Paul Claasen

Paul Claasen (born April 19, 1891 in Solingen , † approx. 1986) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Paul Claasen came from a social democratic family and did an apprenticeship as a file cutter . He became a member of the metal workers' association, the SPD, was involved in the workers' gymnastics club and was a co-founder of the first workers' swimming club in Solingen. At 21 he married - he had two children - and was drafted as a soldier from 1913 until the end of the war.

After the end of the First World War , Claasen was one of the founders of the Spartakusbund in Solingen and immediately joined the KPD in 1919 . In March 1920 he fought in the ranks of the Red Ruhr Army . Since a strike, Claasen has been on a “ black list ” of entrepreneurs in Solingen, so he couldn't get a job. Since he had been actively involved in workers 'sports for years, he was appointed construction manager of a new lido and managing director of the workers' swimming club in Solingen.

Until 1933 Claasen belonged to a militant circle of communists who fought against strikers, carried out bomb attacks in strikes, protected election rallies with weapons and carried out propaganda campaigns. After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, he went into hiding and worked in the illegal resistance of the trade unions. In May 1935 he was arrested and tortured in Duisburg . Only weeks later was it possible to discover his true identity. After eight months of pre-trial detention, he was sentenced to ten years in prison by the People's Court in Essen in February 1936 . He was imprisoned in Münster prison until 1943 and then deported to Mauthausen concentration camp . According to his own statements, he survived with the help of a Czech doctor, who deployed him as an auxiliary paramedic in the infectious barracks of paratyphoid patients and thus protected him from being attacked by the SS . Claasen was liberated by the US Army on May 6, 1945 in the Mauthausen satellite camp in Ebensee . He returned to Solingen on foot with his friend Fritz Faeskorn .

In 1949 Paul Claasen received compensation from which he opened a transport business together with the former Spain fighter Edmund Boes . He was 95 years old.

Individual evidence

↑ How long do the responsible politicians want to watch the goings on of the neo-fascists inactive? Do more crimes and murders have to happen before action is taken? Speech at the Wenzelnberg commemoration on April 22, 2012 by Werner Faeskorn, VVN-BdA Remscheid. April 24, 2012, accessed January 10, 2019 .
^ Stephan Stracke: The Wuppertal trade union processes. Trade union resistance and international solidarity (= persecution and resistance in Wuppertal; Volume 12). de Noantri, Wuppertal 2012, ISBN 978-3-943643-00-8 , p.?. The exact number of pages has yet to be clarified. The exact date of Paul Claasen's death is not known.

Web links

Paul Claasen on gewerkschaftsprozesse.de

personal data
SURNAME	Claasen, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German communist and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	April 19, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Solingen
DATE OF DEATH	around 1986

[1] How long do the responsible politicians want to watch the goings on of the neo-fascists inactive? Do more crimes and murders have to happen before action is taken? Speech at the Wenzelnberg commemoration on April 22, 2012 by Werner Faeskorn, VVN-BdA Remscheid. April 24, 2012, accessed January 10, 2019 .

[2] Stephan Stracke: The Wuppertal trade union processes. Trade union resistance and international solidarity (= persecution and resistance in Wuppertal; Volume 12). de Noantri, Wuppertal 2012, ISBN 978-3-943643-00-8 , p.?. The exact number of pages has yet to be clarified. The exact date of Paul Claasen's death is not known.