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Walter Husemann

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Walter Husemann
Walter Husemann
Born2 December 1909 (1909-12-02)
Ellerbek, German Empire
Died13 May 1943(1943-05-13) (aged 33)
Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany
Cause of deathGuillotined
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Toolmaker, later Journalist
Known forAnti-fascist, Red Orchestra resistance member
Political partyKPD
MovementCommunism
SpouseMarta Husemann

Walter Husemann (2 December 1909[1] – 13 May 1943) was a German communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. As a young man, Husemann trained an industrial toolmaker, before training as a journalist.[2][3] He became interested in politics and joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).[4] With the arrival of the Nazis in 1933, he became a resistance fighter and through his wife, the actor Marta Husemann, he became associated with an anti-fascist resistance group around Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.[5] Along with John Sieg whom he met in the KPD and Fritz Lange, Martin Weise and Herbert Grasse he wrote and published the resistance magazine, The Internal Front Die Innere Front.[6]

Life

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Effects card (list of property) of Walter Husemann as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald.

Husemann was born to Wilhelm and Luise Husemann.[2] After training as a lathe operator, in an apprenticeship, he organised a strike for better wages and was dismissed. In 1924, Husemann became a member of the Young Communist League of Germany and in 1929 became director of the Anti-Fascist Young Guards, the youth organisation of the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus [de; it] (Combat League Against Fascism), in the randenburg area.[2] In 1930, Husemann met Marta Wolter, a KPD member and actor who had been in Günther Weisenborn's and Bertolt Brecht's play, The Mother and Brechts Kuhle Wampe.[7] In 1932, the couple moved in together an apartment in Mannheim.[7] From 1930 to 1933, he worked as a trainee editor for several communist newspapers including the Die Rote Fahne, the Ruhr-Echo in Essen, the Sozialistische Republik in Cologne and the Mannheimer Arbeiterzeitung in Mannheim.[2]

In 26 November 1936, Husemann, his wife and father were arrested for helping a communist official hide.[7] He and his father were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp without undertaking any trial proceedings, while his brother managed to escape and move to Moscow.[7] Husemann was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where he worked as a camp librarian[7] until September 1938,[2] when he was released. Marta was sent to Moringen concentration camp where she remained until June 1937, when she was released, after being seen by Heinrich Himmler who thought she looked too Aryan.[7]

When he was released from prison in September 1938, Husemann went back to work as a toolmaker.[2] Through Marta his wife, who had worked with Gunther Weisenborn, he was introduced into a resistance group around Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack.[2] Husemann became an important member of Harro Schulze-Boysen group and would receive the pamphlets the group had written.[8] Husemann remained with the group during its transition from an underground political faction that resisted into an espionage organisation.[9]

In December 1941, John Sieg began publishing The Internal Front (German:Die Innere Front) on a regular basis.[10] Husemann through contact with fellow KPD member Wilhelm Guddorf,[11] became involved in writing articles for the magazine.[12]

Memorial plaque on the house, 26 Florastraße in Pankow in Berlin

Arrest

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On 9 September 1942, Husemann was arrested at his employer.[5] When he was interrogated, he tried to jump out a closed top-floor window.[13] Husemann was sent for trial by the 2nd Senate of the Reichskriegsgericht, who announced on 26 January 1943 a sentence of death for “preparation for high treason” and “aiding and abetting espionage”.[2] He was executed on 13 May 1943 at Plötzensee Prison.[2][14]

References

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  1. ^ Buchenwalder Effektenkarte
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Weber, Hermann (2008). Deutsche Kommunisten : biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945 (in German) (2nd Revised and expanded ed.). Berlin: K. Dietz. ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  3. ^ Nelson, Anne (2009). Red Orchestra. The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. New York: Random House. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-4000-6000-9.
  4. ^ "Husemannstraße". Kauperts (in German). Kauperts Media Group GMBH. 31 January 1952. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Walter Husemann". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. German Resistance Memorial Center. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  6. ^ Brysac, Shareen Blair (2000). Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-19-513269-4.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Nelson, Anne (2009). Red Orchestra. The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. New York: Random House. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-4000-6000-9.
  8. ^ Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  9. ^ Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  10. ^ "John Sieg (1903–1942)". Museum Lichtenberg im Stadthaus (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  11. ^ Andresen, Geertje (2012). Wer war Oda Schottmüller?: zwei Versionen ihrer Biographie und deren Rezeption in der alten Bundesrepublik und in der DDR (in German). Lukas Verlag. p. 129. ISBN 978-3-86732-125-9. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  12. ^ "Walter Husemann". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Vereins Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  13. ^ Brysac, Shareen Blair (2000). Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-19-513269-4.
  14. ^ Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.

Further reading

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  • Kraushaar, Luise (1970). Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer, 1933-1945 : Biographien und Briefe (in German). Berlin: Dietz. pp. 438–443. OCLC 462112785.
  • Höhne, Heinz (1972). Kennwort : Direktor : die Geschichte der Roten Kapelle (in German) (2nd ed.). Frankfurt: S. Fischer. ISBN 9783100325013. OCLC 721366333.
  • Husemann, Walter (1985). "Die Rote Kapelle – Widerstand, Verfolgung, Haft". In Wolf, Gerhardt (ed.). Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung. Vol. 27. Berlin: Dietz Verlag. pp. 249–253. ISBN 3-89468-110-1.
  • Rosiejka, Gert (1986). Die Rote Kapelle "Landesverrat" als antifaschist. Widerstand (in German) (1st ed.). Hamburg: Ergebnisse-Verlag. ISBN 3-925622-16-0. OCLC 74741321.
  • Regina Griebel; Marlies Coburger; Heinrich Scheel; Gedenkstätte der Deutscher Widerstand; Senatsverwaltung für Kulturelle Angelegenheiten (1992). Erfasst? : das Gestapo-Album zur Roten Kapelle : eine Foto-Dokumentation (in German). Halle/S.: Audioscop. ISBN 9783883840444. OCLC 29316949.
  • Coburger, Marlies (1992). "Wege in den Widerstand. Marta und Walter Husemann". In Coppi, Hans Jr; Danyel, Jürgen; Tuchel, Johannes (eds.). Die Rote Kapelle im Widerstand gegen Nationalsozialismus [The Red Orchestra in opposition to Hitler. Writings of the Memorial of the German Resistance] (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin: Edition Hentrich. pp. 235–241. ISBN 978-3-89468-110-4.
  • Steinbach, Peter; Tuchel, Johannes; Adam, Ursula (1998). Lexikon des Widerstandes : 1933-1945. Beck'sche Reihe, 1016. (in German). Vol. 2 (2nd revised ed.). Münich: C.H. Beck. p. 97. ISBN 9783406438615.


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