Werner Lehmann

Werner Lehmann (born May 22, 1904 in Bochum , † September 21, 1941 in Berlin ) was a German seaman, communist functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Werner Lehmann grew up in a family with five siblings. The father was a construction worker and the family lived in poor conditions. Lehmann became a member of the KPD and the Antifascist Kampfbund . From 1932 he went to sea. In 1935 he deserted the German ship Havenstein in London . A fire had previously broken out on board the ship and Lehmann and a comrade were suspected - wrongly, as Nelles writes - of having started the fire because they were communists. In Antwerp he joined his brother Kurt's active group. In September 1936 Lehmann went to Spain with other seamen, including his brother, and fought in the international group of the Durruti column in Spain until January . Because of an illness he returned to Antwerp and went to sea on English and Norwegian ships until 1939.

Under pressure from the German government, Werner and Kurt Lehmann were expelled from Belgium in 1938, even though the socialist mayor of Antwerp, Camille Huysmans , had campaigned for them. With the help of the International Transport Workers' Federation ITF, they were able to take on the British freighter Lucerie . This was followed by an odyssey through different countries: The Lehmanns were not allowed to stay in Hong Kong, they were banned from land in London , and back in Belgium they were arrested, released after the ITF intervened with the condition that they leave Belgium forever. The brothers later went illegally to Marseille , from there to Dunkirk , where they were again imprisoned. Following the intervention of the ITF General Secretary, Edo Fimmen , they were briefly released, but were interned as "enemy foreigners" after the outbreak of war. When Fimmen was able to obtain their release again, France was attacked by the Wehrmacht. The Lehmanns were interned by the French in the North African camp Suzzoni ( Medea province ) and transferred from there to the notorious Berrouaghia camp. On July 1, 1941, the Vichy regime extradited the brothers to the Gestapo . One of them cut his wrists on the crossing to France, but was saved.

Kurt and Werner Lehmann were taken to the prison of the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin . Werner Lehmann firmly counted on a death sentence. He died in prison on September 21, 1941; it is unknown whether by murder or suicide.

literature

• Dieter Nelles: "That we hold our heads high, even if it should be cut off" - Wuppertal sailors in the resistance ". In: “… We don't get broken.” Faces of the Wuppertal resistance. Edited by the Wuppertal Resistance Research Group. Essen 1995. pp. 159-179 online
• Dieter Nelles: Resistance and International Solidarity. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in the resistance against National Socialism. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2001 ISBN 3-88474-956-0 (Dissertation, Kassel University, 2000)

Web links

• Werner Lehmann on gedenkbuch-wuppertal.de