Walter Caro (resistance fighter)

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Stumbling block in front of the house at Trautenaustraße 8, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . The stumbling block with the incorrectly stated date of death “March 1945” has since been replaced.

Walter Caro (born May 23, 1899 in Berlin ; date of death unknown, probably April 20, 1944 in the Auschwitz extermination camp ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and was considered a member of the European Union resistance group .

Life

Walter Heinrich Caro was born in the apartment of his parents Isidor Caro and Else. Hirschberg was born at Rügener Straße 26. He initially worked as managing director in the Siegfried Heumann clothing company in the Hausvogteiviertel . Caro, who was considered a "full Jew" according to the racist Nuremberg laws , was demoted to sales manager at the end of 1938 after the so-called " Aryanization " of the company. After his release in early 1940 he had to do forced labor as a construction worker. While still working in the textile industry, he made the acquaintance of directrice Charlotte Glückstein, who had been baptized as a Protestant and was classified as a " half-Jewish " by the Nazi regime .

When all Jews still living in Berlin were to be deported as part of the factory campaign in 1943 , Caro was able to go into hiding and was hidden as a “ submarine ” by Charlotte Glückstein in Trautenstrasse for seven months . During this time he worked with the passport forger and later Gestapo spy Rolf Isaaksohn and sold forged passports to the doctor Georg Groscurth , who passed them on to Jews in hiding.

Following a denunciation, Caro and Glückstein were arrested on September 7, 1943 in connection with the arrest of members of the European Union resistance group , including Robert Havemann and Georg Groscurth. The reason given was that he had "procured false papers for an illegal communist organization". Charlotte Glückstein was accused of having housed a “full Jew”. During the interrogation at Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse , Caro was unable to name any other members of the resistance group despite the torture. He was first imprisoned in the assembly camp on Grosse Hamburger Strasse and later on Schulstrasse.

On April 18, 1944, Walter Caro was at the so-called “51. Osttransport ”was deported to Auschwitz and probably murdered in the gas chamber on arrival on April 20, 1944 .

Charlotte Glückstein, who had housed Caro and was imprisoned in various concentration camps (including Ravensbrück and a satellite camp of Flossenbürg ), escaped from the Neu-Rohlau satellite camp at the end of April 1945 and survived. Caro's brothers Kurt and Werner were among the survivors of the Holocaust .

Commemoration

There is a symbolic gravestone for Walter Caro in the Jewish cemetery on Heerstraße in Berlin. He was also commemorated on his parents' tombstone, which is in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee . In the memorial book of the city of Berlin, Walter Caro is considered missing.

On April 29, 2012, a stumbling block for Walter Caro was laid in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . This was replaced in 2013 based on research by Eva Züchner.

literature

  • Simone Hannemann: Robert Havemann and the "European Union" resistance group. A representation of the events and their interpretation after 1945. Series of publications of the Robert Havemann Archive 6, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-9804920-5-2 . (Short biography on p. 150)
  • Eva Züchner: The burnt suitcase. A Jewish family in Berlin. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8270-1050-6 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Caro  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Illustration of the revised stumbling block ( memento of the original from April 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stolpersteine-berlin.de
  2. ↑ Eva Züchner: Stolpersteine ​​in Berlin. Walter Caro
  3. ↑ Birth register StA Berlin Xb No. 1921/1899 .
  4. ^ Quote from Eva Züchner: Stumbling blocks in Berlin. Walter Caro
  5. ↑ Information from Eva Züchner: Stolpersteine ​​in Berlin. Walter Caro


personal data
SURNAME Caro, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: April 1944
Place of death Auschwitz