Karl Schroth

Karl Schroth (born January 18, 1909 in Pforzheim ; † 1999 ibid) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Through vicar Erwin Eckert , Schroth came as a steel engraver apprentice to the Socialist Youth , to the trade union ( German Metalworkers Association ) and in 1927 he joined the SPD . In 1931 he joined the Socialist Workers' Party ( SAP ) to the left of the SPD .

In June 1933 Schroth and other SAP members distributed the illegal font “ Fanal ” in Pforzheim , the title page showed a photo montage with terrible war and devastation scenes under the title “Through armaments to war!” Schroth and SAP also helped those persecuted to escape France .

In 1935 Schroth was arrested and interrogated for three days. The Gestapo arrested him again on May 5, 1938 . In March 1939 he was transferred from solitary confinement in Pforzheim prison to Stuttgart . On September 6, 1939, the People's Court of Berlin came to Karlsruhe and sentenced Schroth to two years in prison. He had to work on moor drainage in Darmstadt and Dieburg and break stones in road construction. Released in the spring of 1940, he and his fiancée Klara married in June 1940. He had to report to the Gestapo every day until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in May 1941 . From the Buckenberg barracks in Pforzheim he first had to go to France, then to Italy , where he was taken prisoner by the Americans in May 1944 .

From June 1944 he was in the French POW desert camp El Djelfa near Laghuat ( Algeria ), from April 1945 in a labor camp near the Mediterranean coast.

In late summer 1945 on the edge of the Sahara , Schroth, opponent of the Nazi dictatorship and the war of conquest, learned of the air raid on Pforzheim on February 23, 1945:

“On the street, outside the barbed wire fence, dust-covered tanks rattle with all kinds of things, motorcycles, jeeps and ammunition vehicles. Yes, I am shocked to the inside. I open my eyes wide, the rattling monsters are brightly painted - a joke, a mirage - with the names of communities directly adjacent to Pforzheim. I am amazed and read: Kleinsteinbach, Königsbach, Bilfingen, Stein, Ersingen - on every new tank that passes by - a familiar name. Immediately I try to get a motorcyclist to the fence. Without success. The vehicles thunder past like a hasty thunderstorm. Home so far and suddenly so close and immediately so far again. I go to Freyér (an overseer) and ask him to find one of these eyewitnesses who passed by, and now I learn from a young soldier that his troops have been stuck for a long time in all the places painted on the tanks. And considerate, almost hesitant, he reveals what I fearfully suspect: 'Your city' - he spreads his arms wide - 'tout cassé, broken, totally broken.' I feel my heart beating faster, getting over-the-top and starting to race ... "

Released from captivity in July 1947, Schroth returned to Pforzheim in August. After the war he helped to build a democratic state. Fritz Erler came to Pforzheim through his connections as a newspaper editor . Schroth was chairman of the SPD for three years, worked as a councilor for the community for nine years and worked with the Volksbühne and the workers' welfare organization.

Works

• The unresolved chapter. (unpublished manuscript), o. O., o. J.
• The decisive years. Pforzheim, 1974
• And again and again for freedom. Pforzheim, 1977

literature

• Klaus Dagenbach / Markus Rupp: The Pforzheimer SAPD in the resistance . Pforzheim 1995. ISBN 3980352994

swell

• Schroth, Freiheit p. 285 a. 388
• Schroth, manuscript p. 44

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Schroth in the catalog of the German National Library