On
September 4, 1933 Karl Kaufmann, Gauleiter and
Reichsstatthalter, turned over Fuhlsbüttel Prison in
Hamburg to the control of the SS and SA. From this period on
it became a notorious prison for the many victims interned here.
For it was at this point that it became a concentration camp
where many opponents of the Nazi regime were locked up. In the early
days of the Hitler years Social Democrats, Socialists, Trade Unionists
and Communists were imprisoned here. However, after "Kristallnacht"
(Night of Broken Glass) occurred on November 9, 1938, 700 Jews were
sent here as were other opponents of the regime such as the "Swing
Kids" and Jehovah's Witnesses. Later on, "Parasites of Society" and
"Anti-Socials" were interned in Fuhlsbüttel
along with Sinti Gypsies, beggars, prostitutes, and homosexuals.
The
prison became known as "Kola-Fu" (Short for Concentration camp
Fuhlsbüttel) to all those imprisoned here as a slang
term for the camp. Despite it's reputation, it was known as a "Gestapo
jail", but in fact it was a remand prison for those prisoners awaiting
a higher sentence. Many were sentenced to other concentration camps
such as Neuengamme, Ravensbrück , Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen
without court trials on grounds of "High Treachery".
Arnold Hencke was one of the many
prisoners here in Fuhlsbüttel. He joined the SPD
party (Social Democratic Party) in 1932 at age sixteen after he and a
friend read "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler. They both looked at each
other startled, knowing that Hitler planned to lead Germany to war.
This was the turning point for Hencke. At age 17, he became an active
member of the resistance and a courier for information from March 1933
until January 1935.
Everyday, he bicycled from Hamburg twenty miles North to the
town of Uetersen to distribute illegal leaflets against the Nazi
regime, pasting them to telephone poles as he rode along. He would also
distribute them to what he called "good minded communists" in the
factories to
help
them revolt against the Nazis. Before his secret trips,
his mother said she would hide all the leaflets he couldn't
take with him so that if the police searched the house
they couldn't find incriminating evidence against
him. He made a special belt to hide his illegal documents so
that he could conceal his party information against the Nazis.
The
SPD party was very organized and wide spread. They
printed their own paper in London, Paris and Prague. One of
Hencke's comrades in his Genossen (Youth Group) had a hectograph
machine and they printed their illegal leaflets underground. The Social
Democrats had informants in foreign countries who would report
information on the illegalities occurring in Germany so as to warn the
world about Hitler and the Nazi regime.
Many of them spent years interned in camps
for merely voicing their opinions against the Nazis; for in a
totalitarian dictatorship there is no room for disagreement. In Nazi
Germany there were two types of treason: Hochverrat (Treason against
the government) and Landesverrat (Treason against the country).
However, in the Third Reich reality became distorted to the point that
if one was considered guilty of either, it was all the same in the end.
What did
it mean to join the resistance? Well, first of all it meant parting
from the mainstream of current and popular consent. It meant that
people you had known and trusted for many years, and even your entire
life, including family members could no longer be trusted. For many,
they had to form new friendships with people they could depend on to
protect them, people who shared similar beliefs and moral values. It
meant living a secret double life, on the outside pretending to be for
the Nazis while secretly fighting them. This was an incredibly
difficult task to pull off.
Every day was not only scary, but many times terrifying, knowing that
an incautious remark or move could bring denunciation upon you. This
was something the brave men and women of the resistance had to live
with on a daily basis, year to year. New friends and colleagues now had
to be found. But how did they find each other? Many found others who
agreed with them accidentally and others through sheer boldness and
risk. For them, everything was about risk which is what they took every
day of their lives by being a part of an illegal resistance group in
the first place. Thousands were reported to the authorities
which was what the Nazis strongly encouraged. After all, how could the
total consolidation of power and control be maintained if not
everyone agreed? Conformity was a must in
the Third Reich and
most people over time fell in line with the rest. Only those
with strong moral convictions and determination to resist remained
solid and unmoved in the Nazi propaganda war aimed at the entire German
populace of eighty million. Arnold Hencke was one of them.
