Wilhelm Hetkamp

Wilhelm Hetkamp (born June 23, 1913 in Oberhausen ; † January 31, 1942 in the Plötzensee prison , Berlin ) was a German Jehovah's Witness and a victim of the Nazi justice system.

Life and destiny

Hetkamp grew up in Oberhausen . From a young age he belonged to the religious community of the Bible Students (later: Jehovah's Witnesses).

Even before the Second World War , Hetkamp refused military service due to his strict religious convictions, with reference to the prohibition of killing imposed by the 5th commandment of the Christian Decalogue , to which he had been called up on February 6, 1939 in Herford . He was then sentenced to a two-year prison term by the court of the 6th Division in Bielefeld . After the end of his sentence in 1941, he was called up again. When he again refused to obey the draft, he was arrested again and charged with treason (but not for desertion , as he had never joined the troops) before the Reich Court Martial (RKG) . On December 15, 1941, he was sentenced to death by the RKG . His execution took place in the Plötzensee prison.

Later, Hetkamp's brother Heinrich Hetkamp († May 25, 1943), his mother Auguste Hetkamp and his brother-in-law Wilhelm Bischoff were executed because of their membership of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Heinrich Hetkamp is remembered today by a stumbling block in front of the Leuthenstrasse 54 building in Oberhausen, and Auguste Hetkamp by a stumbling stone in front of the Kalkstrasse 7 building.

literature

• Marcus Herrberger (Ed.): Because it is written: “You shouldn't kill!”. The persecution of religious conscientious objectors under the Nazi regime with special emphasis on Jehovah's Witnesses (1939–1945) . Verlag Österreich, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7046-4671-7 , pp. 283f, 394.

Web links

• Barbara Hoynacki: Series Resistance: He died for the fifth commandment . In: WAZ , Oberhausen, April 24, 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.bertha-ob.de/lbox_files/6924
2. ↑ http://aipob.blogsport.de/2011/03/31/stolpersteinverlege/