Viktor Koenen
Viktor Koenen (code name: Stafford ; born January 21, 1920 in Merseburg , † 1942 ) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .
Life
Koenen, son of the KPD functionary Bernard Koenen , attended elementary school in Merseburg. When he was 13 years old, his father was brutally beaten by the SA on Eisleber Blutsonntag (February 12, 1933) and injured so badly that he lost an eye. For the next few months, the wanted father hid with a Jewish doctor who sympathized with the KPD in Leipzig and was treated in his private clinic. The Koenen family also had to go into hiding. Viktor Koenen was separated from his mother Frieda and his brother Alfred . All three were hidden in different places. In June 1933 Viktor Koenen was able to emigrate to the Soviet Union with his mother and brother equipped with false papers . Here he met his father again.
Viktor Koenen attended the Karl Liebknecht School in Moscow . He was a member of the pioneer organization and the Komsomol . From June 1937 he learned the trade of tool fitter at the Stalin car factory in Moscow .
After the German Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, he and his brother volunteered for the Red Army . In the winter of 1941 he took part in the defense of Moscow . He was temporarily used at the front and with partisans and in Moscow. At times he also worked as a military interpreter in the Seventh Department of the Central Political Administration of the Red Army.
Viktor Koenen later fought in a reconnaissance group of paratroopers . He was captured and murdered together with Polish partisans during a foray into the enemy hinterland . Other sources say his plane was shot down over Poland and none of the occupants survived.
Honors
- The POS "Viktor Koenen" in Merseburg-Süd was named after him during the GDR era .
literature
- Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters. Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 513f.
- Natalija Mussijenko, Alexander Vatlin: School of Dreams. The Karl Liebknecht School in Moscow (1924–1938) . Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2005, ISBN 3-7815-1368-8 , p. 182f.
- Gottfried Hamacher et al. (Ed.): Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. Short biographies (series: Manuscripts / Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung , Volume 53) . 2., corr. Edition. Dietz, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-320-02941-X , p. 108.
- Günter Freyer: A heroic pair of brothers: the Koenens. German anti-fascists in Soviet uniform against Hitler's hordes . In: Rotfuchs , No. 149 (June 2010) , p. 5.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Владислава Жданова / Vladislava Ždanova: Нашим оружием было слово ... Переводчики на войне / Our weapon was the word ... Translation in times of war . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-59485-8 , p. 27.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koenen, Viktor |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stafford, Viktor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighters against the Nazi regime |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 21, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Merseburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1942 |