In 2021 Daniel Haberlah published a book about his great-great-aunt titled »Sent to Ravensbrück as an ›Asocial‹: The Brief Life of Irmgard Plättner«. Irmgard Plättner was persecuted by the Nazis for supposedly being »asocial« and she died in Ravensbrück concentration camp at the age of 24. In this article Daniel Haberlah from Braunschweig describes his attempts to trace her life history and how his family has dealt with it.
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In my family, memory of the National Socialist period was largely shaped by my great-grandmother (1925-2013). She talked about it a lot – within the confines of her own experiences as a child and a young woman growing up in a working-class background. She never engaged with the academic or intellectual discourse on National Socialism. Nonetheless, throughout her life she maintained a keen interest in politics and world events. One thing she would talk about was her sister-in-law, Irmgard Plättner (1921-1945). She recounted that Irmgard »didn’t want to work« and was therefore arrested several times and ultimately put in a concentration camp, where, according to the post-war account of a fellow female prisoner from our family, she was murdered. Irmgard Plättner’s husband, my great-grandmother’s brother, apparently found out about her arrest while on leave from the front. He went »to the authorities« and demanded her release, but they advised him to divorce her because »a woman like that doesn’t deserve a German soldier« and the marriage »could have consequences for him«. However, he refused to get divorced.
My grandmother and my mother were also familiar with this story. The term »asocial« never came up in this context. I accepted the version of events that was passed down to me as a youngster, but I had my doubts about it. Not because I thought my great-grandmother was lying; rather I presumed that she had remembered things incorrectly or was misinformed. In addition, it seemed unrealistic that there would be a victim of National Socialism in mine of all families. It would also be wrong to assume that this story was a predominant feature of my great-grandmother’s reminiscences. It was one of many stories that she told to demonstrate the terrible conditions in which people had to live under the Nazi dictatorship. Even though, as far as I can recall, my great-grandmother never considered herself or her family as »victims« of National Socialism, these stories of course related solely to her own experiences. They barely featured anything that occurred outside the microcosm of Braunschweig.
It was only in the years following my great-grandmother’s death that it began to dawn on me that Irmgard Plättner might have belonged to the category of people persecuted as »asocials«. In 2020 I began looking into my great-great aunt’s history in more detail and discovered a great deal about her life and her persecution. I turned my research findings into a book. During my research and after the book came out, people’s reactions were almost exclusively positive – something that is, I think, untypical. Most of the people I talked to were really interested in the topic. Only very few of them were aware that people were persecuted under National Socialism for being labelled »asocial«, let alone of what the term means. This was epitomised by one person who presumed that Irmgard Plättner must obviously have been Jewish.
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Although I no longer had any relatives able to talk about the period from direct experience, my family were a constant source of support. Whenever I found out something new, I often discussed it with my parents and grandparents. Together we attempted to piece together what might have happened. We also wondered how much my great-grandmother actually knew about her sister-in-law. For instance, I found out that Irmgard Plättner had been in state care and had had a child at the age of 16. We were all convinced that my great-grandmother would have told us that had she known. Did my great-great-uncle know? Possibly. He was said to have been less talkative than his sister. However, maybe Irmgard Plättner also kept it a secret from him. The child concerned could still be alive today. I made great efforts to track down this person, but was unsuccessful. I could not find out anything beyond the 1960s.
No one in my family, myself included, is in any doubt that, were she still here, my great-grandmother would have supported my research wholeheartedly and taken a great interest in all of my findings. Even though I never met them, I think that her parents and my great-great-uncle would also have been supportive. I am convinced that as far as they were concerned, Irmgard Plättner was not an »asocial«, rather she was one of them.
For this reason, I do not think that recognition from the Bundestag would have meant a lot to them as it only confirms what they considered self-evident anyway. It would surely have meant more to them that there is now a »Stolperstein« in memory of Irmgard Plättner. The plaque is laid at the address where they all lived, Am Werder in the centre of Braunschweig, which looks nothing like it did back then because of war damage and demolition. This is the first »Stolperstein« in Braunschweig to remember someone from the category of people persecuted as supposed »asocials«.
The book »Als ›Asoziale‹ nach Ravensbrück. Das kurze Leben der Irmgard Plättner« by Daniel Haberlah was published in June 2021 by
Einert & Krink.