Svornost (resistance group)

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Svornost ( cs . "Eintracht, Einigkeit") was originally a Czech club based in Hamburg . During the Second World War , Svornost belonged to the Hamburg resistance against National Socialism . Several members were arrested in 1944 after denunciations . Two members who had worked with the resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus were murdered during the final phase crimes in Neuengamme concentration camp .

history

The Czech club Svornost existed in Hamburg before the Nazi era , as was the Czech gymnastics club " Sokol ". While Sokol was dissolved as "subversive" in 1935 and the association's assets were confiscated, Svornost continued to exist as a harmonized association and was monitored by the Gestapo . Nevertheless, even after the occupation of the Czech Republic in March 1939, the members continued to try to help their compatriots. During the Second World War they looked after many Czech forced laborers . The board included the master carpenters Karel Racmann and Vincent Smok, who also worked with the Hamburg resistance group Fight against Fascism .

A member of the Svornost Association who was later imprisoned by the Gestapo stated after the liberation that, together with Chairman Racmann, he had compiled lists of the Czechs in Hamburg. There were connections with the occupied Czech Republic and “a courier brought money for the interned and deported Czechs.” This unnamed witness further described the resistance activity of the Svornost association:

: “Our group included von 'Svornost' Racman, Smok (Jednatel), B. Voltr (worked at Kolzen laundry and smuggled packages with food, letters and messages for the prisoners in Fuhlsbüttel ), my brother Josef, Lieutenant H. Wir have worked openly as democrats and honest nationalists against the inhumane orders of the Nazis. Dissemination of 'hostile' radio programs, news, anti-Nazi literature and newspapers. [...] "

The club was at an early stage by infiltrated undercover agents monitored the Gestapo. At the end of 1942, the Gestapo spy Alfons Pannek , who spoke the Czech language, was able to break into the Czech association with a Czech ID card issued by Gestapo commissioner Fritz Knuth under the code name "Willi Hagemann". With the help of other informants, he was elected librarian so that he could attend board meetings.

In the summer of 1944, the association, which had set itself the task of helping Czech compatriots and those who were forcibly displaced, was disbanded by the Gestapo after being denounced by informers.

Arrests

In September 1944, the Gestapo first arrested the chairman, Karel Racmann. The Gestapo spy Alfons Pannek, who had already entered the association under an alias in 1942 and had contributed significantly to the arrests, later named the reasons for the arrest during his interrogation as part of the Hamburg Gestapo trial in 1949 and claimed:

“Shortly before his arrest, Racmann gave a speech at a meeting of the Svornost Association in the club room on the Alster, which may have lasted a quarter of an hour. I was present at that meeting. There were also two - it could have been three - young people in labor service uniforms. I believe that the presence of these uniforms was the reason for Racmann's speech. In the speech he spoke clearly against those who voluntarily made themselves available to the Third Reich in some form of cooperation in the hope of finding better progress for their future. Addressing these people, Racmann said, for example, that the future would be very different from what these people might think. He emphasized this several times. It was very quiet in the hall, nobody said a word, everyone was speechless and just looked at each other. It had to be expected that this speech by Racmann would come to the attention of the authorities. I would also like to mention that the association was very likely monitored by several Gestapo offices. So I assume that he was also monitored by the department for foreign workers and counter-espionage, because the association frequented a lot of Czechs who had come to Hamburg as foreign workers. These people formed the majority of the visitors at the meetings. "

According to Pannek, around 100 people attended this meeting. Pannek, who tried to downplay his active role as an informer during the interrogation, instead informed his superior, Gestapo secretary Henry Helms, immediately after the meeting. This obtained the immediate arrest of Racmann and the dissolution of the Svornost Association through SS-Hauptsturmführer and Detective Superintendent Adolf Bockelmann. At the instigation of the Gestapo, Racmann received " protective custody level 1 for the duration of the war" because of "preparation for high treason " .

Vincent Smok was arrested a short time later. Racmann and Smok were taken to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison . Further arrests of association members took place until the beginning of 1945. In April 1945, many of the concentration camp prisoners were sent on a death march to the Hassee labor education camp near Kiel. Racmann and Smok, on the other hand, were among the 71 political concentration camp prisoners who were on the Gestapo's “ liquidation list ”. Both were brought to Neuengamme concentration camp on April 20, 1945 and murdered between April 21 and 24 as part of the final phase crimes in Neuengamme concentration camp. According to the eyewitness Hans Schwarz , the chairman of the illegal international prisoner committee, the victims who were brought in, some of whom were not known by name, included 13 Czechs, Poles and Russians.

In memory of Karel Racmann, a stumbling block was laid in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel in the street near the Apostle Church . Whether Racmann and Smok had also belonged to the Hamburg resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus (KdF), as stated in the literature, or worked together with the KdF group as senior members of Svornost, has not been conclusively clarified.

literature

  • Herbert Diercks : Memorial Book Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . In it: Victims of the resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus , Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, pp. 53–54
  • Ursel Hochmuth and Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance 1933-1945 . Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1969, unaltered reprint 1980
  • Gertrud Meyer: Night over Hamburg. Reports and documents 1933-1945. Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 . Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, reprint 1980, p. 452
  2. ↑ a b c Quote from Peter Offenborn: Karl Racmann at stolpersteine-hamburg.de
  3. ↑ Explanation of the word in the Wiktionary
  4. ^ A b Hochmuth, Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 , Frankfurt am Main 1969, edition 1980, p. 453
  5. ^ Gertrud Meyer: Night over Hamburg. Reports and documents 1933-1945. Library of Resistance, Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971, p. 85
  6. ^ Herbert Diercks: memorial book Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 53
  7. ↑ a b Peter Offenborn: Karl Racmann at stolpersteine-hamburg.de
  8. ↑ See also Hochmuth, Meyer: Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945 , Frankfurt am Main 1969, 1980 edition, pp. 461–462, date April 20, for example in Herbert Diercks: Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 46
  9. ↑ For example Herbert Diercks: Gedenkbuch Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 53
  10. ↑ Peter Offenborn: Karl Racmann at stolpersteine-hamburg.de . Offenborn cautiously indicates: "Racmann is said to have had contact with a resistance group" KdF "."