Siegmund Sredzki

Siegmund Sredzki (born November 30, 1892 in Berlin ; † October 11, 1944 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism . In addition to Siegmund , other anti-fascist resistance fighters came from the Sredzki family .

Life

Memorial stele for Siegmund Sredzki and Ernst Knaack in the front garden of the Berlin elementary school on Kollwitzplatz

Siegmund Sredzki was a lathe operator and worked in arms and ammunition factories until he was drafted into the military in 1915. He took part in the armed struggle of the November Revolution in 1918 and joined the USPD in 1918 . He belonged to the left wing of the USPD, which merged with the KPD in 1920 . After the First World War he worked as a lathe operator again, later as a stoker. He was active in leading positions in left-wing organizations, such as a member of the Reich leadership of the Association of Proletarian Freethinkers and as head of the League of Friends of the Soviet Union in the Berlin district.

After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, he was active in the resistance struggle and became one of five KPD chief instructors in Berlin. He was imprisoned several times in 1933 and 1934. On December 7, 1934, he was arrested by the Gestapo together with his wife Margarete and his son Gerhard. On June 9, 1936, the Berlin Higher Regional Court sentenced him to five years in prison for “preparing for high treason ”. a. had to spend in Luckau prison, in the prison camps Börgermoor , Esterwegen and Aschendorfermoor . After the end of his imprisonment, Sredzki was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1939 . He played a leading role in organizing the illegal work of the prisoners in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was at the forefront of solidarity campaigns for the starved Soviet prisoners of war coming to the camp. In the autumn of 1944 the activities of the illegal group were discovered by the SS . After weeks of severe torture, 27 anti-fascist resistance fighters - including Siegmund Sredzki - were murdered in the trench in the neck of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Appreciations

Since January 31, 1952, a street in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg has been named after him, Sredzkistraße . From 1974 to 1991 a nearby school (the 23rd POS ) was named after him. When the school closed in 1991 and the building was converted into a primary school, the name was given up. The stele “Traditions of the German Working Class” by Heinz Worner in front of the school building in Knaackstrasse is dedicated to the murdered anti-fascists Ernst Knaack and Siegmund Sredzki.

literature

• Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters 1933 - 1945. Biographies and letters. Volume 2, Dietz-Verlag: Berlin 1970, page 558
• Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : Resistance in Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee ; Volume 12 of the SR of the GDW , Berlin 2000
• Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: The “other” capital of the Reich: Resistance from the workers' movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 . Lukas-Verlag: Berlin 2007. Pages 330–339 ISBN 978-3-936872-94-1