Victor Nessmann
Victor Nessmann (born September 17, 1900 in Strasbourg , † January 4 or 5, 1944 in Limoges ) was an Alsatian - French doctor , Resistance fighter and victim of National Socialism .
Life
Nessmann's father Victor Nessmann (1873-1944) was pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Westhoffen from 1899 to 1940 . The son attended the Protestant grammar school in Strasbourg. In 1918, the last year of the war , he was recruited for the German Reichsheer , but after the end of the war he returned home without being released and took on French citizenship.
He began studying medicine at the University of Strasbourg . As a practicing Protestant and compatriot Albert Schweitzer , he went in 1924 for 18 months as an assistant doctor at his tropical hospital in Lambarene . In 1927 he completed his studies in Strasbourg with a doctorate on the structures of "colonial medicine". Tropical medicine remained a focus of his interest. In the following years he specialized in surgery in various French hospitals . In 1932 he set up a private practice in Strasbourg .
At the beginning of the war , he joined the French army as a medical officer . After the armistice of June 22, 1940 , he went to Vichy-France and directed and reformed medical institutions in Périgueux and Sarlat ( Dordogne ). There he met his wife and four children who had fled from occupied Alsace.
As early as 1940, Nessmann made contact with Edmond Michelet and the emerging Résistance, the organized resistance against the German occupation regime. In Sarlat he was a co-founder of the Mouvement combat , which later became part of the Mouvements unis de la Résistance (MUR). In 1942 he took over the regional management of the Armée secrète (AS). At the same time, his family expanded to include two more children.
In 1943 the Germans intensified the repression in France and there were several waves of arrests. On December 21, 1943, Victor Nessmann was arrested by the security police during his medical consultation . He was first taken to Bergerac and then to Limoges and interrogated under torture . On January 4th or 5th, 1944, he died of the abuse.
Honors
Victor Nessmann was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance posthumously as Mort pour la France and was declared a Knight of the Legion of Honor . A street in Strasbourg, a square in Westhoffen and a boulevard in Sarlat are named after him.
literature
- Jean-Daniel Nessmann: La Cassure 1939–1945. Une famille alsacienne dans the tourmente de la Seconde Guerre mondiale . Strasbourg (Ed. Du Rhin) 1997
Web links
- Michel Thébault: Nessmann, Victor ( Le Maitron. Dictionnaire biographique , French)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nessmann, Victor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Alsatian-French doctor, Resistance fighter and victim of National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th September 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strasbourg |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 4, 1944 or January 5, 1944 |
| Place of death | Limoges |