(* August Dickmann

(* January 7 1910 in Dinslaken , † September 15 1939 in Sachsenhausen )

was the first conscientious objectors who, under the Nazi dictatorship in Germany in the Second World War was executed.in Dinslaken , † September 15 1939 in Sachsenhausen ) was the first conscientious objectors who, under the Nazi dictatorship in Germany in the Second World War was executed.

August Dickmann worked after attending the elementary school in a sawmill . Around the year 1932 he started together with his brothers Henry and Fritz a Bible study with Jehovah's Witnesses . All three remained in missionary work, as well as the activities of the religious community after the seizure of power by Adolf Hitler had been banned in Germany 1933rd After his brother Fritz in 1935 in the Esterwegenhad admitted, August Dickmann was in October 1936 by the Gestapo arrested and sentenced to prison. After the prison he was in October 1937 in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen admitted. Since March 1939, his brother Henry was imprisoned there.

Dick's refusal

The political prisoner Willi Michalski years later quoted in a newspaper report of a speech by the camp commander Baranowski about what four days after the outbreak of World War 1 September 1939 was in the camp after Dick's wife, the Wehrpass her husband, who had first been delivered to his home address was forwarded to the camp: "On the fifth September this year, the inmate Bible Students August Dickmann, the political division of the camp has been appointed to sign his record book. In disregard of the political situation of the empire and the existing state of war Dickmann has not taken place despite the emphatic reference signature. He passed on the record that he can never be a soldier in the war and not kill people, is because the LORD had commanded and sanctified the war. He also stated that he did not recognize Adolf Hitler as the leader of the German people, because Adolf Hitler was the personification of evil and a tool of Satan . On the consequences of this behavior alerted Dickmann said that he was willing to bear the consequences … "First Dickmann was beaten for his refusal, he was arrested in a single cell in the storage bunker.

The rigid about the attitude of Dick's angry commandant Baranowski reported the case to Berlin and requested by Heinrich Himmler , theReichsführer SS , approval, Dickmann attended by all the other inmates - including at that time were approximately 380 Jehovah's Witnesses - before the eyes of his brother Henry to be shot. Baranowski promised to being able to divert a significant number of Dick's co-religionists of their attitude. Himmler responded immediately and ordered the execution of Dick's, the first public execution in Sachsenhausen.

The execution

On 15 September had to remain standing after the evening roll call in the camp all 8,500 prisoners. Witnesses were then all the purple triangleinvited all up front, where they had erected a wooden wall, which should serve as a backstop. August Dickmann was demonstrated by some SS officers. The camp commandant Baranowski announced over the loudspeakers of the camp. According to William Roeger, an eyewitness of the execution, he said: "The evangelical August Dickmann has refused to sign the record book. The reason: He no longer feels as a German, but as citizens of the new kingdom . Therefore it of the SS Reichsführer Himmler has sentenced to death, which sentence is now complete. The sentence was submitted to him an hour ago. "

The firing squad was led by Rudolf Hoess , the commandant of the later concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau , which then acted as adjutant to the camp commandant Baranowski and as a camp leader. Dick got his gun from man, whose body was slumped after the execution, a " finishing shot "in the left temple of his head.

The German radio announced the execution of Dick's on 16th September 1939 is known. The message was repeated several times over the following days. In the German newspapers published a "Notice of the Reichsführer SS" over the shooting of " people pest "August Dickmann.The text reads: "Shot on 15.09.1939 was … because of refusal to fulfill his duty as a soldier, August Dickman, born 07.01.1910, from Dinslaken. Dickmann explained his refusal by explaining that he was, Jehovah's Witness ', he was a fanatical follower of the sect of the international, serious Bible students.' "

On 17 September 1939 reported the New York Times : "August Dickmann, 29 years old, … was here by a firing squad shot . "As stated in the newspaper, he was the first German military service conscientious objectors in the war at that time.

Sixty years later, on 18 September 1999, on the part of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation thought of death August Dickmanns. A plaque in the Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen now reminds visitors of his courage.

Jehovah's Witnesses and the Holocaust