Rudi Steffens
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Rudi Johann Wilhelm Steffens (born November 18, 1911 in Essen , † April 22, 1945 in Mauthausen concentration camp ) was a German KPD functionary and a victim of National Socialism .
Life
In October 1927 Rudi's family moved to Gronau (Westphalia) due to unemployment . At the age of 15 Rudi became a member of the KJVD and later a member of the KPD .
The persecution of the members of the KPD and KJVD began immediately with the transfer of power to the National Socialists . In the course of the terrorist measures of the Nazi regime after the Reichstag fire , searches of communists' houses in Gronau took place on February 28, 1933. Rudi Steffens was also arrested by the Gestapo , but released shortly afterwards. Rudi's father, Rudolf Steffens, was also detained in the Esterwegen concentration camp for nine months .
On February 28, 1933, the KPD and KJVD were banned. In the course of various house searches, more and more members and functionaries of the KPD were arrested and taken into protective custody. Several communists were sent to concentration camps . Rudi, like other KPD members, continued their political activities. a. among the textile workers at Gerrit Van Delden in Gronau.
Then he became a member of the KPD district leadership Ruhr, worked actively in Essen and Dortmund in the resistance against National Socialism . He was used by the party as a courier between Holland and Germany for the distribution and transmission of political writings. He stayed in Enschede and Dortmund, brought political writings from Holland via Gronau to Dortmund, from where they were distributed throughout the Ruhr area.
Many German communists and resistance fighters fled to the Netherlands and continued their political work there. This brought the Dutch government increasingly into distress, as it did not want to come into conflict with the German Reich . She began to exert pressure, as a result of which many moved to Belgium and later to France and Spain . In early 1935 he was expelled from the party. He has been accused of being a Trotskyist . Rudi went to Belgium and France, where he continued to work politically.
At the end of 1936 he went to Spain, where he joined the POUM in the Spanish Civil War . After the POUM ban, he joined an anarchist police unit in Barcelona .
In 1937 the Gestapo was looking for him. In early 1939 he returned to France and from March 1939 he stayed in Tulle in the Corrèze department and in Paris . From then on he had contacts with the aid committee for former Spanish fighters in Paris. In June 1939 he was briefly imprisoned.
Finally, on October 15, 1943, he was interned again by the Gestapo in Marseille and then transferred to the Münster Gestapo . He was then taken to the notorious Gestapo prison "Dortmunder Steinwache ", where he was interrogated and tortured from April 3, 1944 to August 29.
During this time, the parents were able to visit Rudi in Dortmund's Steinwache every 14 days for 15 minutes each time.
From there he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp on September 2, 1944 (prisoner number: 97.989, Nazi detention category: protective custody) and transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp on September 14, 1944 (prisoner number: 99.219). From September 20, 1944, he was used as a forced laborer in the Mauthausen / Gusen Bergkristall concentration camp and died on April 22, 1945 in the Mauthausen / Gusen concentration camp.
The Steffens family received news that their son had died of pulmonary tuberculosis . Mother Hermine Alma Steffens died in 1946. The father, Rudolf Steffens, died in 1967. He was a textile worker like Rudi and also worked for the Gerrit van Delden company. His sister, Ernestine Alma, was a member of the KPD and from 1968 until her death a member of the DKP . Against the resistance of the Evangelical Church and after tough disputes, Alma succeeded in having Rudi's name written on his parents' tombstone, which is in the Evangelical Cemetery in Ochtruper Straße. He was honored with a stumbling block in Gronau.
literature
- Sahin Aydin: A young life, lived and died for a just cause, Rudi Johann W. Steffens, Eine Politische Biographie. KDFK e. V., 2014.
Web links
- Rudi Steffens: In the resistance against Hitler and Franco
- Gronau NRW, December 9, 2014: Stumbling block for Rudi Steffens, KPD, POUM division, Mauthausen concentration camp, Dachau concentration camp
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erhard Kurlemann: Stumbling blocks prevent forgetting. Westfälische Nachrichten, December 10, 2014, accessed on December 22, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Steffens, Rudi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Steffens, Rudi Johann Wilhelm (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German KPD functionary and victim of National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 18, 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | eat |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 22, 1945 |
| Place of death | Mauthausen concentration camp |