Peter Schilling (Wehrmacht deserter)
Peter Nicolaus Schilling (born July 22, 1923 in Lage , Free State of Lippe , † January 20, 2009 in Almere , Netherlands ) was a German Wehrmacht deserter , later an interpreter and autobiographer .
Life
Peter Schilling was the son of a pastor who moved to a pastor's position in Sauen in Brandenburg in 1933 . Up to this point he grew up in Neunkirchen in Saarland.
He registered as a volunteer for the Wehrmacht . When he, deployed on the Eastern Front , witnessed the atrocities of German soldiers in 1942, he felt a remorse. He secretly made contact with French foreign workers and fled to Switzerland in 1943 . He escaped from the internment camp to France in the early summer of 1944 to join the French resistance movement, but was arrested in Besançon . After a conviction by a Wehrmacht court , he was transferred to Field Criminal Prisoner Division 19 in Upper Alsace , from where he deserted. He experienced the end of the war with the Czech partisans .
After the war he worked as a teacher and translator and went to the Netherlands . He tried in vain for rehabilitation or even recognition for his behavior.
Peter Schilling reported, among other things, on his experiences in Raimund Koplin's TV film Fahnenflucht ( WDR , May 18, 1989) and wrote these together in 1998 in his book Carved from Other Wood , which was published in 2000 by BoD-Verlag . Alongside Ludwig Baumann and Helmut Kober , Schilling is one of the three contemporary witnesses whose life stories Lars G. Petersson takes up as an example in the center of his treatise Hitler's deserters . His descriptions of experiences were taken up several times in relevant literature.
Schilling was a member of the Federal Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice . He died at the age of 85 in Almere, his adopted home.
Publications
- I had to do something myself ... ; in: Michael Eberlein, Roland Müller: I'm fed up with butchery ... , Marburg History Workshop, 1992, pp. 132 ff., 184. ISBN 978-3-926-29503-3
- Carved from a different cloth. Half a sentence for life. BoD-Verlag, 2000. ISBN 978-3-831-10029-3
Literature (selection)
- Peter Schilling - command, obedience, refusal and moral courage. Regional history working group, Neustadt am Rübenberge, January 28, 2009.
- Lars G. Petersson: Hitler's deserters. Chipmunkapub Verlag, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84991-795-7
- Martin Schnackenberg: Case 12. Mr. Schilling, b. 1923. With preliminary work by the Federal Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice, 1999, p. 125 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Schilling - Order, obedience, refusal and moral courage. Regional history working group, Neustadt am Rübenberge, January 28, 2009.
- ↑ "A paradise with imperfections" , Märkische Oderzeitung , January 22, 2008.
- ↑ a b c Manuel Becker: The military resistance against Hitler in the light of new controversies. XXI. Königswinter Conference from 22.-24. February 2008. LIT Verlag Münster, 2010, p. 208. ISBN 978-3-825-81768-8 ( limited preview in Google book search)
- ↑ Magnus Koch: desertions. Wehrmacht deserters in World War II. Life paths and decisions. Volume 42 of the series War in History , Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh , p. 54. ISBN 978-3-506-76457-7 .
- ↑ Martin Schnackenberg: Case 12. Mr. Schilling, b. 1923. With preliminary work by the Federal Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice, 1999, p. 125 ff. ( Pdf )
- ^ Günther Knebel ( EAK ) on Lars G. Petersson: Hitler's deserters. Chipmunkapub Publishing House, 2012.
- ↑ Peter Schilling: I had to do something myself ... ; in: Michael Eberlein, Roland Müller: I'm fed up with butchery ... , Geschichtswerkstatt Marburg, 1992, pp. 132 ff., 184.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Schilling, Peter |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schilling, Peter Nicolaus (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German armed forces deserter, later interpreter and autobiographer |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 22, 1923 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Location , Free State of Lippe |
DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 2009 |
Place of death | Almere , Netherlands |