Ludger Zollikofer
Ludger Zollikofer (born October 29, 1893 in Fischlaken in the Ruhr area ; † October 11, 1944 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German KPD functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism .
Life
Zollikofer joined the USPD in 1918/19 , with whose left wing he converted to the KPD at the end of 1920. In 1922 he founded a local group of the KPD in the city of Essen and from 1927 worked as secretary of the international workers' aid. At the same time he was active in the "military apparatus" of the KPD and was head of the Proletarian Hundreds and a functionary of the RFB in the Ruhr area. At the same time he took over several functions in the German Railway Workers' Association (DEV) and from 1925 in EdED .
After the beginning of National Socialism, he was persecuted because of his communist orientation. The police arrested him on May 1, 1933. He was first sent to the Cleve concentration camp , where he stayed only for a short time. Until the end of 1933 he was in protective custody in the Esterwegen concentration camp . In June 1934 he was arrested again. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Zollikofer was arrested again and transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on September 10, 1939 . Here he organized the illegal resistance together with Ernst Schneller , Mathias Thesen and other camp inmates. For this he was executed after betrayal together with 26 other German and French prisoners in the shot in the neck .
Honors
The station Z remembered today in the Sachsenhausen memorial to Zollikofer and the other killed prisoners.
literature
- Zollikofer, Ludger . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
- Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 7). Metropol, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , pp. 293, 363, 722–723.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zollikofer, Ludger |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German KPD functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 29, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ruhr area |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 11, 1944 |
| Place of death | Sachsenhausen concentration camp |