Stanislaus Peplinski

Stanislaus Peplinski

Stanislaus Peplinski (born April 16, 1909 in Wiescherhöfen near Hamm , † March 19, 1945 in Brandenburg-Görden ) was a Polish forced laborer in Waldsee (Palatinate) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was a leading member of the Speyerer Kameradschaft founded by Jakob Schultheis .

Life

Stanislaus Peplinski spent his youth in Westphalia , where his father was employed as a miner . He later moved to Greater Poland with his parents and siblings . After leaving school, he worked in his parents' small farm in Torzeniec . He served in the Polish army for two years . On August 24, 1939, he was called up for Polish military service in Krotoszyn (German Krotoschin ) and on September 18, 1939 in Lwów ( Lemberg ) (allegedly without having fought against the German Wehrmacht ) in German captivity. He was released from captivity on February 1, 1941 and then worked as an agricultural worker on a farm in Waldsee near Speyer until his arrest on April 16, 1944 . According to his own statements, he was never politically active.

Working in the Speyer comradeship

From autumn 1942 Peplinski became acquainted with the former Speyer social democrat and communist Jakob Schultheis and his wife Emma when he was delivering potatoes there. Together with the Schultheis couple, he became a leading member of the Speyer comradeship . He translated the news of foreign language radio stations and organized the transmission of information to Polish and Soviet prisoners of war and forced laborers in the Speyer region. He operated under the code name Michael . Through his mediation, the forced laborers Jan Wyrzykowski, Witold, Jan Bilicki and Kowalski, as well as the Eastern workers Wera Saizewa, Paula Iknatenko, Marija Lwona and Tatjana Werenitsch joined the Speyer comradeship. With his friend Jan Wyrzykowski, who had been employed by the Elise Rohr (née Tremmel) family in Waldsee since July 18, 1941, he said he listened to enemy stations several times for between 5 and 10 minutes in 1943 . According to the final report of the Gestapo's field service ( Neustadt ad Weinstrasse ) on July 7, 1944, Peplinski said in an interrogation:

“My comrade, Jan Wyrzykowski, worked and lived for the Rohr family in Waldsee. In 1943, days I cannot specify, I visited Wyrzykowski after work, around 2:00 p.m., in Frau Rohr's kitchen. Frau Rohr said we want to hear what the others say about the war. Wyrzykowski looked for a foreign broadcaster until news in German or Polish could be heard (...) When I am accused of having often listened to enemy news together with Ms. Rohr and Wyrzykowski, I say that this was at most in 1944 and 1943 overall Was the case 4 times. "

- Gestapo interrogation record , Frankenthal (Pfalz), July 6, 1944 : LA SP: H91-6306

At Jakob Schultheis, Peplinski also met the daughter of the former communist leader Ernst Thälmann , Mrs. Vester . Peplinski gave her a monetary donation of 3 RM several times .

In Waldsee, the restaurant Zur Pfalz served as a meeting point for the "Eastern workers" and Poles from the region, where information was passed on. In Harthausen , Peplinski met the Speyer resistance fighter Heinrich Thiery to print leaflets on Fritz Jost's (* 1890) chicken farm. The group primarily focused on educating and mobilizing the forced laborers. In Jost and Thiery's apartment, too, hostile stations were listened to several times.

Arrest and death

The activities of the Speyer comradeship were discovered by a spy in the vicinity of Ernst Thälmann's family in Hamburg. At noon on April 16, 1944, Peplinski was arrested as part of raids in Hamburg, Speyer and Singen. Peplinski then sat in the Frankenthal detention center (Palatinate) for “preparing a treasonable enterprise” . On February 9, 1945, the trial against him and other members of the group began in Potsdam . The indictment states:

"In the case of Jakob Schultheis and Peplinski, a particularly aggravating factor was that they also exposed members of the Polish people and the eastern territories, which are hostile to the German people, to the hostile influence of the enemy broadcasters' messages (...) against these two defendants, those of the fighting Front and the homeland determined to defend themselves as fanatical opponents of National Socialism and enemies of the Reich were insidiously stabbed in the back, the only appropriate atonement for their act could only be the death penalty. "

- Antifa archive : Indictment against J. Schultheis and comrades (NJ 47 178), chap. III, p. 15

Peplinski was executed on March 19, 1945 in accordance with Section 32 of the Criminal Code (denial of civil rights ), Sections 73, 80, 91 of the Criminal Code (high treason, advocacy against the enemy, violation of the Polish Criminal Law Ordinance and damage to the welfare of the Reich) in the Brandenburg prison. He left his wife and his then eight-year-old little daughter in Poland. Four days after his death, the city of Speyer was taken by the troops of the 10th US Army .

Others

During his time as a slave laborer in Waldsee, Peplinski, like all other Polish slave laborers, had to wear the letter P (for Poles) as a mark on his clothing. But Peplinski took this rule very loosely. On September 12, 1943, Peplinski was found on the local road in Waldsee during a control without the legally required "P" marking on his clothing. The next day, Peplinski was informed about the criminal regulations by the gendarmerie station in Waldsee. He was fined 5 RM for a fee.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Information from the criminal record No. 522 of the Waldsee Gendarmerie Station, LA SP: H45-4107

literature

• Extract from the indictment against J. Schultheis and comrades (NJ 14 178) . From: Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED. Central party archive. Documentation center of the MdI (murder register). From: Antifa archive. Hermann W. Morweiser. Ludwigshafen-Edigheim.
• Hermann W. Morweiser: From the anti-fascist resistance in Speyer . VVN Association of Antifascists. Speyer 1983.
• Hedwig Brüchert: Forced Labor 1939–1945 - the “labor deployment” of civilian forced laborers in the regions of what is now the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. City Archives. Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-9802906-9-7 . (= Writings of the Wiesbaden City Archives, 8)
• Michael Schepua: National Socialism in the Palatinate Province: Rule practice and everyday life in the communities of today's Ludwigshafen district 1933-1945 . Palatium-Verlag, Mannheim 2000, ISBN 3-920671-40-6 . (Mannheim historical research. Vol. 20)