Karl Wagner (resistance fighter)

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Karl Wagner (* 13. May 1909 in Morsbach am Kocher , † 8. October 1983 in Karlsruhe ) was a German communist , resistance fighter against Nazism and political prisoner in concentration camps to the Nazi era .

Life

Wagner was the son of a worker and a trained stone worker. In the winter of 1931 he became unemployed. He was an opponent of the National Socialists , became a member of the construction union and joined the KPD . After the National Socialists came to power , he was arrested in March 1933 and sent to the early Heuberg concentration camp for three months . In April 1935 he was arrested again and sentenced to prison. In December 1936 he was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp , where he was "second time", the term for those who were detained several times.

In the Dachau concentration camp he was first placed in the penal company. Later he became prisoner functionary , first Baukapo, then Lagerkapo . In 1942 he was Baukapo the prisoner details which later the new crematorium buildings, barracks X called, was built.

He became a member of an illegal German communist resistance organization which occasionally maintained contact with other communist-oriented prisoners. In the years 1942 and 1943, one can in no way speak of an “international camp management” headed by German communist prisoners. It was not until the end of the war that an “international camp management” was established in the Dachau concentration camp.

The members of the communist group had reached middle and lower prisoner positions in the camp. The positions “camp elder” and “infirmary kapo” had at times more to do with executions and murders. Since communist prisoners did not hold the high positions at these times, they could not be morally guilty in the struggle for prisoner positions of power.

In April 1943 Karl Wagner became the "camp elder" of the Allach subcamp . Wagner was later removed from the position of camp elder for refusing to whip an inmate. Karl Wagner was also held captive in the Stubai Valley by the construction teams . He was later taken to Buchenwald concentration camp , where he was liberated in April 1945. In 1968 he joined the newly constituted DKP .

Fonts

  • Karl Wagner: Memories of Neustift, contribution to the history of the anti-fascist resistance 1942-45 in Neustift / Stubai
  • Karl Wagner: Kapo and comrade . In: Dachauer Hefte 7 (1991), p. 57.
  • Karl Wagner: I don't hit . Karlsruhe, 1980. ( online )

literature

  • Hans-Günter Richardi : The straight path. The Dachau prisoner Karl Wagner. In: Dachauer Hefte 7 (1991): Resistance and Solidarity. Pp. 52-86.
  • Hilde Wagner: The Kapo of the Cretans . Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-89144-407-8 .
  • Barbara Diestel, Wolfgang Benz: The Dachau Concentration Camp 1933-1945. History and meaning . Ed .: Bavarian State Center for Political Education. Munich 1994 ( Karl Wagner: Kapo und Kamerad ( Memento from December 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive )).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stanislav Zámečník : That was Dachau. Comité International de Dachau, Luxemburg 2002, p. 297.
  2. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: That was Dachau. Comité International de Dachau, Luxemburg 2002, p. 341.
  3. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: That was Dachau. Comité International de Dachau, Luxemburg 2002, p. 342: SS doctor Waldemar Hoven defended himself in the Nuremberg trial that the communist prisoners in Buchenwald agreed to the killing of “dangerous informers”.
  4. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State . Stockholm, 1947. pp. 321f.
  5. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: That was Dachau. Comité International de Dachau, Luxemburg 2002, p. 306.
personal data
SURNAME Wagner, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist and opponent of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Morsbach am Kocher
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1983
Place of death Karlsruhe