Waltraud Blass

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Waltraud Blass , née Ebbinghaus , (born July 1, 1920 in Ronsdorf ; † August 13, 2009 in Wuppertal ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Childhood and youth

In 1921 Waltraud Ebbinghaus's parents, Hilde and Hugo Ebbinghaus , left the church in order to join the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) a short time later . Hilde Ebbinghaus got involved in the Red Aid ; the father became the KPD local group leader in Ronsdorf. They sent their daughter to the “free school”, a school without religious orientation.

1933, after the seizure of power of the Nazis , Hugo Ebbinghaus was because of his membership in the Communist Party for one year in Kemna concentration camp detained. The tobacco and stationery store , which the trained bandmaker had opened after a long period of unemployment, has to close again because it has been boycotted. In 1934, Waltraud Ebbinghaus's older brother Egon was arrested. Waltraud Ebbinghaus herself, who would have liked to become a journalist , had to leave school and work in a hat factory. She too was actively involved in the illegal resistance against National Socialism . B. Transported posters.

Arrest and stay in the concentration camp

After his release from prison, Hugo Ebbinghaus became the contact person for the Wuppertal Committee to reactivate the trade union opposition , which operated from Amsterdam. Through his activities he came into contact with the Knöchel-Seng-Gruppe , a resistance group that had been set up by Wilhelm Knöchel and Willi Seng in the Ruhr area . In January 1943, the seriously ill Kn ankle and Seng were arrested by the Secret State Police (Gestapo). Under the torture, they revealed the names of members of their group. In February 1943, Waltraud Ebbinghaus's parents were arrested, and in March 1943 she was arrested too. She spent eight months in the Wuppertal police prison. There she got to know the eight-year-old inmate Hans Blass through her work in the prison kitchen, who was later transported to Buchenwald concentration camp . After the judge overturned the arrest warrant against her, she was deported by the Gestapo to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in November 1943 . In 1942 she volunteered for forced labor at Siemens & Halske for the production of armaments.

Trial in Dortmund and convictions

In August 1944 Waltraud Ebbinghaus was brought to Dortmund , where she and 50 other people were tried. There she saw her mother again for the first time after the arrest. She was sentenced to one year and three months in prison, which was considered served because of the prison term she had suffered, her mother to three years and six months in prison and four years of loss of honor .

A total of 200 people associated with the ankle seng group were detained. At least a quarter of them died from execution, murder, suicide or as a result of imprisonment; four men were shot dead on April 13 in the Wenceslas Gorge as part of an end- stage crime. Waltraud Ebbinghaus' great-uncle Hermann Schmidt was probably shot in the Lüttringhausen prison. Hugo Ebbinghaus, who had been sentenced to eight years in prison, died in August 1945 without seeing his family again. His wife Hilde, who returned to Wuppertal seriously ill, died in 1947 shortly after her son Egon returned from captivity .

After the war

After the end of the war, Waltraud Ebbinghaus met Hans Blass again, whom she had met in the police prison; the two married. As politically persecuted, the couple received compensation, which they used to set up a printing company and run it from 1950 to 1975. In 1946 Waltraud Blass became a member of the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists (VVN). When the KPD was banned again in 1956 under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , the couple again printed illegal leaflets. They later became members of the German Communist Party (DKP).

The Siemens process

In 1990 Waltraud Blass stood as plaintiff for a test case against Siemens; with the support of Aktion Sühnezeichen , she sued the group for compensation of DM 24,000 for her time as a forced laborer. The regional court dismissed this action because of the statute of limitations. The revision was also unsuccessful.

literature

  • Heike Herrberg: You have to have moral courage. In: Wuppertal Resistance Research Group (ed.): “Se krieje us nit kaputt”. Faces of the Wuppertal resistance. Essen 1995, ISBN 3-9804014-2-1 , pp. 97-116.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Eva Meschede: Justice, time-barred. on: zeit.de. August 31, 1990.
personal data
SURNAME Pale, Waltraud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ebbinghaus, Waltraud (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter and communist
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Ronsdorf
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 2009
Place of death Wuppertal