Portraitfoto von Wilhelm Zorichta

From a reformatory to a concentration camp

From a reformatory to a concentration camp

Wilhelm Zorichta

Wilhelm Zorichta’s parents were deaf and lived in a poorhouse. He and his siblings grew up partly in institutional care. Wilhelm Zorichta was discharged from a reformatory at the age of 19. At first he had no steady employment but worked occasionally at markets, and he had no fixed address. This was enough for the authorities to consider him an »asocial minor« and send him to a youth concentration camp. Despite reports by the camp leadership describing Wilhelm Zorichta as a »quiet, disciplined boy« and a »good-natured lad«, he was not granted release.

Why was Wilhelm Zorichta imprisoned? How did his detention in a youth concentration camp affect the rest of his life?

Wilhelm Zorichta
Wilhelm Zorichta, 1942. Photo from the records of Herzogsägmühle workhouse for itinerants.

Young, full of life, a swing music fan –
yet sent to a reformatory?

»Schlurf girls« against the Nazis

Franziska V.

Franziska V.* loved to dance. She and her friends would go dancing at the cafés in Vienna’s Prater amusement park. They hung out together in coffee houses and listened to jazz or swing music. Young people like Fanny Vesela were known as »Schlurfs«.

The »Schlurfs« stood out with their casual, American-style clothing and self-penned songs.  Fanny Vesela wore a short, pleated skirt and oversized »American« jacket teamed with a »gentleman’s« hat and a tie. The »Schlurfs« wrote and sang songs that made fun of Nazi society.

Why did the Nazis persecute a teenager like Franziska V.? How did her family react?

Portrait von Fanny Vesela
Portrait of Franziska V.
Artist: Michael Mallé
Passfoto von Franz Xaver Bremm

Left to fend for himself

Left to fend for himself

Franz Xaver Bremm

Franz Xaver Bremm had spent his whole life on a farm in Regensburg. While his sisters gradually moved away, he continued to live with his parents and helped them out on the farm. They in turn provided care for Franz, who was considered to have a mental disability. Franz’s parents passed away in the mid-1930s. 

Now over 50, Franz Xaver Bremm was left to fend for himself. With no support from his family, he took to roaming the streets and sought work as an agricultural labourer. 

How did Franz Xaver Bremm come to be persecuted by the Nazis as a »habitual beggar«? How did his family react?

Wanderbuch von Franz Xaver Bremm
Franz Xaver Bremm’s »journeyman’s record book«, 1940.
Source: Personenakte Franz-Xaver Bremm, LKAN 11981 und 3174, Archiv Diakonie Herzogsägmühle

Unemployed, a large family, on welfare support –

yet sent to the workhouse?

Labelled a »career criminal«

Heinrich Schäfer

Heinrich S. lived with his wife and their six children in »Am Krekel«, a settlement of barracks-style accommodation for the homeless in the south of the town of Marburg.

The economic crisis in the late 1920s led to a sharp rise in the number of people no longer able to pay their rent. More and more people had to be housed in communal residences or homeless shelters. The conditions there reflected the economic hardship of residents: families lived together in extremely cramped conditions in row after row of shelters, trying to get by. This was also the case for Heinrich S. and his family.

In February 1934 Heinrich S., then aged 32, was arrested. The Criminal Police wrote that Heinrich S. was a »workshy individual«, who supported himself and his family solely through theft. The police labelled him a »career criminal«. 

Why did the Criminal Police describe Heinrich S. as a »career criminal«? How did Heinrich S. react to these accusations?

Einlieferungsanzeige der Polizei Marburg
Record of transfer into police custody, Marburg Police, February 1934.  Heinrich S. was taken into »preventive police custody« as a »career criminal«.
Source: Arolsen Archives
Portraitfoto von Anna Sölzer

Under police control

Under police control

Anna Sölzer

At the beginning of World War Two, 22-year-old Anna Sölzer was officially registered as a prostitute in the city of Cologne in the Rhineland. She had to report regularly to the Public Health Authority. She was subject to increasingly stringent conditions. After she repeatedly failed to attend appointments, the Criminal Police issued an order for her to be placed under »systematic police surveillance«. The police files on Anna Sölzer give her profession as »registered prostitute« and define her as »asocial«.

What additional consequences did surveillance by the Public Health Authority and police have on Anna Sölzer? Why was she considered »asocial«?

Portraitfoto von Anna Sölzer
Anna Sölzer, 1941. Photo from the police records department.
Source: Landesarchiv NRW – Abteilung Rheinland – BR 2034 Nr.1787
Aquarellbild »Detailansicht vom K.L. Dachau« von Georg Tauber

Art as testimony

Art as testimony

Georg Tauber

Georg Tauber was an advertising illustrator – and later an illustrator of crimes. At least 60 drawings and watercolours captured the horror of Dachau concentration camp. Tauber’s artwork additionally depicts various aspects of the period directly after the liberation of the camp. The SS camp administration at Dachau registered Georg Tauber in March 1940 as an »asocial« prisoner. After surviving the terror of the camp, Georg Tauber chronicled his experiences. However, he was denied recognition of his persecution under the Nazi regime.

Why was Georg Tauber persecuted for being »asocial« and sent to a concentration camp? And how did being labelled »asocial« affect the rest of his life?

Aquarellbild »Detailansicht vom K.L. Dachau« von Georg Tauber
Georg Tauber, »Detailed View of Dachau Concentration Camp«, 1945. Pencil and watercolour. A scene after the US army had taken over the camp.
Source: Private collection

A witness of his time

Carl Schrade

On 28 June 1946 Carl Schrade entered the witness box at the Flossenbürg Main Trial of SS personnel and prisoner functionaries, which was conducted by the US military authorities. Schrade was a former prisoner at the concentration camp. On three days of the trial, he gave an insight into the camp system at Flossenbürg, named the perpetrators and detailed their crimes.

Many former fellow prisoners testified in his favour, providing evidence that Carl Schrade had used his influence as a Kapo (prisoner functionary) in the barrack for the sick to benefit prisoners. Nonetheless, the lawyers for the defence challenged him again and again. They attempted to undermine his credibility as a witness and questioned him repeatedly about the circumstances surrounding his imprisonment and the colour of the triangle on his prisoner uniform.

How was it that a former prisoner had such a hard time in court? How did Carl Schrade react to the accusations?

Carl Schrade als Zeuge während des Flossenbürg-Prozesses in Dachau
Carl Schrade (standing on the right) as a witness during the Flossenbürg Trial in Dachau, June 1946. 
Source: KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg

Timeline


In the timeline we trace the persecution and the decades-long efforts of those persecuted to be recognised.

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»No one
was rightly
interned in a concentration camp.

The Disavowed

Nearly 80 years since the end of World War Two, there are still gaps in commemorative culture in Germany and Austria. The suffering of tens of thousands of women, men and teenagers deemed »community aliens« or »career criminals« is only gradually coming to light. These people were imprisoned in concentration camps or confined in institutions or psychiatric hospitals, and many of them were forcibly sterilised. It was not until 2020 that the German Parliament recognised the people concerned as victims of National Socialism.

Why were these people persecuted as »asocials« and »career criminals« at all? Who were they? Who participated in their persecution? Why did state and society refuse for so long to recognise them as victims? These and other questions are addressed in the travelling exhibition produced by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial. The exhibition was opened in Berlin in October 2024.

This website presents work in progress and accompanies the exhibition.

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Investigating Family History: My Research into the Life of my Great-Great-Aunt Irmgard Plättner

Investigating Family History: My Research into the Life of my Great-Great-Aunt Irmgard Plättner

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