann ran a private school, as he repeatedly claimed, contradicts the following report from 1945, which also shows that the Kindermann family was living in Karuizawa (Nagano) at the time : “Jacob and I were in a German Registered summer school, which is run by a Dr. Karl Kindermann, who was almost blind and wore extremely thick glasses. To call it a school was an exaggeration, because there were only ten of us in the class and Kindermann taught us in his living room. ”Even if Kindermann passed it off as“ his little private school ”elsewhere, he also described his“ great hardship ”and was“ badly paid ”.
The situation of Kindermann, whose second child, his son Edgar, was born in Japan, is evidenced by various statements in the Spruchkammer files. Loy testified that Kindermann's bad financial situation was well known and that he once helped him with support from his own pocket, other support from the German colony was only possible temporarily. Loy saw the main reason for this rejection by Kindermann in the fact that he was "as an emigrant not a member of the German community" and therefore "could not get any food allotments from the German community". Kindermann was therefore forced “to come into contact with all sorts of German and later also Japanese offices” and, as a further source of income, “got foreign books and newspapers about Switzerland for all sorts of people [.], And so probably also for the gentlemen of the German embassy ".
EO Leuenberger, who, as a Swiss citizen, had run a restaurant in Tokyo together with a German during the Second World War, saw things completely differently. In May 1946 he arrived in New York and talked there with the journalist James R. Young. Leuenberger, who lived near Kindermann in Japan, said about him that he had specialized in “spying on the neutral diplomats - Swedes, Portuguese, Swiss and Italians. Kindermann pretended to be penniless, but in fact he had one of the best food supplies and amounts of money. He worked for the Nazis, the Japsen, and finally got a job with the Americans, who threw him out after 3 weeks in their service. "
This contradicts the poor material situation described by Kindermann himself, as well as its confirmation by all German witnesses, above all Karl Hamel and Heinrich Loy already quoted. Hamel is described by Leuenberger as "one of the dirtiest of all Nazis" ("Karl Hamel is one of the dirtiest of all Nazis.") And as an "SS terrorist of Stettin", Heinrich Loy as a spy aimed at citizens of neutral states and " Vollblütiger Nazi "(" full-blooded Nazi "). On the other hand, in a letter to the German Consul General in Tientsin of July 27, 1942, Kindermann clearly pointed out his difficult material situation and asked for support at the same time. And although Hamel admitted during an interrogation by the American secret service that Kindermann had come to Japan with an espionage assignment, as claimed by Leuenberger, but then said: “Kindermann is very clever and ambitious. He feverishly tries to interfere in secret and sensational affairs without the acuteness, secrecy or the efficiency of a professional informant. ”And elsewhere he judged Kindermann:“ From his stories I got the impression that he likes He interviewed prominent and interesting personalities and likes to - as one likes to say - stick his head in all pots without being aware of the danger that may arise from it. ”Since Leuenberger did not answer for his above-cited allegations about the well-cared for spy Kindermann Provided evidence, its credibility is not verifiable.
Kindermann's relationship with Josef Meisinger
From April 1, 1941, Josef Meisinger , the “butcher of Warsaw”, worked as a police attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo. Most of the rumors revolve around the collaboration between him and Kindermann, and Kindermann is often referred to as Meisinger's translator and informant. Kindermann himself did not hide this collaboration, but he chooses a completely different presentation and reason for it.
One of the prehistory is that Kindermann had become the secretary of the Japanese Yui Yokoyama. How this came about is unclear. Yokoyama was not only "Organizer of Japanese theater performances for the foreign colony in Tokyo" as reported Hamel, but also a senior member of the Black Dragon Society ( Black Dragon Society or Amur River Society / Black Dragon Society). In a letter of January 26, 1975 to Marvin Tokayer, Kindermann describes this Yui Yokoyama as follows: “He was a very cultured man, always dressed like a lord from England, he spoke excellent English, was a close friend of Minister Hirota , introduced me Toyama Mitsuru vor, where only the emperor and prominent Japanese could appear, had a secret office in the Imperial Hotel and had secret negotiations with Meisinger, where I participated, with Colonel Obolenko (Soviet Embassy), where of course I was not allowed. That shows that he was a high-ranking personality. "
Kindermann managed to get in touch with Meisinger through Yokoyama, allegedly with the aim of gathering information about the Gestapo for an underground organization he had set up, which he hoped to be able to send to the English. He aroused Meisinger's interest through his anti-Soviet Moscow book. Meisinger's secretary, Leni Abt, reported in her interrogation on April 28, 1949 before the Bad Homburg district court that Meisinger, referring to the Moscow student trials, said that Kindermann “had been very decent about Germany. He got through this thing while two others killed themselves. For these reasons, he was treated more favorably by the Third Reich and sent to Japan. Er Meisinger, have instructions to support him when things go badly for him. "
Kindermann continues: “I soon recognized Meisinger's great interest in books and I offered him my books. M. then bought some of my books from me and I was happy that at least I always had something to live with. I had the Swiss newspapers come to me, which Meisinger was also very interested in. However, since I had no foreign exchange, I told Meisinger to order the newspapers in my name. [..] I wanted to maintain the connection with Meisinger under all circumstances, so that I could tell the English that I really had a connection. "
Leni Abt's testimony suggests, however, that the procurement program for Meisinger was part of a covert support program for Kindermann. “Every now and then I was instructed to pay him a hundred or one hundred and fifty yen for his work. But I took this as a support. It was about 50 to 75 Reichsmarks. If larger amounts were paid, an invoice was included for the books that were purchased. I know that K. got newspapers and books on Russia from Switzerland. I also mean books whose contents dealt with Russia. K. was a great enemy of Russia. "
Leni Abt does not want to have noticed that Kindermann also worked as an informant for Meisinger: “I do not know that K. was used for espionage purposes and informant services in the neutral circle in Japan, or that he was given any specific assignments. [...] Meisinger did not express any suspicion that K. was possibly working against Germany. [...] As far as I had observed, K. lived as a stateless person outside the German colony, had hardly any personal contact with her, and I do not know what reasons he should have had for complaining to Meisinger about people from the German colony. "
The American secret service saw it somewhat differently in a document dated May 25, 1946 about the captured Josef Meisinger. In an interrogation protocol of the Military Intelligence Service Center of the US armed forces it says about the two: “KINDERMANN, Karl, member of the Communist Party of Germany. Sentenced to death in MOSCOW for espionage in 1926. 1928 exchanged for a Russian agent arrested in LEIPZIG. Sent to Japan with RSHA assistance in 1939 to serve as an interpreter in dealing with the Japanese police. A protest by the Japanese press upon his arrival prompted BERLIN to order HUBER to cut ties with KINDERMANN. KINDERMANN came to MEISINGER in 1941, told his story and was commissioned to occasionally report to MEISINGER on current opinions and attitudes in Jewish circles. [...] Through KINDERMANN [...] Meisinger came into contact with a certain YOKOYAMA who claimed to represent the Japanese government in the SORGE case. "
This quotation essentially contains the information that circulated in the post-war period about Kindermann and his stay in Japan and that shaped the image of Jews in the service of the Gestapo. And it was also this information that prompted the Americans to object to Kindermann's classification as “not encumbered” in the Ludwigsburg court proceedings. Kindermann himself confirmed that Yokoyama's involvement in the Sorge case was the main incentive to get in touch with Meisinger, and Kindermann, who dreamed of doing business with the English via a trip to China, pretended to be in touch with Meisinger had been his potential ticket for negotiations with the British. What Richard Sorge had been for making contact with Meisinger, Kindermann's idea after Meisinger was for making contact with the English. But it is difficult to answer whether he was Meisinger's informant in addition to these contacts. Karl Hamel again:
“I am not aware of any positive activity by K. for Meisinger. I cannot accept this either, because otherwise Meisinger would have the Dr. K. received him more readily and did not, as was usually the case, just let him go through the anteroom. I also had the impression that Meisinger was afraid of being caught out by K., who was mentally superior to him. [..] It may also be that Meisinger himself referred to K. as his agent, because otherwise many of the members of the embassy and colony who are exonerated today would have been upset that 'the Jew K. is entering the German embassy'. On the other hand, Meisinger could hardly admit that he obtained foreign newspapers and books from K.
In summary, I have to say that even if there were real agents of Meisinger, I cannot add K. to this group of people based on what I have learned. "
In a letter dated June 14, 1974 to his former student, the Baden-Württemberg state rabbi Nathan Peter Levinson, Kindermann speaks out against the allegations made against him, especially those relating to his collaboration with Meisinger. He relies on documents that Marvin Tokayer found.
"According to Rabbi Tokayer, the USA records of my arrest show that there have been no charges of any kind against me. I was only suspected because of my acquaintance with the butcher from Warsaw, Colonel Meisinger. But I got to know him during the secret negotiations of the General Staff when I was translating the negotiations on the Soviet spy Wolfgang Sorge on the Japanese side. In order to penetrate the secrets of the Nazis and to strike the intended big blow, I had to secure myself as well as possible. I was never an agent of the Gestapo, as the 'Aufbau' wrote at the time, but it is true that Jews in Japan reported me to the US authorities. "
The articles of September 28 ("Gestapo Headquarters in Tokyo") and November 9, 1945 ("Career of a Secret Agent") do not contain any reliable material against Kindermann, but combine facts, such as the undisputed contact with Meisinger, with rumors. These are mostly contrasted with Kindermann's self-testimonies, whose frequent self-overestimations seem just as unbelievable. Marvin Tokayer has not yet disclosed his documents, but from the American secret service document cited above, which dealt with Josef Meisinger, it becomes clear that the American allegations against Kindermann were not particularly serious. It is downright grotesque that the Americans still refer to him as a “member of the Communist Party of Germany”, even though, as an ardent anti-communist, he has only worked with Nazis and right-wing nationalists for decades. In the approaching Cold War, Kindermann's tactical entry into the KPD more than 20 years ago apparently outweighed all of his actions in the meantime.
The prevented peace negotiator
Kindermann and the Japanese settlement plans from 1939/1940
During his interrogation in the Ludwigsburg court proceedings, Kindermann had stated that he had converted to the Quakers after his arrival in Japan because he wanted nothing more to do with the Jews. Even after the end of World War II, he kept quoting "Quakers" when asked about his religion. It is all the more astonishing that in early 1940 he was in correspondence with Stephen Wise , President of the World Jewish Congress . How this contact came about is unclear, but the background is less clear.
In Japan, although allied with Germany, there was no anti-Semitism as pronounced and aimed at extermination as in Germany. Nevertheless, there were different factions within the Japanese leadership, one of which relied on more restrictive measures against Jews, while the other favored “the acquisition of Jewish capital for the achievement of Japan's hegemonic goals”. This should also include offering the Jews settlement areas and gradually bringing them closer to America, which "would enable Japan to concentrate on its opponent in the north, the Soviet Union, in order to finally bring it down."
The fact that these plans were highly controversial even within the Japanese leadership and were not seriously pursued further does not change the fact that attempts were also made to win Stephen Wise and the World Jewish Congress for them. This apparently happened in two ways. Maul reports on a wealthy businessman from Osaka who at the beginning of 1940 "had achieved nothing in his attempt to obtain the approval of American Jewry for the settlement plans from the President of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Wise," and on Wises "harshly negative attitude towards the Japanese plans for the Jews ”. This was followed in the summer of 1940 with a new approach, and the Japanese brought Karl Kindermann into play: as a Jewish refugee who was supposed to get Wise to agree to settle Jews in Japan. It is not clear who brought Kindermann into play, and it is evidently also not known to Kindermann's first letter to Wise. What is documented, however, is a letter from Kindermann dated June 7, 1940 to a Japanese official, “Mr. Niwa ”, whose identity is unknown. The letter begins with bland generalities about Stephen Wise before it gets more specific.
He went on to state that in a private letter from Wise to Clarence Pickett , executive secretary of the American Friends Service Committee , Wise '[reaffirmed] his determination to become a publicly committed friend if the Japanese government were really interested to establish the refugee settlement in Manchuko. ' It seemed to Kindermann that the Soviet and National Socialist propaganda had rubbed off on Wise's concerns about Japan. Kindermann told the Japanese that he could not do more: It all depends on Japanese politics. "
Kindermann added to his letter “Mr. Niwa ”a letter he wrote from Wise for“ Mr. Niwa ”, but Gao Bei neither mentions its date nor goes into further details.
Gao Bei then reports on a letter from Wises to Kindermann dated June 10, 1940. The letter is in response to an undocumented Kindermann letter dated May 10, 1940 and contains a careful departure from Wise's earlier rejection of the settlement plans. “The rabbi made it clear that any offer to resettle Jewish refugees in Japan that would come from authoritative sources in Japan would surely receive full consideration from Jewish organizations. But he also stressed that 'any negotiation conducted by an American Jewish organization regarding Jewish immigration and settlement in Japan must first be submitted to the State Department in Washington for approval or rejection'. "Gao Bei interprets this to mean that Wise has now recognized that it is paramount to do something for the European Jews in search of a place of refuge, also at the cost of working with the Japanese.
However, Wise's letter also contains a sentence that directly follows the one previously quoted by Gao Bei, but which is not quoted by him and which can be understood as an invitation to Kindermann to hold back on the matter: "You will understand, however, that people who are neither authorized by Jewish organizations nor by the Japanese government to initiate such negotiations are not needed. ”For Kindermann it could still be seen as a point victory for having contributed to Stephen Wise's change of attitude, but in fact it was not a new political one Option for action has been opened. “In July 1940, Matsuoka Yosuke, until then President of the South Manchurian Railway, was appointed Foreign Minister. The negotiations he immediately started with Nazi Germany to conclude the three-power pact , which was passed in Berlin on September 27, meant the final end of the plans to settle Jews. "
The Fugu Plan
In 1979 the book The Fugu Plan was published. The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II by Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz. This much-cited historical novel “brings fact and fiction equally into its history. On the one hand, the plot elements of the novel - according to Tokayer's introduction [..] - are basically established within the context of Kranzler's portrayal of history . On the other hand, the novel introduces nine fictional refugee characters. Apart from that, all other characters in the novel are historically documented [...] "," and within the reasonable limits of the story they spoke and acted as they were presented here ".
One of these "real" people in the book is Karl Kindermann, who is presented as follows from the perspective of Tokayer / Swartz:
"DR. KARL KINDERMANN was arrested by the Allies in Tokyo at the end of the war and accused of collaborating with the Nazis and the Japanese. His claims of promoting peace and providing the British with valuable military information were only confirmed after his shameful deportation to Germany. Kindermann now lives in Germany and works as a journalist. "
Unfortunately, they do not say how the two authors know that Kindermann's claims of “promoting peace and providing the British with valuable military information” have proven to be true. This suggests that they relied one-sidedly on Kindermann's own account, because Joseph Walk's Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997 shows that there was one in the years 1974–1975, long before the book was published Correspondence between Kindermann and Tokayer has given. Kindermann's statements in it are primarily characterized by highlighting his deeds.
“I have an excellent record in the fight against the Nazis. In Germany I destroyed the plans of the 'Turkish Hitler' Cefat Rifat Bey to prepare a revolution with the help of the Third Reich. It was a very dangerous task, but I was successful and will publish the story for the first time in West Berlin at a [lecture] before the International Resistance Congress. In Japan I was able to penetrate the Nazi machinery and at the same time gain the full confidence of Foreign Minister Hirota and the General Staff, who after Stalingrad came to the conclusion that the war was lost. "
On the other hand, in his correspondence with Joseph Walk and Nathan Peter Levinson, Kindermann repeatedly referred to Marvin Tokayer, who had succeeded in locating American documents that were suitable to testify to his actions as well as the injustice of many allegations against him. However, these documents were never made publicly available by either Kindermann or Tokayer. If, therefore, doubts about the historical correctness of his character Kindermann, claimed by Tokayer / Swartz, cannot be ignored, it remains interesting in which way he takes up and depicts his role in a specific historical context. It is only marginally about the plans promoted by the Japanese from around 1940, as they have already been presented.
Tokayer / Swartz place the focus of their portrayal on Kindermann on the time before the end of the Second World War. Kindermann, who is also presented here as a resident of Karuizawa, is said to have been chosen to be the interlocutor of the highest Japanese politicians and military to his own amazement. About Sekiguchi Tsugio, who is presented as an advisor to the then Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki , Kindermann was asked to visit an Admiral Nakamura in Dairen . Kindermann followed this request and was confronted by Nakamura with a "reincarnation of the Fugu plan".
The background to these talks was the insight of leading Japanese that the war was lost and that it is now a matter of reaching an agreement with the Americans, who have so far refused to make contact. According to Nakamura, the Shanghai Jews would have been the key to ending the war. “The refugees would be brought from their terrible living situation to a 'Jewish state' in Manchuko. You are guaranteed everything that is necessary for a good life there. In return, the 'powerful American Jewish community' who recognized the sincerity of the Japanese would convince Roosevelt to come to the peace table. "
As in 1940, Kindermann again promised to support this plan and wrote to Stephen Wise. However, the latter was completely against this plan and postulated that the Jewish Congress would never enter into negotiations with Japan without the approval of the American State Department. "The Kindermann peace feeler had failed."
In a letter to Nathan Peter Levinson on June 14, 1974, Kindermann recapitulates his view of things with reference to the documents allegedly found by Tokayer.
“But now documents were found which clearly show that I had tried, on behalf of the Japanese government at the time, whose full confidence I had, as an 'Authorized Representative for the Geneva Zones' to create effective aid for the Jewish refugees in Shanghai. For this purpose I had been asked to Dairen by Admiral Nakamura, who informed me that after Stalingrad the war was believed to be lost. It had tried in vain to contact President Roosevelt, who had demanded unconditional surrender, which Japan refused. As a token of goodwill, I had suggested that the numerous Jewish Shanghai refugees should be settled in Manschuko. I had written to Chief Rabbi Stephen Wise, the letter had been sent from Tokyo by the Quaker leader, Mr. Bowles. A negative response came from America, but this did not prevent the Japanese from making further attempts. As Mr. Rabbi Tokayer writes to me, there are cabinet minutes with the note 'Kindermann informed'. "
Kindermann, who has spoken in detail about many of his activities in the context of his judicial chamber and reparation proceedings, did not say a word about his alleged involvement in the Fugu Plan. It is unclear what reason he might have had to conceal his visit to China and the related correspondence with Stephen Wise. Furthermore, there is no evidence in any of the American secret service documents cited so far that Kindermann acted as a peace negotiator in the manner described by Tokayer / Swartz. Only the opening of the Tokayer archive should bring clarity on this point. The Israeli scholar Ben-Ami Shillony, a professor emeritus of Japanese history, is of the opinion that the statements used by Tokayer / Swartz were out of context and that the translation they worked with was incorrect.
Kindermann's commitment to the white zones
In contrast to the Fugu Plan, Kindermann was less reluctant to take part in another peace campaign in which he was allegedly involved. In the excerpt from his curriculum vitae from November 19, 1947, it says about his Japanese activities: “In addition to the pedagogical work, I was literary and at the same time represented the 'White Zone' for Japan on behalf of the Swiss authorities. This led to an in-depth familiarity with the problems of the Far East and an extensive knowledge of foreign peoples and countries there. ”What this was all about emerges from the statements made by Karl Hamel in 1949. From a telegram the Kindermann to him For translation, it turned out that he, as a representative of the Red Cross in Geneva, wanted to fly from Japan to Chungking in order to negotiate with the Chinese about the formation of cities that were not to be bombed. Hamel specified this elsewhere: “Around 1944 Kindermann reported on a proposal to declare Tokyo and other large cities in Japan, as well as Tschunking and other large cities in China, as demilitarized zones that should not be exposed to air attacks. This system was also used in the European theater of war. Kindermann negotiated the aforementioned plan with the Red Cross in Genoa. In 1945 there were rumors that Kindermann had approached the Japanese government to get a plane to go to Chun [g] king and negotiate peace with Chiangkaischek. "
Hamel, who made it clear that he was inclined to regard Kindermann's activities, which presumably took place in the vicinity of the Association des Lieux de Genève , as sensational reports at best, made no indications as to whether Kindermann's words could in any way have been followed by deeds , and Kindermann himself does not help to explain it. The question of whether it was another castle in the air with which Kindermann wanted to claim a meaning for himself and for others that in reality was far beyond his abilities and possibilities must remain unanswered. However , he was still in contact with the Association des Lieux de Genève after his return to Germany (see below).
Alleged sinking of two German submarines
There are also many question marks behind another campaign that Kindermann Werner Nachmann complained about in his typical style.
“Based on my strong position with the Japanese, I was able to take very active action against the Nazis. The loss of two submarines belongs among other things. a. to."
He described in detail what the loss of these submarines was all about in a letter dated July 12, 1974 to the aforementioned "Dear Sir Redman", in which he pretended to remember very well what they both had in common would have done in the fight against the Nazis. The so captured as a comrade in arms was Vere Redman (1901–1975). He went to Japan as an English teacher in April 1927, where he later became the press attaché of the British embassy. After the break in diplomatic relations between Japan and Great Britain, Redman left Japan on July 30, 1942 and worked from then on in the British Ministry of Information, where he dealt with Japanese affairs. From 1946 until his retirement in 1961, Redman returned to Japan again. To Redman, Kindermann first describes all of his heroic deeds, from eliminating the "Turkish Hitler" to his contacts with Admiral Nakamura in Dairen. After a swipe at American President Roosevelt, for whom only the unconditional surrender of Japan would have been acceptable, he then gets down to business.
“But let's remember our collaboration. I have given you valuable news about the activities of the Nazis. The German family Werner Beyer, caretaker of the German consulate general, was in Kobe. Mr. Ber was a good friend of mine, not a Nazi. One day he told me and his wife, Mrs. Lore Beyer, that two German submarines and their crew were in Kobe for a short time. As usual, the team was invited by German families. I informed you of the plan that the two submarines would soon be leaving for a mission in the Pacific. My message was very brief, but I remember very well that you were very interested. Well, it soon happened, which was to be expected. I would not be surprised if you cannot exactly remember this story because I have given you many details about the activities of the Nazis. "
What Kindermann claimed for himself here (more explicitly in the accompanying letter to Marvin Tokayer) is that, based on the information he passed on, two German submarines were sunk in the Pacific after leaving Kobe. Even in 1974 he thought it was so explosive that he asked Marvin Tokayer: “But be careful with my name in this case. The revenge of the Nazis is always possible. "
On the website “Deutsches U-Boot-Museum” it says in the section “U 511 and the journeys of German and Japanese submarines between Europe and the Far East”: “Of the 16 submarines that made the first long-distance journey from Europe to Southeast Asia had made it to the bases there, 5 (U 168 / U 183 / U 196 / U 537 and U 1062) were sunk during operations from the bases there, another 5 (U 181 / U 195 / U 219 / U 511 was handed over to Japan in 1943 / U 862) saw the end of the war there in May 1945 and only 6 (U 178 / U 188 / U 510 / / U 532 with surrender to Scotland / U 843 and U 861) made it back to Europe . ”None of the five submerged submarines reached Japan before Redman left (July 30, 1942), and a stay in Kobe could only be proven for“ U 183 ”. How and about what should Kindermann have informed Redman then?
In Joseph Walk's archives there are two handwritten letters from Redman to Marvin Tokayer dated May 27 and July 4, 1974. Some of them are difficult to decipher, but they do reveal some information from Redman about Kindermann. In the first letter, Redman confirms that he knew Kindermann and that he had also met him a number of times. However, he did not know anything about his “big plan”. Communication with Kindermann was extremely difficult because he, Redman, only had a basic knowledge of German, and Kindermann's Japanese and English were not particularly good. He tried to understand the meaning of what Kindermann had told him about what was going on in the German embassy, but he had difficulties understanding his ideas of a “reform of the world”. The remainder of the letter consisted of suggestions to Tokayer about what this child man could ask about his stay in Japan and especially the time after his arrest.
In the second letter, Redman found himself unable to comment on Kindermann's allegations about the conversations that had taken place 34 years ago and referred to the communication problems mentioned earlier. However, he did not believe that Kindermann had worked for the Germans, and certain things he had told him about the work of the German embassy in Japan were of value to him in his work doing anti-German propaganda in Japan. "But I have only very vague memories of a submarine story."
Redman's letter at least confirms Kindermann's claim to have passed information to the English. It is difficult to say whether he was still able to do this after the British embassy closed. It remains unclear what information about submarines, which Redman does not completely deny, Kindermann could have passed on. As in many other cases, it is difficult to find the real core in Kindermann's stories blown up into heroic deeds.
The end of Japanese asylum
In a letter from the “Governmental Affairs Division” of the OMGUS responsible for Baden-Württemberg on November 3, 1948, it says: “Kindermann came to Japan with a visa for five years, which was very difficult for a Jew to obtain and further evidence of this is that the person concerned was a favor of the National Socialist government. ”Kindermann's visa should have been extended in 1944. The files do not tell whether that happened, but there are indications that he was interested in whereabouts outside of Japan. In a letter of July 27, 1942 to the German Consul General in Tientsin (Tianjin), Fritz Wiedemann , he claims:
“On the other hand, it is fairly certain that I will go to Chile at the first opportunity to get a university position there. In addition to seven other languages, I already have a good command of Spanish, so there will be no shortage of opportunities to work there. That is also the opinion of Mr. Meis. [Inger] The general situation will probably mean that I have to wait at least another 7-12 months, even though the visa will be sent to me by telegram later in the year, together with the visa for transit through the Portuguese colony. "
Nothing came of this move to Chile, any more than a change of location to Tientsin, for which Kindermann Wiedemann had repeatedly, but in vain, asked for support. Kindermann was forced to stay in Japan and witnessed the capitulation of Japan here . He was arrested by the Americans on October 25, 1945 and then interrogated. In his letter to Werner Nachmann, he attributed this arrest to a complaint from "Jewish circles" who did not understand his collaboration with Josef Meisinger; they were “just inspired by blind emotions”.
He reported about his arrest: “On October 25, 45, 2 or 3 Americans came with revolvers in hand. I had to put my hands up and was arrested. I was placed in a hotel and the food was excellent. I actually ate my fill there once again. We were interrogated by the CIC . The CIC man told me that I should be extradited to Russia. I was then sent to Jokohama prison. An elderly gentleman who interrogated me there told me that Jewish circles were against me. 2-3 months passed and I heard nothing more. "
From Jokohama he must have been taken to Tokyo’s Sugamo Prison and remained there until his release. Kindermann's information about this in a letter to Nathan Peter Levinson is brief and contradictory.
“As you know, in 1945 I was arrested by the US authorities and taken to Sugamo. Since I had never been guilty of anything and was never interrogated, I was powerless at the time. However, I could have told the good-natured but politically inexperienced American investigation people that, based on my good relationship with Japan, I had caused the Nazis very serious damage. [...] If I had told the boys that, it would have been published in the army newspaper, but I had no desire to risk my life. "
While at this point he claims not to have been interrogated, in the same letter he cited a few lines later on interrogation records that allegedly could prove his innocence. “According to Rabbi Tokayer, the USA records of my arrest show that there have been no charges of any kind against me. I was only suspected because of my acquaintance with the butcher in Warsaw, Colonel Meisinger. ”He reiterated that he had“ been reported to the US authorities by the Jews in Japan ”.
There is little information about the prison stay and the end of Kindermann's time in Japan. “I pretended to be crazy but nothing happened. I was interned for 1 1/2 years. There I got to know the leading Nazis. [...] The colonel of the prison turned to the CIC because nobody knew what to do with the Germans, since the first Americans had long since returned to America. It was revealed to me that I would be repatriated. […] I was then released in Ossweil. ”In June 1945 the Americans set up an internment camp (IC 74) in the Ludwigsburg district of Oßweil in the former flak barracks in Ludwigsburg . Kindermann's way from Japan to Oßweil is in the dark.
Excursus: family life
Kindermann, married since 1936 (see above) and became a father for the second time in Japan, reported nothing about his private life, apart from a few exceptions, neither about the time he spent with his wife at the time in Caputh, nor about the years together in Japan. He didn't say a word about how his wife and two children were doing there. He consistently spoke of himself in the first person, even where one must assume that what he was reporting about must have affected his family in the same way. An example of this are the following sentences from the interrogation protocol, which follow one another directly.
“I had almost no connection with the German offices in Japan, with the exception of 2-3 families. I lived very much to myself because I was completely stranded. In Japan I went over to the Quakers because I was disappointed with Judaism. I lived in great need in Japan. "
How did his family cope with this isolation? Has his wife converted too? How has the great hardship he experienced affected his family? Kindermann had nothing to say about this. On the other hand, he became almost abundantly clear when he came to speak of the alleged misconduct of his wife, whom he described as changing from lover to lover and stumbling from one abortion to the next. He did this for the first time during his interrogation in 1948/49 in connection with the news that his mother-in-law had been deported in December 1941:
“Now the news came from Switzerland that my mother-in-law was dead. Slowly it was learned that many Jews had been deported. The news of my mother-in-law's death hit my wife so badly that she lost all morals. She hooked up to a South American and had a child by this man. He left and promised to look after my wife and the child, but never heard from him again. My wife was completely in love with this man. She promised me to change again and I forgave her. It soon turned out, however, that my wife couldn't keep her promise. "
While Kindermann claims to have decided "to found an underground movement himself" in response to the news of the deportation of his in-laws, he reiterated his plans six months later, on July 27, 1942, in a letter to Fritz Wiedemann mentioned above To move to Chile, and in the same breath he comes up with "accidents in the family":
“Last week, due to the carelessness of the nanny, my little son fell from the first floor of the house onto the stone floor in the courtyard and suffered a fractured skull so that he is now in the hospital. My wife is looking forward to our third child, the food supply leaves a lot to be desired due to the rise in prices, in short, there are enough aggravating circumstances. "
Since Lotte Kindermann can hardly have been pregnant twice between December 1941 and July 1942, the question arises whether the aforementioned pregnancy by a South American actually existed. Or did Kindermann's forgiveness of his wife's blame include accepting the result as "our third child"? If that existed at all: Beyond daughter Eva and son Edgar, there is no evidence of further descendants, not even deceased, of the Kindermann couple.
The quote is interesting for another reason too. There are many allegations by Kindermann that he was materially ill in Japan, and there are also quite a few confirmations from third parties. But what were the standards for it? Was it "normal" that you could still afford a nanny?
Back to Kindermann and his relationship with his first wife. When he was arrested by the Americans in 1945, she visited him "briefly every 14 days". Again, however, dark forces came into play:
“The prison chaplain Börns, who offered to see my wife, then seduced her. The prison commandant also started a relationship with my wife. All of my complaints went to the trash. My wife kept getting pregnant and had several abortions. She went from one to the other. "
For the final moral blow to his wife, Kindermann calls out in connection with the journey home:
“My wife was taken to the ship on the stretcher because she was expecting another child from an Australian who wanted to have her aborted. It was clear to me that I could no longer live with this woman. "
The divorce took place in Darmstadt in October 1948. Daughter Eva stayed with her mother and both lived in the United States. Marvin Tokayer informed Joseph Walk on September 18, 1989 that Lotte Kindermann would now live in Detroit under the name Heisman. Kindermann himself had already informed Joseph Walk in a letter on February 17, 1977 that he had received a call from Detroit on January 31, 1977. In a PS note, however, he stated that he had no connection with his divorced wife for 29 years. He did not say whether the call came from his daughter, and there is no evidence that he was at least still in contact with her. Kindermann's son Edgar stayed with his father, who remarried just a few months after his divorce. Nothing is known about how the three of them lived together, especially nothing about Kindermann's relationship with his son. Edgar Kindermann did not move a little more into the spotlight until the mid-1970s. On June 14, 1974, child man Nathan Peter Levinson let know that Edgar was working in a hotel in Jerusalem, "because as an actor he hardly gets any further there." And just a few days later, on July 13, 1974, he wrote to Marvin Tokayer:
“Your fine understanding of what my son said about his father was something like 'balm' to my heart. I know he's a very good boy and I'm proud of him. Indeed, it is as you believe: His Christian upbringing was the result of the great disillusionment I experienced, but now I am very satisfied. "
The letter suggests that Edgar had previously been the subject of conversation between the two, but there is no further evidence. Instead, Kindermann comes back to Edgar in another place in the same letter and thinks he is in a wild story that needs his efforts.
“As for the failure of Edgar's marriage, I believe that Edgar's mother-in-law committed a crime. Edgar recently informed me that his wife was 'incapacitated'. Since his wife is very rich, I think the cunning mother did something bad in Zurich, but I'll find out. She wants to get hold of my daughter-in-law's big money. "
What happened to this story remains unknown, but a good six months later, on January 16, 1975, Kindermann informed Werner Nachmann that his son had become an Israeli, was living in Jerusalem and would join the army in March.
The next and last message concerning Edgar Kindermann comes from February 17, 1977 and consists of a letter to Joseph Walk, in which he asks him for information “on a very tragic matter”. "On January 31 I received a call from Detroit USA that my daughter-in-law Graziella gave birth to a baby that morning at Hadassa Hospital Jerusalem. When my son Edgar Kindermann, POB 18072, was visited at 9 a.m., he was found dead in bed. The cause of death is unknown to me. He could have developed a kidney disease while doing military service, as he wrote to a friend in Germany, but everything is uncertain. I immediately wrote my daughter-in-law a letter to Hadassa Hospital and asked for a street address, as the bank through which I want to send money cannot use POB addresses. I have not yet received an answer to my letter, but I know that the young widow lives in poor circumstances. ”Indeed, Edgar Kindermann died without seeing his newborn child again, but the letter also reveals this tragic news that there should have been no close ties between father and son at this point in time. Kindermann did not know the address in Jerusalem, nor was he, unlike his ex-wife living in Detroit, who immediately flew to Israel, directly informed of the events, and he had only heard about his son's illness from third parties. And so this letter to Joseph Walk ends with a plethora of questions that you please answer for him. There are no indications of any subsequent contact with the widow and his grandchild.
Kindermann's post-war activities
Short career in school service in Baden
It is not clear whether Kindermann was able to start teaching immediately after his release from the Oßweil internment camp, or whether the Americans asked him to cooperate beforehand. In any case, he let the Stuttgart State Administration for Culture, Education and Art in Württemberg know on June 19, 1947:
“In the meantime I was approached from a higher level in the USA and asked to do special studies in Württemberg on the basics of the current educational system. There is a keen interest in the social structure of schools, teachers and students, in intellectual interests, in the possibilities of help in the development of the new Württemberg school system. [...] I don't need to mention that I see it as my job to do my modest part of making understanding better, that Germans better understand the American mentality (which is still very difficult) and that finally that too Americans actively contribute to the reconstruction of our German fatherland and especially the most blessed area, the Württemberg state. "
How Kindermann was able to get the chance to work for an American agency after his previous internment on suspicion of Gestapo collaboration cannot be determined. It just didn't go quite as quickly as he had hoped, because a memo from June 2, 1948 stated that Kindermann had only been working at a curriculum center since the beginning of May and had declared that “he would be in due course request its reuse in school service ”.
This statement by a “Miss Dr. Steinmetz ”, about which nothing further is stated in the memo, shows that there were already problems with Karl Kindermann at the time. She was asked about Kindermann's abnormalities and replied: “Dr. Kindermann is erratic and peculiar, but so far she has not got the impression that the claims of Dr. Judge on a mental illness of Dr. Kindermann could be correct in everything. ”This assessment, which was also brought to the attention of the Minister, has an addition of unknown origin added:“ The opinion of Miss. Steinmetz on Dr. Change child man. This is natural. Because the impressions that you get are actually only such on one day that you say to yourself that there is a little bit of 'screwing up' going on, on another day that it is irresponsible to use it in school work. "
It turned out differently: From April 6, 1949 on, Kindermann was employed as a study assessor in the Baden school service. But as early as 1950/1951 complaints about his work as a teacher were mounting. His lessons are usually assessed unfavorably several times. On February 23, 1950, the school administration reported in a report to the Baden Ministry of Culture:
"Dr. Kindermann is a restless element. His head is always several 100 m further than his feet. Those who have just turned old hardly seem to realize that our school system has very specific limits to be observed. The question of whether such a globetrotting nature will and will ever be able to fit into an orderly, purposeful educational organism will be difficult to answer. Without a doubt, he has qualities that would certainly be more useful outside of the classroom. Outside of school he is active almost everywhere, especially in the Projuventute and recently he has been giving lectures in various rural areas, as it became known here. "
On December 2, 1950, Kindermann informed the Ministry of Culture that he was interested in the international school service in Rolândia . The project was apparently not pursued further by him, but soon afterwards he was bustling around on the most varied of levels. The Association Internationale des Lieux de Genève , with which Kindermann was already in contact from Japan (see above), wrote to the President of Baden on March 6, 1951, “that the Federal Chancellor Dr. Adenauer, his approval of the appointment of Dr. Karl Kindermann, Überlingen, as representative of the International Committee of the Lieux de Genève, has given to the authorities of the German Federal Republic ”and asks that“ the work of Dr. Karl Kindermann, which happens in the interest of the civilian population in Germany ”. Only a few days later, on March 29, 1951, the Federal Minister for Expellees asks the State Chancellery of Baden for a leave of March 29. until April 3, 1951 for Dr. Kindermann, so that he can come to Bonn for a meeting on matters relating to German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. This letter was followed on April 2, 1951 by a telex from the same sender, in which the request was made to extend the leave for Kindermann until April 5, 1951: “Mr. dr. kindermann is currently in important discussions with German and foreign official departments ... the results of the personal efforts of dr. Kindermann could already be partially announced to the public on the last Sunday by the radio station Hesse. "How Kindermann found access to the Federal Ministry for displaced persons, refugees and war victims and what his expertise was" on matters of German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union "can be seen from the Don't recognize files.
As in 1931, when Kindermann believed himself to be his colleague in Berlin after a conversation with Minister Joseph Wirth , possibly also in 1951 there were signs of a misjudgment about his professional future. On March 5, 1951, he wrote to the Baden Ministry of Culture, admitting that he was not up to teaching. "I resisted this realization for a long time, but I see that I can no longer do it." This realistic assessment is followed closely by the cocky announcement in which he describes his "high level of expertise" and points out:
"That my efforts succeeded in submitting completely new material to the government in Bonn on the appalling situation of German prisoners of war in Russia with practical proposals for rescuing these people ..."
In fact, Kindermann seems to have been on leave for some time after his collaboration with the Ministry of Expellees, because in a letter dated July 30, 1951 to the Baden Ministry of Education, he asked for an extension of the "leave of absence in the service of export promotion to Australia". . That brings back memories of 1933 and the failed Abyssinia project . This was actually supposed to serve the exploration of settlement possibilities for Jews, but was reinterpreted by Kindermann as an economic promotion campaign in the interests of the German Reich. It is therefore not surprising when Kindermann is presented in an article in the Schwäbisches Tagblatt dated June 8, 1951 as the “foreign expert of the LGZ construction company”. Two Tübingen companies wanted to deliver prefabricated wooden houses to Australia through this company, which was then based in Frankfurt am Main. Whether the deal came about is just as unknown as Kindermann's role in it. But at this point the authorities had already made a decision against Kindermann. On September 8, 1951, the Baden Ministry of Culture informed him:
"To our regret, we have to tell you that, according to § 61 DBG, you have to be dismissed from the state higher education service due to unsuitability in personal respects and unsatisfactory professional aptitude, revoking the official status. Dismissal takes effect on the day this ruling is received. The certificate about this is complete. "
The revocation of civil servant status was replaced shortly thereafter by an ordinary termination on December 31, 1951, as the ministry had to determine that Kindermann had not been hired as a civil servant at all, but this farce did not change the result, not even a labor court dispute. He wanted to have acknowledged that he had been retired at his own request. “My eye condition and the worsening it caused are the real reason I wanted to retire under reparation. I have never recognized an entry. ”But it actually existed.
Acquittal in the arbitration chamber proceedings
After his return from Japan, Kindermann was classified as “not encumbered” by the judges' chamber in Ludwigsburg on July 25, 1947. The American military administration raised objections to this on November 3, 1948, but apart from the accusation of cooperation with Meisinger in Tokyo, they contained no substantive facts. The letter, which contained a list of possible witnesses - all former Nazi members from the German colony in Tokyo - prompted the Central Tribunal Chamber of North Württemberg to reopen the proceedings and to question the witnesses named by the Americans.
On November 4, 1949, “The Public Plaintiff” of the Central Judicial Chamber, Heinz May, stopped the proceedings and confirmed Kindermann's status as “not affected”, as the suspicions expressed could not be proven. It could only be determined that the person required to report was in great material need and without any support from any side during his stay in Japan. May also saw the collaboration with Meisinger only as a means of maintaining an income opportunity in times of need and interpreted the Gestapo's help in Kindermann's departure as a form of courtesy in the face of his anti-communist propaganda.
"After Dr. As a Jew, Kindermann had shown himself to be without any political connection with regard to the Nazi tyranny to the prelude of the Nazi regime against communism, it did not require many interventions to get support in his departure issue. Especially after it is finally known that other racially persecuted people opened the way out of their doom by depositing significant funds and other possibilities in this direction and emigrated. It would be a wrong point of view if, regressively thought, a claim to the bridge from hell of 100% annihilation to freedom without harming other people would be recognized as a burden within the meaning of Law 104. "
The stereotype of the “rich Jew” who bought his way into emigration “by depositing significant funds” (which in truth was a state-organized robbery disguised as a Reich flight tax at the expense of those hoping to leave the country) becomes flawless in 1949 with Kindermann's propaganda for them Nazis put on a par. Both of these only served to make emigration possible. Even with serious involvement in the Nazi system, the child man so well-meaning “public plaintiff” Heinz May had no problems in helping those affected to get a clean slate before he was arrested on January 3, 1950 as part of a bribery affair.
Reparation
Meanwhile, Kindermann was also pursuing his redress procedure, and in the course of this, he was threatened by his past again. In a letter of the bathroom. Ministry of Culture and Education of October 8, 1951 to the Reparation Commission for members of the public service at the bathroom. Ministry of Finance states:
"According to reliable information that we have received over the past few months, Dr. After his dismissal in 1933, Karl Kindermann was in contact with the Reich Propaganda Ministry and other NSDAP agencies and also worked for them abroad. After all that has been communicated about the named person, it should be clear that his statements to the denazification authorities in Ludwigsburg do not correspond to the facts; In our opinion, a review of the denazification files would definitely be in order. "
The "reliable information" mentioned above was essentially the article published in AUFBAU in 1945, as can be seen from a note dated February 12, 1951 in Kindermann's personal file. According to this, on January 30, 1951, a Karl Fahrion appeared in the state administration for culture, education and art in Württemberg and declared "that he has considered it his task for many months to expose Mr. Kindermann". He justified this need with the AufBAU articles, and also “the Swiss radio in the summer of 1949 dealt with the person of Kindermann and his opaque attitude, both earlier and now. For this reason, Kindermann was not admitted to the European Union meeting in Switzerland, although he managed to get him to be elected President of the European Union for South Baden. ”According to the note, Fahrion even had one for Kindermann's successful denazification Offer explanation. This was made possible "with the help of an employee at the central judicial chamber in Ludwigsburg, Miss Dold, who is now his sister-in-law and lives with him in Überlingen".
The authorities saw no reason to go into these allegations and left it with this note on the file - possibly also because Fahrion's motives were too transparent. He had already tried to take action against Kindermann earlier because he had clashed with him over tenancy disputes, and this time too Fahrion put his displeasure with his tenant on record: “Mr. Fahrion justifies his knowledge with the fact that Dr. Kindermann live in Überlingen in a house belonging to Mr. Fahrion, which was formerly owned by the French. The military government was confiscated and after approval was given to Kindermann. Kindermann spreads in this house with the help of the city. Housing Office, which he made himself submissive in his own way by referring to his relationships with the occupation authorities. "
The dispute between Kindermann and Fahrion had already been carried out in court since 1950, with both sides not shrinking from serious accusations. Kindermann described Fahrion as an engraver, "who made a fortune in the Third Reich by engraving swastikas in weapons", "in awkward poems to the local district office before the collapse of his attachment to Hitler", and "quite obviously." a beneficiary of the Third Reich ”. Kindermann does not deny that the apartment in Überlingen was "released" for him by the French.
According to a letter from the Baden Ministry of Education and Culture of September 13, 1952, Kindermann received compensation of DM 20,000 according to a decision of April 5, 1952. In the run-up to this decision, the allegations made by Fahrion played a role, as the official correspondence shows. An initial rejection of the reparation claims was later revised because the Ludwigsburg district court informed the state district office for reparation in Stuttgart on June 1, 1951 that it was not aware of any indications that Kindermann was an agent in the service of the Nazi regime. The state district office passed this information on to the Baden Ministry of Finance on June 7, 1951, which then led to a provisional conclusion of the reparation proceedings. Ultimately, a letter from the bathroom is likely to be decisive for this. State Commissioner for Political Cleansing from March 17, 1952 to the Baden Ministry of Finance. It states, with reference to the decision to terminate the Ludwigsburg chamber proceedings,
“That the assumption of a National Socialist promotion of Kindermann or a cooperation in the National Socialist sense was not seen as proven. Kindermann tried to work as a writer and was anti-Soviet. That his attitude of mind, for which there are not enough National Socialist motives, gave him the opportunity to take advantage of him to a certain extent and to patronize him or her. to tolerate in its existence does not yet meet the requirements of Articles 1 and 2 of the state ordinance of March 29, 1947. It may be that Kindermann, by allowing himself to be used for the propaganda of National Socialism, maybe - but only maybe - has touched the boundaries of what is justifiable in character. But even this reservation should only be considered possible to a very limited extent, given the conditions abroad and the distressed situation of Kindermann. "
This was Kindermann's second clean bill of health from a “brother in the spirit” of the “public plaintiff” Heinz May quoted above. But for the “the boundaries of the character defensible” at most a somewhat striped Kindermann who exploited his anti-Soviet attitude by the Nazis because of his non-Nazi motivated had been, with the restitution now granted the case was by no means closed. In the following years he tried again and again to assert further claims. On August 25, 1976, the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime in Baden-Württemberg (BVN / VVN) - not to be confused with the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists - asked for access to files for its member Kindermann. He himself had previously asked for the decision from 1952 to be reviewed and demanded that he be promoted to director of studies. The BVN / VVN supported him, who at that time received pension payments as a student councilor i. R. received in this procedure. In a letter dated December 31, 1976 to the Commission for the Reparation of the Public Service for the area of the former State of Baden, he also referred to "the support of Mr. G. Prinz, chairman of the international association of resistance fighters and other personalities." But it didn't help: with a decision of March 16, 1977 all further claims asserted so far were finally rejected.
Struggle for recognition
Kindermann's contacts with the Federal Ministry for Expellees or Adenauer's alleged approval of his appointment by the International Committee of the Lieux de Genève are by no means his only surprising connections. On the back of a letter from Kindermann to the presumably Baden finance minister there is a strange-looking diary for “December”. The details of this letter were no longer apparent from the file, but the preceding and following documents indicate that these diary notes refer to December 1950. It says u. a .:
“3) Long meeting with Hanna Reitsch . [...] Was just a pilot. The fastest woman in the world. 1000 kilograms per hour. V1 flown in. [...] Will help. It emanates from her warmth and a womanly demeanor that makes you feel good. We discuss some important points and arrange a meeting in Offenbach-Oberursel around Christmas time.
[…]
10) Visit to the Education Department of the Military Government. Templeton's invitation to school. Propose lectures on USA thinking.
Lecture in Spanish on Uruguay interpreted at school.
[…]
29) Hanna Reitsch visits me in Offenbach. Length of conversation about V1, about the last few days in the Reich Chancellery.
30) Another meeting with Hanna Reitsch in Frankfurt at Dr. Ockel. Pacifism and Collective Guilt. 'Peace without love.-' The plan of the Tibet flight and the German children's aid.
In the evening in Neckargemünd twice in danger of death. In a quarter of a minute. Still saved. (Railway bridge flood) "
There is no evidence of how the contact between Kindermann and Reitsch came about. But her stylization as “just a female pilot” seems like a relief for her own cause. Reitsch was never a member of the NSDAP, was denazified as “not affected” in December 1947, but had willingly placed himself in the service of the Nazis and let himself be used for their propaganda. The parallels to Kindermann are obvious.
At one of these meetings with Reitsch, Dr. Gerhard Ockel, a long-time Quaker. “He declined to serve in the German Army as a doctor and works with his wife Lotte in the international peace movement, in the neighborhood centers and in the emergency aid of the friends. He lectures in internment camps and is particularly interested in helping returning soldiers find a new faith. It was a great help, he says, when the first letter he received from the congregation spoke of our common guilt for this war. It helped some young men whose reaction so far was 'You too!' was. "
Gerhard Ockel, who later became one of the most famous sex educators in the early Federal Republic, wrote his book The question of good and bad, sin and guilt in the worldview of our time in 1948 . Published a doctor's thoughts on the mental requirements for overcoming personal and collective hardship . Friedrich Kießling judges this and similar contemporary writings that dealt with the time of National Socialism: “The horror of the damage done and the crimes that were articulated in them fed an entire literature that dealt with 'evil'. What is important is the religious connotation, the impression of inevitability and the unheard-of dimension that surpassed other explanatory models and that was expressed for contemporaries as a result. The phenomenon Hitler and the Third Reich are also universalized here. ”For Kindermann as well as Reitsch, Ockel's views should have been a welcome justification for not having to face an in-depth discussion of their own actions during the Nazi era, especially Kindermann appeared regularly with the claim that during his trip to Spitzbergen in 1923 he always had the best for others in mind.
Beyond this singular diary page, it is difficult to document Kindermann's activities in the following years. Isolated references can be found in some of Kindermann's letters that Joseph Walk collected. Their truthfulness is difficult or impossible to verify, and they primarily serve to give the respective addressees the impression of what almost historical achievements they have achieved in their previous life and especially during the time of National Socialism and will continue to do so in the future intended to accomplish. Two points keep cropping up:
- His commitment to Judaism, from which he had distanced himself in Japan when he converted to the Quakers.
In 1976 he let Joseph Walk know that he had "always stood up for the Jewish cause". For him, this probably meant first and foremost a commitment to a nationalistically inflated state of Israel. In January 1975 he wrote to Werner Nachmann: “Bezügl. After a thorough study of the Middle East, I have a positive attitude towards Israel regarding its future. The Israelis are destined to render the peoples of the Middle East a great service that the West, in spite of all the technology, cannot do. "And to his former student, Nathan Peter Levinson, he had already written in June 1974:" The Arab terror against Israel and anarchist terror in general have made me, experienced in the field of subversive action, think about what could really be done to improve Israel's position in the world. ”
After the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War does that sound like his advocacy of Nazi Germany when he told State Commissioner Fehrle on April 9, 1933: “From my knowledge of the psyche of other countries, I can only emphasize how important it is for Germany at the moment to get out of this isolation in which we are we are in the moment. ”Taking into account the friendship between the Arabs and Soviets at the time , one can probably assume that he was in saw the fight against Arab terror as a continuation of the anti-Bolshevik mission to which he continued to plead.
Even though he deplores the increasing influence of Arab money on Western Europe, he also sees an opportunity for Israel in Arab wealth: “I am convinced that, after the hostilities with the Arabs and a peace agreement with them, Israel will help build modern Arabia must participate in order to earn something from the Arab treasures. The western 'specialists' cannot do much for the cultivation of the Arabian desert. Only Israel is able to help the Arabs because of its own successful colonization. That must be the ultimate goal of a Jewish policy in the future. " - His efforts to get his rehabilitation through more or less official Jewish authorities.
The letters to Levinson and Nachmann are pervaded by the disappointment that so far no one has been prepared to rebut the accusations made against him in 1945 in the AUFBAU, and they all contain clearly expressed requests for support in the fight for his rehabilitation. However, there were no recognizable initiatives in this direction, not even through his references to the material that Marvin Tokayer is said to have located. In this connection he complained bitterly about the then General Secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Hendrik van Dam , with whom he had met in Düsseldorf for the purpose of his rehabilitation: “He was ready, but demanded that I write articles against the Zionists in Israel should write. I absolutely refused. I mentioned this fact last year in a conversation with the press attaché of the Embassy of Israel in Bad Godesberg. He just said: No comment. He said he knew the deceased's demeanor well. At that time I joined the Central Council of Evangelicals. Church of Germany for Israel prisoners in Syria. Soldiers in. ”In his blindness to reality, Kindermann apparently believed that Nachmann would hear these allegations against van Dam, even though the two worked very closely together as President and General Secretary of the Central Council during Van Dam's lifetime. There was no response from Nachmann to Kindermann in the documents. A similar letter from Kindermann to Levinson also went unanswered. About three weeks after his written allegations against van Dam, he complained to Levinson about the lack of an answer in a vain call for help, in which he again expressed his willingness to do everything “to promote the Jewish cause”.
The sting in Kindermann's flesh remained the AUFBAU articles, which he wrongly attributed to Franz Meyer. Because the CONSTRUCTION "did not result in a reply, I was very bitter for years". As early as 1965 he had sued Levinson for refusing to reply: “It seems as if one wanted to avoid this unpleasant matter. If one examines the atrocities of Germans, the evil behavior of an Israeli and the 'construction' should also come up once - especially in this special case. One cannot demand justice for oneself and be unjust towards others. "
All his hope finally rested on Marvin Tokayer," who wrote to me in his second letter that he would pursue my rehabilitation. It is late, but not too late. ”The fact that this hope also turned out to be illusory due to the not very reliable material from Tokayer was already discussed above in connection with the Fugu Plan.
Kindermann, who in the meantime described himself as a "publicist", claimed to Werner Nachmann that people like the Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback, who was murdered by the Red Army Faction , or the former North Rhine-Westphalian Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Diether Posser had consulted him:
“I became a freelance journalist and am u. a. in the field of combating terrorism and anarchy. So, after a meeting with Federal Prosecutor General Buback, I am supposed to speak to the Federal Court of Justice about the historical development of terrorism. I am trying very hard to get an initiative to create an intern. Convention against Political Terrorism and I am in contact with leading experts in international law. One must, however, completely exclude the UN .
[…]
I speak from time to time at the invitation of the Minister of Justice, Dr. Posser in front of prospective judges and public prosecutors in the advanced training courses of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. "
Wish or reality? As a wish, it could be dismissed as further evidence of Kindermann's disturbed perception of reality; but if it had really been so, it would cast a strange light on the politics of the Federal Republic of Germany at the time if one believed that one was dependent on the knowledge of a self-appointed terrorism expert. But Kindermann also succeeded on political side paths: the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold had made him his press officer and member of the federal executive board, as he proudly announced to Nathan Peter Levinson in 1974 and demonstrated to Werner Nachmann by showing him on a Reich banner - Letter sheet with the addition "Der Bundespressereferent" wrote.
Between anti-Bolshevism and overconfidence
Jörn Happel called Kindermann's book about his experiences in Russia in the 1920s “a thoroughly complacent report”, which probably meant how Kindermann described his own role in it and always stylized himself as an upright hero. This also applies in the same way to his statements from the following years, whereby the complacency often increases to overestimating himself, for example in sentences like these: “I have u. a. thwarted an intended Hitler coup in Turkey. ”“ While the others had to be content with cursing the Nazis in private, I inflicted heavy losses on them with the help of the Allies. ”“ I sent Adenauer his invitation to Russia 5 weeks beforehand with. ”At the end of 1976 he let Joseph Walk know about the end of the Caputh Jewish children's and rural school home:“ When the school building was stormed in November 38, I brought many children to safety on a march through the nocturnal forests to Berlin. ”That Not only he was involved in this rescue operation, but the entire teaching staff, needs no mention for Kindermann.
The problem is, as Franz Meyer found out in his report “The Adventurer”, that behind all these incredible stories there was usually a spark of truth. As mentioned above, the Englishman Redman did not entirely deny that he had received some information from Kindermann in Japan, and the Abyssinia or Cyprus project were not pure pipe dreams. Influential Jewish circles entrusted him with this and supported him financially. How so? What expertise did the classical philologist and Jew Kindermann, who was dismissed from school by the Nazis, have for such tasks? As an account of one of his lecture cited above suggests, he was a reasonably good speaker. But was his rhetorical talent alone enough to win over his interlocutors and possibly negotiating partners, Nazis and Jews alike?
Kindermann never saw himself as a religious Jew, but often as an unrecognized shouter in the desert: “I used to have no religious interests. When I saw Hitler come to power in 1932, I tried to draw attention to the danger in Jewish circles. ”Only right-wing conservative Jewish associations and organizations like the Reichsbundischer Jewish Frontsoldaten or Agudath Israel seem to have paid him attention, and even then - or just because of it? -, as a child man had already allowed himself to be captured for the anti-Bolshevik propaganda of the Nazis.
Kindermann's "religion" was anti-Bolshevism, and his mission was to fight it, together with whoever. Franz Meyer once tried to explain Kindermann's protection by the Nazis with their conceptual realism: for them every Jew was a Bolshevik and every Bolshevik a Jew. Since Kindermann was against Bolshevism, he could not have been a Jew for the Nazis either. Applied to Kindermann, one could assume that for him every good German must also be an anti-communist, and since the Nazis were anti-communists, they must have been good Germans. So it couldn't be a problem for him, even as a Jew, not to work with the Nazis. For him they were helpers in the “defense of the communist attempts at damage insofar as they were directed against Germany”, as stated in a letter from him dated April 9, 1933 to the “State Commissioner Professor Dr. Fehrle ”in the Ministry of Culture and Education in Karlsruhe. That is why the subject of "The National Government and Communism", which he claimed in the same letter to present on trips abroad, was more important to him than the political reality around him that had been changed by the Nazis - a good week after the boycott of the Jews on April 1 April 1933.
During his interrogation in the judicial chamber, Kindermann confessed: "I am a scientist and have no interest in party politics." The first part of this claim - despite his earlier dissertation in classical philology - is again due to his exaggerated self-image (or corresponded to an ideal, he mentioned then also "writer" and later "publicist"), but the second part is rather an understatement. Despite his opportunistic accession to the KPD, he not only lacked any sense of party politics; he was basically a deeply apolitical person. His understanding of politics was shaped by his imprisonment in Russia and his sentencing to death there. These experiences made him, quite understandably, an anti-Bolshevik. From this his lifelong mission developed. The struggle against Bolshevism never ceased for him, and he was always looking for new allies for this struggle. In 1975 he confessed in a letter to Werner Nachmann: "In fact, I am an absolute opponent of Bolshevism."
This basic attitude apparently opened many doors for him in the early years of the Federal Republic, as the example of his invitation to the Federal Ministry of Expulsion (see above) suggests. What knowledge of Russia, other than those from the time of his imprisonment in the 1920s, did he have that would have made him an expert on German prisoners of war? What skills did Kindermann rely on in this ministry? Using the example of Reinhard Gehlen and the Gehlen organization he founded, historian Jost Dülffer makes it clear that in the post-war period it was quite sufficient to profess to be an anti-communist in order to gain influence despite the Nazi past: “Gehlen drew the raison d'etre for his service from the strict Anti-communism, which was also constitutive for Adenauer's worldview and understanding of politics. That was all the more true for Gehlen himself. In doing so, he also legitimized his political say: 'I know what makes communists tick. We have to explain that. '”There is no reason to assume that these could not have been the mechanisms that should have given Kindermann access to Adenauer and Hans Globke (which the Bunte Illustrierte supposedly wanted to report on, as he told Joseph Walk ).
It seems evident that Kindermann's anti-Bolshevism was the key to his relationship with the Nazis. But does this also explain the long-term protection by the Nazis in reverse? Beyond the years 1933/1934 there is no more evidence that he was active in propaganda for the Nazis. It is therefore difficult to assume that their “gratitude” to him lasted so long that they enabled him to travel to Japan in 1939. Did he have an official assignment, and if so, what? The Germans around the embassy saw him more as a supply case whose presence in Japan they could not really explain, and as a Jew he was not exactly welcome. As far as there was still a Jewish colony worth mentioning, he must have been known to it, because his arrival had been reported in the Japanese press. It is hard to imagine that he could still have worked there as an informant for Meisinger, as he was accused of in the AUFBAU. On the other hand: How was it possible for him to establish contacts in the highest Japanese circles? Was he acting out of the will to survive on the edge of what was morally acceptable, as had been assumed in his favor in the arbitration chamber proceedings, or was he more deeply involved in Gestapo machinations and knew how to disguise this skillfully?
In one of his last work notes, Joseph Walk noted the character traits of Karl Kindermann, which he had taken from the AUFBAU articles and a statement by Franz Meyers from 1959 that could not be further verified. The key words in it are: “charming, uninhibited, infantile, looks boyish, looks for adventure, pathologically hermaphroditic behavior” and “probably not a criminal, but a highly dangerous individual.” This is followed by the word heading and then: “The incredible gentleman Kindermann ". Presumably, this was supposed to be the headline for Walk's intended but never published “attempt at rehabilitation”. A few more keywords followed: “In no way did it look brilliant; modest and colorless and occasionally small threats; unrestrained ". Kindermann and the contradictions and contradictions interwoven with his story refuse to make a clear assessment. A quote from Franz Meyer hovers over everything that has to do with Kindermann: "There is nothing in history so improbable that it cannot be fact."
Works
- own works
- Two years in Moscow's houses of the dead. The Moscow student process and the working methods of the OGPU , Eckart-Verlag, Berlin / Leipzig, 1931. The font is issue 7/8 of the emergency series published by Eckhart-Verlag . Ongoing treatises on the nature and work of Bolshevism . The book was published in 1933 under the title In the toils of the OGPU by the London publisher Hurst & Blackett. There is also a translation into Swedish: Tv ° a ° ar i Moskvas tjekafängelser
- Rome calls Moscow. History of a world historical debate from the beginnings to the present , Agis-Verlag, Baden-Baden, 1965.
- Central Europe - its relationship to Russia and the Eastern European countries , International Institute of the City of Dortmund, Dortmund, 1959. (Together with Paul Wilhelm Wenger and Walter Meder). Walter Meder is probably the lawyer and jurist Walter Meder (1904–1986)
- Translations
- Alexander Orlow : Kremlin secrets , Marienburg-Verlag, Würzburg, 1956.
- George N. Shuster : Religion behind the Iron Curtain , Marienburg-Verlag, Würzburg, 1956. (This translation was done together with Georg Bohn.)
swell
- State Archives Baden-Württemberg, Archives Department State Archives Freiburg (StA Freiburg)
- Signatures: L 50/1 No. 7909, 7910 7911 - Teacher personnel files: Karl Kindermann Including: "Curriculum vitae from 1927" (L 50/1 - 7911)
- Signature: D 180/2 No. 222195 - Karl Kindermann judicial chamber proceedings
- Signature: F 196/1 No. 2495 - reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann (partial files no. 2495/1 and 2495/2)
In it among other things: Franz Meyer: "Der Abenteurer" (partial file 2495/2)
- State Archives Baden-Württemberg, Archives Department State Archives Ludwigsburg (StA Ludwigsburg)
- Signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann.
In it, among other things: Undated interrogation protocol of the "Central Judgment Chamber North-Württemberg" (late 1948 / early 1949)
- Signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann.
- Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem
- Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997
- Leo Baeck Institute New York and Berlin
- Digitized holdings of the emigrant newspaper AUFBAU.
Three articles from 1945 deal with Karl Kindermann:
• Kurt Hellmer: Gestapo headquarters Tokyo, September 28, 1945.
• Kurt Hellmer: Career of a secret agent. Karl Kindermann: Adventurer and Spy, November 9, 1945.
• Letter to The Editor: Kindermann's Cyprus Project, December 7, 1945. The letter to the editor is signed with: EB (Butler, Pa.).
- Digitized holdings of the emigrant newspaper AUFBAU.
- The Wiener Library London
- Collection Reference: MF Doc 55; Reference Number: 55/45/1783: "Correspondence with members of the CV regarding an anti-Soviet lecture by Kindermann in the German Association for the Defense of Western Culture, as well as the possibility to publish this lecture in the CV newspaper" (15 sheets).
- SCRIBD
- National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration : "GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA., No. 80. Records of the German Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht / OKW) Part VI - Office of Foreign and Counterintelligence ”, Washington, 1982. The dossier there on Joseph Albert Meisinger also contains information on Karl Kindermann .
literature
- Marvin Tokayer, Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II , Paddington Press, 1979, ISBN 0-448-23036-4 . Excerpts from a more recent edition can be viewed at Google Books: Google Book Search
- Jörn Happel : "The Eastern Expert: Gustav Hilger - Diplomat in the Age of Extreme", Ferdinand Schöningh, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78609-8 .
- Nathan Peter Levinson: “A place is who you are with. A Rabbi's Life Stations ”, Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-89468-206-4 .
- Manfred Schmid: “Sentenced to death - pardoned - exchanged. For three German students, a trip to China ended in Moscow. ”In:“ Contributions to regional studies ”, No. 3, 1997, pp. 16-19 (The“ contributions ”are a supplement to the state gazette for Baden-Württemberg.)
- Isaac Shapiro: "Edokko. Growing Up a Foreigner in Wartime Japan “, iUniverse, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-4401-4124-9 .
- Joseph Walk: "Jewish School and Education in the Third Reich", Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-445-09930-8 .
- Hermann Weber, Jakov Drabkin, Bernhard H. Bayerlein (eds.): "Germany, Russia, Comintern", II, documents (1918–1943), De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin / Munich / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11- 033978-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz and Andreas Paetz refer to Joseph Walk in their 1991 book about the Jewish children's and rural school home in Caputh , who thought that "he, who is said to have been involved in an espionage trial in 1925, was worth a special investigation." (Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Andreas Paetz: A lost paradise. The Caputh Jewish children's country school home 1931-1939 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, ISBN 3-7638-0184-7 , p. 334). You yourself do not go into the matter further, and von Walk, in addition to his brief remarks about Kindermann, in his book on Jewish school and education in the Third Reich (Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 1991, ISBN 3-445-09930 -8 , p. 313, note 426) no further work on Kindermann is known. This is all the more surprising given that Walk owned an extensive archive on Kindermann, which is now stored in the Leo Baeck Institute (see sources). On another website of the LBI there is the cryptic note: “Kindermann, Dr. Karl - 'Affaire' accusation of cooperation with the Nazis and attempts at rehabilitation. Letters, documents, newspaper clippings. Research in various archives (by Prof. Walk in the 90s) ”. Hanan Harif's essay, published in 2012, continues this tradition of calling for a study on Kindermann: “Kindermann, who among other things was a communist, a prisoner in the Soviet Union and a Jewish Gestapo employee and who went to Japan in 1938, would be one deserve own discussion. ”(Hanan Harif: Asiatic Brothers, European Foreigners: Eugen Hoeflich and the 'Panasiatische Zionismus' in Vienna , in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, No. 7‐8 (2012), p. 659, note 45) Kindermann wandered did not go to Japan until 1939 and was not a communist either: In the course of preparations for the trip to Russia, Kindermann and his companion Theodor Wolscht had been advised by the Soviet embassy to join the KPD to speed up the formalities . Kindermann took this step with the help of his father, who himself was a member of the KPD. (Karl Kindermann: Two Years in Moscow's Houses of the Dead , p. 17)
- ↑ In Weiherstrasse 20, in a house that still existed in 2019.
- ↑ Written communication from Martin Renner, teacher at the Markgrafen-Gymnasium in Karlsruhe-Durlach, dated September 9, 2019 in addition to the undated interrogation protocol of the Central Judicial Chamber of North Württemberg (late 1948 / early 1949), in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902 / 15 Bü 11535 - Karl Kindermann Arbitration Chamber
- ↑ Jörn Happel: Der Ost-Expert: Gustav Hilger - Diplomat in the Age of Extremes , Ferdinand Schöningh, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78609-8 , p. 124
- ^ Hermann Weber, Jakov Drabkin, Bernhard H. Bayerlein (eds.): Germany, Russia, Comintern , II, documents (1918–1943), De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin / Munich / Boston, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11- 033978-9 , p. 438, note 69. For Hermann Kindermann's local political activities, see also: Susanne Asche, Olivia Hochstrasser: Durlach. Staufer foundation , royal residence, Bürgerstadt , Badenia Verlag, Karlsruhe, 1996, ISBN 3-7617-0322-8 , pp. 349, 372–373.
- ↑ Susanne Asche: From traditionalism in the country to adaptation in the city. History of the Jews in Grötzingen and Durlach , in: Heinz Schmitt (Hrsg.): Jews in Karlsruhe. Contributions to their history up to the National Socialist seizure of power , Badenia Verlag, Karlsruhe, 1988, pp. 189–220
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Undated interrogation protocol of the Central Judicial Chamber North-Württemberg (late 1948 / early 1949), in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Karl Kindermann arbitration chamber proceedings
- ↑ a b c Manfred Schmid: Sentenced to death - pardoned - exchanged
- ↑ a b c curriculum vitae from 1927 in: StA Freiburg, signature: L 50/1 No. 7911 - Teacher personnel files: Karl Kindermann
- ^ Written communication from Martin Renner, teacher at the Markgrafen-Gymnasium in Karlsruhe-Durlach, dated June 3, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e f StA Freiburg, signatures: L 50/1 No. 7909 - Personnel files teacher: Karl Kindermann
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r StA Freiburg, signature: L 50/1 No. 7911 - Teacher personnel files: Karl Kindermann
- ↑ a b c d e StA Freiburg, signature: F 196/1 No. 2495/1 - reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann
- ^ Even in the Baden-Württemberg State Archives, Main State Archives Stuttgart, signature E 130 b Bü 2373 - Staatsministerium / 1876–1945, preliminary files from 1759, subsequent files until 1946: German-Russian relations, there are documents about the “pardon of German students convicted in Moscow (with brochure) and lectures by the student Karl Kindermann on his conviction, 1926/27, 1931 ”.
- ↑ a b c d e StA Freiburg, signature: F 196/1 No. 2495/2 - reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann
- ↑ From the files it is not clear from which newspaper this article originated, but there is parallel to it a longer article from the Breisgauer Zeitung of March 31, 1933, which fully confirms the article quoted here. It also reports that Kindermann will go on lecture tours to Switzerland, France and Italy.
- ↑ Demonstration d. Political prisoners in front of Swiss journalists , copy of a newspaper clipping from 'Badischer Beobachter' No. 91 of April 2, 1933, in: StA Freiburg, signature: F 196/1 No. 2495/2 - reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann
- ↑ a b c d Kindermann letter of April 9, 1933 to Prof. Fehrle, in: StA Freiburg, signature: L 50/1 No. 7911 - Teacher personnel files: Karl Kindermann
- ^ A b Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer dated July 13, 1974, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. The following illustration is based on this letter, which was written in English.
- ↑ Kindermann mentions “Mrs. Schöppentau in the Pfalzburger Strasse ”and her“ Jewish friend Mr. Alexander Schmerkes of Poland ”. The following entry can be found in the Berlin address book from 1933: Schöppenthau Anna, Hauswart, Wilmersdf., Pfalzburger Str. 22 online . There is no entry for Schmerkes.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Correspondence between Karl Kindermann and Joseph Walk, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997.
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer dated July 13, 1974, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. The original English version of the quote reads: "The Turk was asked by Streicher to go to Nürnberg, and as he had not yet received money from the Nazis, Mrs. Schöppentau gave him the money for the ticket. He came back to Berlin very disillusioned, because Streicher wished him to write an anti Jewish book of Palestine Jews. Cefat was an officer of the Turkish Army during First War and spoke with high appreciation of the brave fighting Jews (on the British… He refused to falsify this fact inspite of Streichers wish. Than he was received by Hitler and so disillusioned that he had enough from Nazism. He found out that Alexander Schmerkes was e Jew and offered to me to speak in Geneva publicly against Nazism. I went immediately to Dr. Franz Meyer, chief of the Palästinaamt in the Meineckestrasse in Berlin, but he answered that the matter was too dangerous. If Hitler would find out the relations, he would probably arrest ... the representatives of the Palestine Office. Well, Cefat returned to Izmir. "
- ↑ There is hardly any biographical material about Franz Meyer. Some information can be found in this congratulations on his seventieth birthday: Dr. Franz Meyer (Jerusalem), celebrated his 70th birthday on December 26. He started his Jewish activities in the Breslau Blau-Weiss and later became a leading member of the KJV During the years 1933-1939 he held responsible positions with the Berlin head-quarters of the Zionist Organization and with the Palaestina-Amt and the Reichsvertretung. In these capacities he initiated and implemented several constructive schemes facilitating the emigration of German Jews to Palestine. He himself left Germany only a few months before the outbreak of war. In Israel, Franz Meyer is closely associated with the work of the Irgun Oley Merkaz Europa, the organization of immigrants from Central Europe. As a many-sided scholar, he has been a particularly valuable and helpful Board Member of the Jerusalem Section of the Leo Baeck Institute since its inception. ( AJR Information, Volume XXIII, No. 2, February 1968, p. 7 )
- ↑ Nuremberg City Archives GSI 134 “Striker” index series I people / things (box 1 - 28) (as of August 15, 2012). Online: PDF
- ↑ Hatice Bayraktar: Ambiguous individuals with bad intent. The anti-Semitic riots in Thrace 1934 and their background , Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin, 2011, ISBN 978-3-87997-372-9 , p. 157 (note 623)
- ↑ Erdem Güven and Mehmet Yılmazata: MİLLİ İNKILAP AND THE THRACE INCIDENTS OF 1934 , in: Journal of Modern Jewish Studies , Volume 13, 2014 - Issue 2, pp. 190–211
- ^ A b c Kurt Hellmer: Career of a secret agent. Karl Kindermann: Adventurer and Spy , in: Aufbau , November 9, 1945 (digitized edition of the Leo Baeck Institute New York and Berlin)
- ↑ Fleischhauer's activities are well dealt with in an essay by Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the "Welt-Dienst" ( digitized version )
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Franz Meyer: Der Abenteurer , copy of an article from March 20, 1942 in the Blumenthals Latest News published in Tel Aviv , in: StA Freiburg: Reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann (F 196/1 - No. 2495 / 2). For a portrait of the portrait of the German-language newspaper Blumenthal's Latest News see: http://www.israel-nachrichten.org/archive/8470
- ^ Letter from the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to the Reich Association of German Industry from September 19, 1933, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann
- ↑ In a letter of December 14, 1976 to Joseph Walk, Kindermann claims that he received money from the publisher Franz Ullstein (1868–1945) for his Cyprus mission. (Correspondence between Karl Kindermann and Joseph Walk, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997)
- ↑ With the aforementioned Dr. Wohltat is likely to have been Helmuth Wohlthat , who from December 1934 headed the Reich Office for Foreign Exchange Procurement as Ministerial Director in the Reich and Prussian Ministry of Economics. In a letter dated January 16, 1975 to Werner Nachmann , the then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Kindermann even mentions 300,000 RM that Hjalmar Schacht approved for the transfer. (Letter from Karl Kindermann to Werner Nachmann of January 16, 1975, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997). The fact that Kindermann Nachmann replaced Wohltat's name with von Schacht's name was probably intended to signal that, as he regularly claims, he had 'access to all the highest circles'.
- ↑ The following statements are based on a summary of the letter to the editor from December 7, 1945 under construction . In his working notes on the Kindermann case, Joseph Walk noted: “Dr. Erich Bloch 'candidate' for Cyprus, never realized ”. (Joseph Walks working notes on Karl Kindermann, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997) Walk's source for this cannot be verified, but Bloch was actually living in Palestine at the time of the letter to the editor and had just started at the time of the Cyprus project to set up an agricultural shift yard on Lake Constance. About Erich Bloch: Erich Bloch in Leo-BW
- ↑ "I am afraid that quite a number of people were cheated of their last resources by this criminal."
- ↑ The marriage resulted in two children: daughter Eva, born on March 9, 1938, and son Edgar (born March 17, 1941 - † January 31, 1977) in Japan. The marriage was divorced on October 26, 1948 by judgment of the Darmstadt Regional Court. (StA Freiburg: personnel files teacher Karl Kindermann (L 50/1 - 7909))
- ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Andreas Paetz: A lost paradise. The Jüdische Kinder-Landschulheim Caputh 1931-1939 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, ISBN 3-7638-0184-7 , p. 334
- ^ Joseph Walks working notes on Karl Kindermann, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. Walk refers to letters from Ernst Ising , the last headmaster of the Landschulheim, dated June 19, 1970 and May 31, 1974.
- ^ Joseph Walk: Jewish School and Education in the Third Reich , Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 1991, ISBN 3-445-09930-8 , pp. 117 ff.
- ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Andreas Paetz: A lost paradise , pp. 37–47
- ↑ Joseph Walk: Jewish School and Education in the Third Reich , p. 164
- ↑ Hildegard Feidel-Mertz, Andreas Paetz: A lost paradise , p. 332. Lotte Friedmann's husband was not Fridolin Friedmann , the former headmaster of the country school home.
- ^ A b c Joseph Walk: Working Notes on Karl Kindermann, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997
- ↑ For the school work of Adass Jisroel see: http://www.adassjisroel.de/schulwerk-der-adass-jisroel . In Walk's work notes, however, there is also a note that Kindermann taught in the Theodor Herzl School of the Jewish School Association and at a grammar school, probably the secondary school of the Jewish Community in Berlin on Wilsnackerstrasse.
- ↑ Nathan Peter Levinson: A place is who you are with. The life of a rabbi , Edition Hentrich, Berlin, 1996, ISBN 978-3-89468-206-4 , pp. 40–41
- ^ Nathan Peter Levinson, A Place Is Who You Are With , pp. 40–41
- ^ A b c d e f g h i Karl Kindermann: Letters to Nathan Peter Levinson, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997
- ^ A b Franz Paul Huber, statements on Karl Kindermann, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann
- ↑ See also: Homepage of the Central Zionist Archives
- ↑ Eugen Hoeflich, quoted from Hanan Harif: Asiatische Brüder, Europäische Fremde: Eugen Hoeflich and the 'Panasiatische Zionismus' in Vienna , in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , No. 7–8 (2012), pp. 658–659. For Kanokogi see: Gerhard Krebs: A German Diplomat in Japan: Hans Anna Haunhorst . The Japan Institute mentioned in the quote is the institute at the then University of Berlin, of which Kanokogi was from 1927 to 1929. See: Chronicle of Humboldt Japanology and its Berlin environment . For the role of the institute during the Nazi era see: Eberhard Friese: Das Japaninstitut in Berlin (1926–1945). Notes on its structure and activity. .
-
^ StA Freiburg: Reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann (F 196/1 - No. 2495/2).
The arrival of the Kindermann family with the St. Louis , which left two months later on its infamous odyssey to Cuba, is also documented in the Ellis Island database ( Ellis Island passenger list: Kindermann family ). Another reference to the trip is in the National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Washington: 1982, in the “GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA., No. 80. Records of the German Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht / OKW) Part VI "contains as an entry:" An inventory of household goods, clothing, and personal belongings of Dr. Karl Kindermann and his wife and daughter, who were emigrating to Japan from Berlin-Halensee, Mar 1939, and permission of shipments. "( US National Archives and Records Service: Records of the German Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht / OKW ) ) - ^ A b c d Karl Hamel: Statements on Karl Kindermann, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann
- ↑ Yuji Ishida: Japan, in: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Anti-Semitism in Past and Present, Volume 1, Countries and Regions, KG Saur Verlag, Munich, ISBN 978-3-598-24071-3 , p. 178.
- ^ A b c Heinrich Loy: Statement from January 14, 1949, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann
- ^ A b Karl Kindermann: curriculum vitae from November 19, 1947, in: StA Freiburg: Personal files, teacher Karl Kindermann (L 50/1 - 7911)
- ↑ What Kindermann meant by 'white zones' will be discussed later.
- ↑ Isaac Shapiro: Edokko. Growing Up a Foreigner in Wartime Japan , iUniverse Inc., New York, Bloomington, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4401-4124-9 , p. 142. “Jacob and I were enrolled in a German summer school run by a Dr. Karl Kindermann, who was nearly blind and wore extremely thick glasses. To call it a school was an exaggeration, because there were only about ten of us in the class and Kindermann was teaching us in his living room. "Shapiro adds:" We didn't know at the time that Kindermann was a communist. He had been imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis, but somehow managed to flee Germany and get to Japan. ”(“ We didn‛t know at the time that Kindermann was a Communist. He had been incarcerated and tortured by the Nazis, but had somehow managed to escape from Germany and make his way to japan. ") Shapiro also mentions that other German Jews found refuge in Karuizawa and remembers the two doctors Plessnber and Wittenberg in particular. One of them is likely to be Dr. Heinz Plessner acted. ( The Japanese memory: German doctors in Japan )
- ↑ Quoted from: James R. Young: Swiss Neutral Claims Nazis Are Still on Loose in Japan , Herald-Journal, May 10, 1946. "My Swiss friend lived near Karl Kindermann,› who specialized in spying on the neutral diplomats - Swedish, Portugese, Swiss and Italian. Kindermann pretended to be destitute, but in fact he had one of the best food stocks and quantities of money. He worked for the Nazis, the Japs, and finally got a job with the Americans, who kicked him out after 3 weeks in their service. ‹"
- ↑ Quoted from James R. Young. The CIA was still interested in Hamel in May 1964 in a “LOCAL AGENCY CHECK”. ( PDF )
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer dated January 26, 1975, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997
- ↑ a b c Leni Abt: interrogation protocol from April 28, 1949, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann.
- ^ A b WWI Nuernberg Interrogation Records / OCCPAC Interrogation Transcripts And Related Records: Meisinger, Joseph Albert . "KINDERMANN, Karl, Member of the German Communist Party. Condemned to death in MOSCOW in 1926 for espionage. Exchanged in 1928 for a Russian agent apprehended in LEIPZIG. Sent to Japan in 1939 with RSHA aid, to serve as interpreter with Japanese police. A protest by the Japanese press upon his arrival caused BERLIN to instruct HUBER to sever connections with KINDERMANN. KINDERMANN came to MEISINGER in 1941, told his story, and was instructed to report to MEISINGER occasionally on current opinions and attitudes in Jewish circles. […] Through KINDERMANN […] Meisinger came into contact with a certain YOKOYAMA who claimed to represent the Japanese government in the SORGE case. “The Huber mentioned in the quote is Franz Paul Huber, the predecessor already quoted above Meisingers as a police attaché at the German Embassy in Tokyo.
- ↑ The case concerns Kindermann still busy long after the end of World War II, as Robert Whymant showed in his concern-book: "The thesis that concern was exchanged and returned to the Soviet Union, was first in Meissner, The Man with Three Faces' propagated. A strong proponent of this theory was Dr. Karl Kindermann (who is believed to have worked as informant for Gestapo Colonel Meisinger, although he was a Jew). Kindermann served as interpreter in the unsuccessful attempt by German officials to persuade the Japanese to extradite Sorges. In 1976 he wrote a series of articles for the Japan Times claiming that Sorge was indeed handed over to Russians at the Manchurian-Siberian border. Kindermann was full of rumors to prove his claim, but he was absolutely convinced that the information was reliable. He also felt that it was impossible to believe that the Japanese government had ordered the execution of Sorges on November 7th, a sacred anniversary for the Soviet Union. Japan had been anxious to maintain the goodwill of the Soviets, he argued, and the November 7 election would have been "politically not only an unwise and foolish act, but also a tasteless act" (Japan Times, November 24, 1976 ). Imoto Daikichi, prosecutor during the war and attorney general after the war, however, said that it was "pure coincidence" that the execution coincided with the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. ”(Robert Whymant: Richard Sorge - The Man with the Three Faces , Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg, 1999, ISBN 3-434-50407-9 , p. 498, note 4 to the chapter “Epilogue.” The Kindermann articles mentioned could not be found despite repeated inquiries from the Japan Times .)
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Nathan Peter Levinson from June 14, 1974, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. The Wolfgang Sorge mentioned in the quote must not be confused with Richard Sorge, to whom he was also not related. However, both were active in secret services in East Asia at the same time. To describe Wolfgang Sorge as a Soviet spy, as Kindermann does, is unlikely to have been true. This was the case with Richard Sorge. In this respect, it must be left open whether Kindermann confused the first names here or was caught up in a mistake.
- ↑ a b c d Hans Eberhard Maul: Why Japan did not persecute Jews. The Jewish policy of the Empire of Japan during the National Socialism (1933–1945) , Iudicium Verlag, Munich, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89129-535-9 . Online: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2000/0225/0225a.pdf , pp. 130-133. See also: Gerald Horne: Race War! White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire , New York University Press, New York, 2004, ISBN 0-8147-3640-8 , p. 271: “Dr. Karl Kindermann was Jewish and lived in Japan during the war. There he had been 'particularly protected by Japanese friends who were high in the ranks of the ... [ultrapatriotic] Black Dragon Society.' This was part of a larger Japanese plan not to take part in the burning of Jews, but to save them and use their resources and skills in the name of Tokyo. ”(“ Dr. Karl Kindermann was Jewish and lived in Japan throughout the War. While there he “Had been specially protected by Japanese friends who were high in the ranks of the… [ultra-patriotic] Black Dragon Society.” This was part of a larger Japanese plan not to participate irı the incineration of Jews but to rescue them and deploy their resources and skills on behalf of Tokyo. ")
- ↑ a b c Gao Bei: Shanghai sanctuary. Chinese and Japanese policy toward European Jewish refugees during World War II , Oxford University Press, New York, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-984090-8 , pp. 104-105
- ↑ In a hard-to-read copy, it is also found in Joseph Walk's documents in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. That Wise responded "to Kindermann's concerns about the Jewish settlement plan", as Gao Bei claims, cannot be inferred from the copy.
- ↑ Quoted here from Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , p. 78. "There will however, you will understand, be no need of persons who have authorizations neither from Jewish organizations nor from the Japanese government to initiate such negotiations."
- ^ Wei Zhuang: The Cultures of Remembrance of the Jewish Exile in Shanghai (1933–1950). Plurimentality and transculturality , LIT Verlag, Berlin, 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-12910-9 , pp. 61–62.
- ^ Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , p. 13
- ↑ Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , p. 273. “DR. KARL KINDERMANN was imprisoned by the Allies in Tokyo at the close of the war and charged with collaborating with both the Nazis and the Japanese. His claims to have promoted peace and to have provided valuable military information to the British were not verified until after he was deported in shame back to Germany. Kindermann now lives in Germany and works as a journalist. "
- ↑ The quote is from a letter to a "Mr. Redman ”, which Kindermann attached to his letter of July 13, 1974 to Marvin Tokayer. (in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. “I have a splendid record in the fighting against the Nazis. In Germany I destroyed the plans of the 'Turkish Hitler' Cefat Rifat Bey, to prepare a revolution with the help of the Third Reich. This was a very dangerous task, but I was successful and shall publish the story for the first time soon in West Berlin on the occasion of a leech [speech?] before the international Congress of Resistance. In Japan I was able to penetrate the Nazi machinery and at the same time to get whole trust of the Foreign Minister Hirota and the General Staff, which after Stalingrad came to the conclusion that the war was lost. "
- ↑ Which means that the situations described by Tokayer / Swartz must have taken place before July 18, 1944, because on that day Tōjō Hideki was forced to resign.
- ^ Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , pp. 257-258.
- ^ Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , pp. 257-258. "The refugees would be moved out of their horrible living situation to a 'Jewish state' in Manchuko. They would be guaranteed everything necessary for a good life there. In turn, the 'powerful American Jewish community', realizing the sincerity of the Japanese, would persuade Roosevelt to come to the peace table. "
- ^ Marvin Tokayer and Mary Swartz: The Fugu Plan , pp. 257-258. "The Kindermann peace feeler had failed."
- ↑ The Quaker leader Bowles mentioned was Gilbert Bowles (1869-1960), whose estate is archived in Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. ( online )
- ↑ See the article GENERAL CONVENTION / INTERNATIONAL: For the protection of civilians, in: DER SPIEGEL 14/1953 of April 1, 1953 ( online ). For the history of the Association des Lieux de Genève see also: http://www.icdo.org/en/about-icdo/history/
- ^ A b c d e f g Karl Kindermann: Letter to Werner Nachmann from January 16, 1975, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Sir Vere Redman, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. "I am more than happy to know that you are approachable, as I remember very well the common work we did in the fighting against the Nazis." The letter was sent by Marvin Tokayer to Redman, as he lived in the south of France and Kindermann was the exact same Address was not known.
- ↑ Hugh Cortazzi gives a detailed overview of Redman's life and work: Sir Vere Redman, 1901–1975, in: Ian Nish (Ed.): Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume II, Japan Society Publications, 1997, ISBN 1-873410 -62-X , p. 283 ff. Cortazzi's text is almost completely visible on Google Books: Preview
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Sir Vere Redman, ibid. 'But let us remember our cooperation. I gave you valuable news of Nazi activities. In Kobe was the German family Werner Beyer, housekeeper of the German Consulate General. Mr. Ber was a good friend of mine, not Nazi. One day he told me and also his wife, Mrs. Lore Beyer that two German Submarines with their crew were for a short time in Kobe. The crew was invited by German families, as it was usual. I informed you about the plan that the two submarines would live [leave] soon for operation in the Pacific. My message was very short, but I remember very well that you were very interested. Well, soon it happened what was to be expected. I should not be astonished, if you can not rember exactly this story, as I gave you many details of Nazis activities. '
- ^ Website "German U-Boat Museum"
- ^ Letter exchange between Sir Vere Redman and Marvin Tokayer, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997.
- ↑ Governmental Affairs Division of 7780TH OMGUS Group, Wuerttemberg-Baden Section: letter of 3 November 1948 Ministerial Koransky at the Ministry of Political Liberation in Stuttgart, in: StA Ludwigsburg, Signature: EL 902/15 Bu 11535 - denazification proceedings Karl Kindermann.
- ↑ When asked why he turned to Wiedemann, Kindermann replied in his interrogation chamber: “I was in such dire straits that I turned to this man to see if he could get me a job. He then invited me. I got to know a man, his name was Karl, who had fled America for political reasons. This man then came to my house and he told me that he was acquainted with Wiedemann. I was very interested in this and asked him to arrange a meeting with Wiedemann for me, as I was still looking for a job. I knew Wiedemann as a man who had fallen from grace. In my distress I wrote to him asking if he could help me. He had been appointed Consul General of Tiansin. I suggested to him whether I could give some kind of lecture on the world situation. I never went to Tiansin and never met Wiedemann. "(Karl Kindermann: Undated interrogation protocol of the Central Judgment Chamber North-Württemberg (late 1948 / beginning 1949), in: StA Ludwigsburg: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann)
- ↑ a b Kindermann-Wiedemann correspondence, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann. At this time, Kindermann was using letterheads from the Maruzen Company Ltd., Tokyo, a Japanese book trade group and a book trade chain. This could explain the way in which Kindermann had organized its procurement program for non-German books and magazines. However, there is no further evidence of his association with this company.
- ^ StA Freiburg: Personnel files, teacher Karl Kindermann (L 50/1 - 7911). In the file there is a copy of a registry office entry from April 23, 1950, from which it emerges that the second marriage was concluded on December 30, 1948 at the Ludwigsburg registry office. The second wife was Irene Rolf, without a job, living in Ludwigsburg, born on June 29, 1909 in Grab in the Backnang district. At this marriage, “Quaker” is noted as a religion for Kindermann.
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer dated July 13, 1974, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. "Your fine appreciation of my son's utterances about his father were something like" Balsam "for my heart. I know, he is a very good boy and I am proud of him. It is indeed so, as you believe: His Christian education was the result of the great desillusion I experienced, but now I feel very satisfied. "
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer dated July 13, 1974, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. "As far as the failure of Edgar's marriage is concerned I believe that the mother-in-law of Edgar committed some crime. Edgar recently informed me that his wife was “incapacitated”. As his wife is very rich, I think, the astute mother in Zürich has done something bad, but I shall find out. She wants to get in possession of the big money belonging to my daughter-in-law. "
- ↑ In a letter from the Baden Ministry of Education and Culture of October 8, 1951, it is even mentioned that Kindermann was "most recently director of the Stuttgart Pedagogical Laboratory" before he returned to higher education in Baden on April 6, 1949 has been. (StA Freiburg: Compensation procedure Karl Kindermann (F 196/1 - No. 2495/1)
- ↑ Dr. Richter was a headmaster with whom Kindermann had fallen out.
- ↑ With Projuventute the Swiss foundation Pro Juventute could have been meant, which works to ensure that children, young people and their families are supported and encouraged in their everyday life and that they receive rapid support in times of need.
- ↑ The letter is signed “signed. Merten ”, which could refer to the SPD politician Hans Merten , who had been responsible for the federal states since 1949 and then for refugee issues in the Ministry of Expellees.
- ↑ On August 13, 2018, the archive department of the Hessischer Rundfunk announced that there was no evidence in its database of the broadcast mentioned in the telex.
- ^ Letter from the Governmental Affairs Division of the 7780TH OMGUS Group, Württemberg-Baden Section, dated November 3, 1948 to Ministerialdirektor Koransky in the Ministry for Political Liberation in Stuttgart, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann.
- ↑ a b Central Arbitration Chamber North-Wuerttemberg, The Public Plaintiff: Dismissal decision of November 4, 1949 in the matter against Dr. Karl Kindermann, in: StA Ludwigsburg, signature: EL 902/15 Bü 11535 - Spruchkammerverfahren Karl Kindermann.
- ↑ See on this: a) "You could but Knobelbecher ...", Der Spiegel, 35/1949 from August 25, 1949 ( online ); b) DECISIFICATION Meyer macht's, Der Spiegel, 19/1950 of May 11, 1950 ( online ); c) Jan Molitor: The grand finale of a denazification comedy. What the May and Meyer scandal teaches - defamation of a “liberation” process , Die Zeit, 21/1950 of May 25, 1950.
- ↑ In the StA documents, the year 1948 is always incorrectly mentioned, but it was the article from 1945 that has already been cited several times.
- ↑ The following numbers in front of the paragraphs mark the calendar days.
- ^ StA Freiburg: Reparation proceedings Karl Kindermann (F 196/1 - No. 2495/1). The Templeton mentioned is likely to have been Payne Templeton, the head of the Schools Branch, the OMGUS division for Education and Religious Affairs, under which Kindermann had already worked in a curriculum center after his internment (see above).
- ^ Report by Rega Engelsberg in the Quaker organ "Friends Bulletin - Pacific Coast Association, July + August 1948". "He refused service in the German Army as a doctor and works with his wife, Lotte, in the international peace movement, the neighborhood centers and with the Friends emergency relief. He lectures in internment camps and is specially interested in helping returning soldiers to find a new faith. It was a great help, he says, when the first letter he received from the meeting spoke about our shared guilt for this war. It helped some young men whose reaction so far had been 'You, too!' "( Archive.org ). The neighborhood centers were auxiliary facilities for the needy German population after the Second World War. The "Friends 'emergency aid" was the Friends' Association of Emergency Helpers founded by Gerhard Ockel and other Quakers in 1945 . With “assembly” is meant a form of organization of the Quakers, the annual meeting .
- ↑ In Frankfurt published as Volume 1 of the Nothelfer-Bücherei of the "Nothelfergemeinschaft der Freunde".
- ^ Friedrich Kießling: The un-German Germans. An archeology of the history of ideas of the old Federal Republic 1945–1972, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-77396-8 , p. 95.
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Letter to Marvin Tokayer of January 20, 1975, in: Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: Joseph Walks Karl Gustav Kindermann Collection 1925–1997. "I am convinced that after the hostilities with the Arabs and a peace-trety with them Israel must paricipate in the building up of modern Arabia in order to also earn something of the Arabian treasures. The Western “specialists” cannot do much to cultivate the Arabian Desert. Only Israel is in a position, due to the own successful colonization, to help the Arabs. This must be the final aim of a Jewish policy in the future. "
- ↑ Jörn Happel: "Der Ost-Expert: Gustav Hilger", pp. 140–141.
- ↑ “'You felt flattered'. Historian Jost Dülffer on the role of the 'Organization Gehlen' and the influence of the Federal Intelligence Service on politics and the media in the post-war period. ”Interview by Joachim Frank in the Frankfurter Rundschau on August 28, 2018, pp. 30–31
- ^ Karl Kindermann: Two years in Moscow's houses of the dead in the DNB catalog.
- ↑ The table of contents of the collection can be viewed online: search.cjh.org
- ^ Structure archive at the Leo Baeck Institute
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kindermann, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German classical philologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Achern |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th October 1983 |
| Place of death | Freudenstadt |