Ursula Popiolek

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Ursula Popiolek (* 1943 ) is a German Slavist and translator.

Life

Ursula Popiolek grew up atheistically. She studied Slavic Studies and obtained a diploma. Before 1989 she worked as a freelance translator for specialist texts. In the autumn of 1989 she began to build up a private collection of books that were indexed in East Germany. The " New Forum " provided them with organizational support, and within a short period of time they collected donations of 150,000 marks. Since 1992 she has been the chairwoman of the association that supports the memorial library in honor of the victims of communism , of which she was also director for many years.

Ursula Popiolek is married and has two sons.

The Margot Pietzner case

Ursula Popiolek was involved in the Margot Pietzner case in the early 1990s. In 1991 the writer and library worker Siegmar Faust met the pensioner Margot Pietzner (1921-1998) in the memorial library run by Popiolek in honor of the victims of Stalinism . Pietzner had - by his own account - served as an SS supervisor in a labor camp of her previous employer, the Arado Flugzeugwerke in Wittenberg , as well as in satellite camps of the Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück concentration camps , such as Belzig . In 1946 a Soviet military tribunal sentenced her to death and then to 25 years in prison. In 1956 she was given an amnesty. Faust played an active part in ensuring that Pietzner was recognized as a political prisoner. After a number of manipulations in the recognition process, in 1993 she received compensation for detention totaling 64,350 marks. This led to the scandal. For example, the foundation for former political prisoners , which was entrusted with the rehabilitation process, did not research Pietzner's known SS past. The now switched on Gauck authority and the Wittenberg researcher Renate Gruber-Lieblich, however, found incriminating evidence. Pietzner had abused concentration camp inmates for example. Ursula Popiolek and Siegmar Faust are said to have known about Pietzner's work as a concentration camp guard, but to have concealed it. The Pietzner case and the reversal of alleged Nazi perpetrators to victims of Stalinism by active members of the memorial library triggered the withdrawal of several GDR civil rights activists from the library's bodies. In 1996, Pietzner's status as a former political prisoner was revoked and the state reclaimed the compensation because violations of the principles of humanity precluded such a payment. Pietzner accepted this. However, Pietzner had quickly given away most of the money beforehand. a. Popiolek family 20,000 marks. As a result, there was an arson attack on a private car belonging to the Popiolek family; the perpetrators for the attack remained unclear despite an anonymous letter of confession with reference to the Pietzner case.

Political positions

In 1995 Popiolek signed the "Berlin Appeal", warning of the resurgence of socialism. Also in 1995 she signed the appeal "May 8, 1945 - against forgetting" initiated by the right-wing conservative Institute for State Policy , which called for an expansion of historical commemoration (from the sole liberation from National Socialism to additional commemoration of the loss of territory, expulsion and sovietization of Eastern Europe) . In 2004 she expressed criticism of the politics of the red-green federal government in an interview for the newspaper "Junge Freiheit". In 2012 Popiolek was co-signer of an election call for the state elections in Thuringia published in the newspaper "Die Welt", in which critical positions were expressed on almost all major parties eligible for election, namely the SPD, the CDU and the Left. In 2010, as head of the memorial library, she invited the Russian historian Dmitrij Khmelnitsky to give a lecture that discussed alternative perspectives on the question of guilt in World War II.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://jungefreiheit.de/service/archiv?artikel=archiv02/332yy10.htm
  2. ↑ http://gedenkbibliothek.de/?mid=idee
  3. ↑ https://jungefreiheit.de/service/archiv?artikel=archiv02/332yy10.htm
  4. ↑ https://jungefreiheit.de/service/archiv?artikel=archiv02/332yy10.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!1518415/
  6. ↑ Andreas Weigelt et al. (Ed.), Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947) , Göttingen 2015, on Margot Kunz (maiden name of Pietzker) p. 192, with notes 116 and 117
  7. ↑ Thomas Moser, History Processes. The case of a concentration camp guard who was compensated as a victim of Stalinism and other proceedings. In: Kritische Justiz, Volume 34 (2001), Issue 2, pp. 222–227. - Robert Havemann Gesellschaft, "Der Fall Margot Pienzler" collection , archive inventory for the RBu 100 material collection, website, accessed on September 10, 2018
  8. ↑ Andreas Schreier, All Sacrifice; or what? , in: taz, December 1, 1994, online, accessed on September 10, 2018. - Thomas Moser, History Processes. The case of a concentration camp guard who was compensated as a victim of Stalinism and other proceedings. In: Kritische Justiz, Volume 34 (2001), Issue 2, p. 225 f. -
  9. ↑ https://www.projektgegenpart.de/chronik/gp-chronik/front_contentd1af.html?client=1&lang=1&idcat=91&idart=1110&m=&s=
  10. ↑ Felizitas Raith, you were there: followers, beneficiaries, perpetrators under National Socialism. Conference report on the 8th Dachau Symposium on Contemporary History, 2007, especially Lavern Wolfram's lecture on Pietzner, online, accessed on September 10, 2018. - Declaration by Siegmar Faust, letter to the editor in taz, December 15, 1994, online , accessed on September 10, 2018
  11. ↑ https://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/affaere-opfer-gegen-opfer_aid_171261.html
  12. ↑ Renate Oschlies, supporting a concentration camp guard brought the club into twilight. Faust defends the cooperation of cult activists. Renger sees her name misused by the memorial library , in: Berliner Zeitung , August 21, 1996, online , accessed on September 10, 2018
  13. ↑ Andreas Schreier, All Sacrifice; or what? , in: taz, December 1, 1994, online, accessed on September 10, 2018. - Felizitas Raith, you were there: followers, beneficiaries, perpetrators of National Socialism. Conference report on the 8th Dachau Symposium on Contemporary History, 2007, online, accessed on September 10, 2018
  14. ↑ Thomas Moser, History Processes. The case of a concentration camp guard who was compensated as a victim of Stalinism and other proceedings. In: Kritische Justiz, Volume 34 (2001), Issue 2, p. 225 f.
  15. ↑ Uwe Rada: Swept under the carpet. In: taz , January 11, 1995
  16. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!1519860/
  17. ↑ http://www.taz.de/!1518415/
  18. ↑ http://www.staatspektiven.de/pdf/050426_aufruf_faz.pdf ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ https://jungefreiheit.de/kultur/zeitgeist/2004/ursula-popiolek-bibliotheksleiterin/
  20. ↑ https://www.welt.de/bin/Aufruf-131916737.pdf
  21. ↑ https://blog.zeit.de/stoerungsmelder/2010/02/06/cdu-kuschelt-mit-rechtsausen_2582
  22. ↑ Federal Cross of Merit for Ursula Popiolek, press release from January 6, 2012
  23. ^ Federal Cross of Merit for Popiolek , BZ January 7, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Popiolek, Ursula
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Slavist and translator
DATE OF BIRTH 1943