BR project “Return of Names”: Showing faces for those persecuted by the Nazis – Munich

There is Elisabeth Adler, for example. She was born in Munich in 1935. She lived with her parents Anna and Paul Adler, a lawyer, in Schwabing at Biedersteiner Strasse 7; an older brother had died before she was born. In November 1941, Elisabeth Adler and her parents were deported to Kaunas in Lithuania by the National Socialists. There the Jewish child, his relatives and numerous other people were shot by a task force led by the SS. Elisabeth Adler was just six years old.

She was one of around 12,000 children, young people, women and men living in Munich who lost their lives as a result of persecution by the Nazi state between 1933 and 1945. And three out of a thousand to whom the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) “Return of Names” memorial project, which was presented on Wednesday, is now dedicated. It was created in collaboration with the city and together with more than a thousand Munich residents. As sponsors, on the afternoon of April 11th from 3 p.m., they will stand with posters of the Nazi victims in places in the city where the persecuted lived or worked.

By “showing faces” for the victims, today’s Munich residents are intended to remember the people and at the same time establish a connection to the present, as Andreas Bönte explains. He is the initiator of the project and deputy BR program director. Because – this is important to him – one should not stop at memories. He hopes that the sponsors will come closer to those persecuted by the Nazis by studying their biographies. It should also become clear how people’s normal lives were taken away bit by bit by the National Socialists. “People were not born as victims. They were made victims,” ​​says Bönte.

80 organizations and institutions, including Jewish associations, facilities for the disabled and twelve schools, are involved in the project. 600 sponsorships were awarded through these institutions, 400 were taken over by private individuals.

Short biographies of the thousands of people persecuted by the Nazi state offer a first insight into the life stories BR compiled in a web app has. Since Bavarian partner cities were included, there are a total of 1,071 names here. They are based on years of research by the city’s “Public History” department and were prepared by BR employees in close collaboration with them. A look at the short descriptions reveals, in just a few lines, the cruel consequences that the Nazi system had for many people. People who were exposed to persecution because of their attribution to supposed races, their political stance, sexual orientation, physical and mental disabilities or because of their lifestyle – whatever that meant.

Further information about some Nazi victims is easy to find. This is especially true for many people who were active in the resistance. Around 50 are named in the project, including the members of the White Rose and the carpenter Georg Elser, but also the names of less well-known people.

These include Emma Hutzelmann and her husband Hans. Both were members of the resistance group “Anti-Nazi German Popular Front,” which wanted to join forces with other groups and bring about a political upheaval. He heard in stories his grandfather was “a particularly kind man” her grandson Peter Hutzelmann writes in a report for the city of Munich. And photos showed Emma Hutzelmann as “lively, fun-loving and cheerful woman”. Emma Hutzelmann, born in 1900, worked as an accountant in the Saumweber grease factory. She traded stolen fats for food and weapons to support Soviet prisoners of war, helping two of them escape. The resistance group was exposed and the Hutzelmann couple were imprisoned. Emma managed to escape, but was killed in an air raid in her hiding place in November 1944. Hans was executed by guillotine in January 1945 at the age of 38.

The Hutzelmann couple is remembered in the BR project not far from the former Gestapo prison at Brienner Straße 18 and not at their home on Margaretenstraße in Sendling. As can be seen on the BR web app, the memorial sites on April 11th are relatively concentrated in the extended inner city area between Schwabing and the Au, Neuhausen and the Lehel. A “certain level of public traffic” can be expected in these districts, says project manager Bönte. In addition, from here the sponsors could easily reach a planned “Path of Remembrance” from Königsplatz to Odeonsplatz. It is planned for April 11th after 5 p.m.

Open detailed view

The employment office used to have its headquarters at Thalkirchner Straße 54 in Isarvorstadt. There will be some sponsors of members of another group that also suffered heavily under the National Socialists: foreign forced laborers. One of them was Dirk Koedoot. The Dutchman was deported from Rotterdam to work in Munich in 1943, shortly after his 18th birthday. Here the trained baker first had to work in a bakery. As a Nephew Koedoots in a contribution to the city of Munich wrote that he was probably doing well there “according to the circumstances”.

Nevertheless, Koedoot, who, according to his nephew, was “rather hot-tempered and temperamental,” didn’t last there. After a failed attempt to escape, he was sent to the Munich-Moosach labor training camp for forced labor. Koedoot is said to have been tortured there. According to a fellow prisoner’s report, among other things, he had to stand in cold water for 24 hours. He died of a pulmonary hemorrhage in a hospital in October 1943, probably as a result of the mistreatment in the camp. Far less is known about the fate of other prisoners of war, especially from the Soviet Union, than about Koedoot.

People whose lifestyle did not suit the Nazis were also persecuted

Often not much is known about other persecuted people; in many cases the city does not even have a photo. This is particularly true for the group of Sinti and Roma and another group that was created as such solely by the Nazi definition: the so-called anti-social people or “aliens from society”. These could be people whose lifestyle, whatever, did not suit the National Socialists, or who were completely disenfranchised and punished draconianly for minor crimes.

Like Dora Vahle. She was born in 1914, was married, worked as an office clerk and lived at Goethestrasse 7. Because she had repeatedly stolen suitcases and other luggage at Munich Central Station, the Munich Special Court sentenced her to death. She was executed by the National Socialists on September 25, 1944 – just a few days before her 30th birthday and just a few months before Nazi rule came to an end with the Allied victory in World War II.

Why is the project commemorating all of these people on April 11th? According to Bönte, this has, on the one hand, organizational reasons in the city’s schedule. On the other hand, it is also intended to point out the everydayness of the persecution that people were subjected to. And that means: “Every day can be a day of remembrance.”