Martha Gillessen

Martha Dorothea Lisette Gillessen , née Wicke (born November 30, 1901 in Laer (now Bochum); † between March 7 and April 13, 1945 in Dortmund; found April 19, 1945 ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism . She was murdered by the Gestapo towards the end of World War II.

Life and achievement

Martha Gillessen was born on November 30, 1901 in Laer as the daughter of August Wicke (1876–1956) and his wife Lisette Wicke, née Friedhof (1880–1927). The father was a miner and - like Martha Gillessen's brothers - a union member. In 1921 she married the wholesaler Richard Gillessen. The couple had three children: Martha (* 1921), Herbert (* 1923) and Hannelore (* 1929). Martha Gillessen worked in her husband's wholesale store and was a housewife and mother.

Martha Gillessen was a member of the KPD even before her wedding and remained active in the party afterwards. On December 14, 1933, she was arrested for distributing leaflets that contradicted the official account of the Reichstag fire ; on February 9, 1934, she was sentenced to one and a half years in prison by the Hamm Higher Regional Court for preparing for high treason and served this sentence until June 14, 1935. During the Second World War she kept in contact with other former KPD members and planned the rebuilding with them after the war. In 1939 her husband was drafted into the Wehrmacht, five years later her son was drafted, too, who died soon after being drafted into the Soviet Union. Before the Allied area bombing of Dortmund, the family fled to Velmede (now Bestwig); Martha Gillessen also offered this accommodation to persecuted people as a secret hiding place. Charlotte Temming made use of this option in December 1944. A former KPD functionary revealed this hiding place and the group around Martha Gillessen in the concentration camp. The Secret State Police (Gestapo) then searched the house in Velmede on February 8, 1945, which Martha Gillessen had left three days earlier for Dortmund. Charlotte Temming was able to escape, but the Gestapo took her daughter Hannelore hostage and took her to the Hörder Gestapo cellar , where other people from Martha Gillessen's group were also imprisoned. The next day she turned herself in to the police and was also locked in the Hörder Gestapo cellar. The daughter was released soon afterwards, but Martha Gillessen and the other resistance fighters were murdered by the Gestapo in Rombergpark . The exact date of death is unknown, the final phase crimes took place in Dortmund from March 7, 1945 until April 14, 1945, one day before the US troops marched in. Martha Gillessen's body was discovered on April 19, 1945. Today the Bittermark memorial commemorates the events, the International Romberg Park Committee takes care of the processing .

In 1989 the city of Dortmund named a street in the port district after her in honor and memory of Martha Gillessen.

literature

• Kurt Klotzbach : Against National Socialism. Resistance and persecution in Dortmund 1930–1945 . Publishing house for literature and current affairs, Hannover 1969.
• Günther Högl, Udo Steinmetz: Resistance and persecution in Dortmund 1933–1945 . City of Dortmund - City Archives, Dortmund 1981.
• Lore Junge : Persecuted - Tormented - Murdered. Dortmund women 1933–1945 . Lessing, Dortmund 1996, ISBN 3-929931-02-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manfred Pirscher: Gillessen, Martha Dorothea Lisette . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 2 . Klartext, Essen 1998, ISBN 3-88474-677-4 , p. 56 f .