Wilhelm Hammann

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Hermann Wilhelm Hammann (born February 25, 1897 in Biebesheim ; † July 26, 1955 in Rüsselsheim ) was a Hessian educator , member of the state parliament and local politician of the KPD . During the Nazi era , he was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he saved the lives of 159 Jewish children. For this he received the Israeli honorary title " Righteous Among the Nations " in 1984 .

Life

Hammann was a teacher before 1933 and from 1927 to 1933 a member of the KPD in the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse . After the National Socialists seized power , he was arrested in April 1933 and taken to the Marienschloß prison near Rockenberg . On August 27, 1938, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp . There he was given prisoner no. 1224 and was block elder in children's block 8. In this role, Hammann saved the lives of 159 Jewish children. When the concentration camp was liberated on April 11, 1945, he was able to lead the children to freedom.

In July 1945, at the suggestion of mayors, almost exclusively social democrats , he was appointed the first district administrator in the southern Hessian district of Groß-Gerau ; on October 17, 1945 he received his certificate of appointment.

With the onset of the Cold War , the US military government tried to remove the communist Hammann from public service. His actions against a US officer who had confiscated food destined for the hospital for his own use was taken as a cause for arrest and indictment. However, Hammann was acquitted by an American military tribunal in February 1946 . However, during his imprisonment the district administration office in Groß-Gerau was filled with the Social Democrat Jean Christoph Harth .

Hammann was arrested again on March 22, 1946 by the US military police and taken to the US internment camp in Darmstadt , later relocated to Kornwestheim . He was accused of having committed crimes against humanity in Buchenwald . He remained in custody until May 1947 and was finally taken to the Dachau internment camp , the former concentration camp in which predominantly National Socialist criminals were now held.

Antifascists of all stripes protested against his arrest among the Americans , for example Werner Hilpert , CDU, Deputy Prime Minister of Hesse and former prisoner in Buchenwald, Oskar Müller , KPD, Minister of Labor and former prisoner in Dachau, and Emil Carlebach , co-founder of the Frankfurter Rundschau and also formerly Prisoner in Buchenwald. Hilpert, as CDU state chairman, vouched for Hammann to the Americans. Despite the clear evidence of his innocence, it took the urgent protest of many anti-fascists from many European countries who had come to Dachau as witnesses to the Buchenwald trial in order to rehabilitate Hammann. Finally, after persistent negotiations with the Americans, Hammann's acquittal was obtained. The prosecution attested to his "complete anti-fascist attitude and his integrity". The Soviet military authorities also expressed their appreciation and thanks to Hammann for looking after young Soviet prisoners in Block 8.

Hammann later worked as the district secretary of the KPD in the Groß-Gerau district . He died as a result of a car accident on July 25, 1955. In a wooded area on Bundesstraße 26 between Bischofsheim and Königstädten, his car collided head-on with a standing US tank. Although Hammann is said to have only had a nosebleed externally, he died shortly afterwards in a US military ambulance.

Wilhelm Hammann's grave is located in the Groß-Gerau cemetery on Klein-Gerauer Straße.

Honors

In March 1984 Wilhelm Hammann was posthumously honored in Israel for saving the Jewish children in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In Yad Vashem's Avenue of the Righteous , every tree bears the name of a person who helped save Jews from annihilation. “Righteous Among the Nations” is the honorary title of those who have been immortalized here. It is the highest honor Israel has to bestow. One of the trees now bears the name of Wilhelm Hammann.

The Wilhelm Hammann Prize is awarded by the Friends' Association for Jewish History and Culture in the Groß-Gerau district. Furthermore, a school in Erfurt and a street each in the Büttelborn district of Worfelden and in Groß-Gerau are named after the savior of the children of Buchenwald.

swell

  • Rosemarie Hoffmann: The fate of the children and young people of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Reflections in Literature. In: Edgar Bamberger, Annegret Ehmann (Hrsg.): Children and young people as victims of the Holocaust. Documentation of an international conference in the "House of the Wannsee Conference" memorial. 12-14 December 1994 ( series of publications by the Documentation Center of German Sinti and Roma. Volume 4, pp. 145–163). Heidelberg 1995.
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X , p. 123.

literature

  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 164.
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , No. 308.
  • Hammann, Wilhelm . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hammann, Wilhelm . In: Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdB - The People's Representation 1946–1972. - [Haack to Huys] (=  KGParl online publications ). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020703-7 , pp. 434 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2014070812574 ( kgparl.de [PDF; 507 kB ; accessed on June 19, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b Rosemarie Hoffmann: The fate of the children and adolescents of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Reflections in literature (see  literature )
  3. ↑ Groß-Gerau: Dispute over the grave of a Nazi resistance fighter broke out. August 20, 2020, accessed August 20, 2020 .
  4. ^ Wilhelm Hammann on the website of Yad Vashem (English).
personal data
SURNAME Hammann, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hammann, Hermann Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Biebesheim
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1955
Place of death Ruesselsheim