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Thomas Gnielka

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Thomas Gnielka
Born1928
Berlin, Germany
DiedJanuary 1965(1965-01-00) (aged 36–37)
Herold, West Germany
Alma materKant-Gymnasium (secondary school) [de], Berlin-Spandau, Germany
Occupation(s)Child soldier,
journalist/reporter
SpouseIngeborg Euler

Thomas Gnielka (1928 – January 1965) was a West German journalist.[1][2][3]

Aged 15, he was one of a group of senior boys from his Berlin secondary school to be conscripted for war service. The boys were sent to a base near Auschwitz. Given a number guard assignments at the concentration camp during the second part of 1944, Gnielka became aware of various Shoah atrocities several months before the arrival of the Red army in January 1945 opened the way for the Nazi atrocities to become more widely known. He never forgot those experiences, and as an investigative reporter for a regional newspaper reporter in the 1950s and early 1960s he played a pivotal role in ensuring that these more nightmarish aspects of Nazi Germany could not simply be forgotten.[2][4] A file of papers passed on by Thomas Gnielka to the state Generalstaatsanwalt (prosecutor) Fritz Bauer triggered the Auschwitz Trials of 1963–65 in Frankfurt,[5] although Gnielka himself died of skin cancer some months before August 1965 when the court delivered its verdicts on the twenty defendants.[6]

Life

[edit]

Child soldier

[edit]

Thomas Gnielka was born and grew up in Berlin. Towards the end of the Second World War he was conscripted to serve as a "Luftwaffenhelfer" (child soldier). With fellow pupils from the Kant-Gymnasium (secondary school) [de] in Berlin-Spandau he was sent in 1944 to the Auschwitz region. Their mission was to defend the IG Farben plant there: duties included supervising the emaciated concentration camp inmates who were sent out each day to be used for forced labour.[7][8] One of the tasks the boys were required to supervise involved the construction of a protective wall around the plant.[9] The Soviet army arrived to liberate the concentration camp complex on 27 January 1945. Half an hour before they arrived the German child soldiers escaped and fled towards the west. A few survived. Gnielka was one of the survivors.[2][7]

Journalism and marriage

[edit]

After the war Gnielka volunteered for an Internship with the newspaper Spandauer Volksblatt [de], based in the Berlin quarter where he had grown up.[7] Through the internship he came across Hans Werner Richter who had recently launched his influential Group 47 young writers' group. Richter's advice was simple: "Schreib dir alles von der Seele" (loosely "write everything from your soul").[7] It was advice which Thomas Gnielka would follow throughout his career as a journalist. Later he moved to Munich[10] where in 1948 he met and teamed up with the cabaret artiste (subsequently better known for her work as an author and television journalist) Ingeborg Euler. He set her lyrics to music and accompanied her on the piano when she appeared on the stages in the Simpl quarter of Munich, generally seen as one of the city's "entertainment hubs":[11] as often as not they would perform together in exchange for no more than a hot dinner. They were married towards the end of 1949,[11] settling in Munich.[12] Between 1950 and 1962 the marriage produced five recorded children.[11] During (or shortly before) the early 1960s they relocated from Bavaria to the "Dillenberger Mühle" (old mill house) at Herold, a village in the hills between Koblenz and Wiesbaden.[13]

Traumatic memories

[edit]

In May 1952 Gnielka was invited to join the twice yearly meetings of Hans Werner Richter's Group 47 writers' circle.[7] (His wife had been attending since 1949.[14]) At his first meeting he read from his "novel", which sixty-two years later would be published with the title "Geschichte einer Klasse" ("The story of a [school] class [group]").[9] The "dismally authentic" text concerns a group of school classmates sent from Berlin to serve as Flakhelfer directly beside the Auschwitz concentration camp complex during the closing part of the Second World War.[4][9]

Wiesbaden

[edit]

In 1956 he took a job as a local reporter with the Wiesbadener Kurier (regional newspaper).[15] With effect from 11 February 1957 he switched, becoming the Wiesbaden local editor for the Frankfurter Rundschau, a regional newspaper launched twelve years earlier which had already acquired a national reach.[1]

At the beginning of 1959 Gnielka received an unexpected reaction to an article he had produced the previous year for the Frankfurter Rundschau on the situation in the Wiesbaden Versorgungsamt (Social Security Office).[16] Gnielka, in his article, had expressed concern that office employees were processing compensation claims from surviving holocaust victims, if at all, only with great reluctance: some of the clerical employees were prepared to identify themselves as former Nazis. According to Gnielka's report, approximately 50,000 compensation claims were sitting unprocessed in a large heap. Applicants were being treated with a marked absence of courtesy, and old Nazi-era antisemitic songs could sometimes be heard from the back offices.[13]

Visit from an Auschwitz survivor

[edit]

On 14 January 1959 Gnielka received a visit from an Auschwitz survivor called Emil Wulkan. The concentration camp had been (formally) liberated on 27 January 1945. In May 1945 Wulkan had found himself in Breslau (as Wrocław was still known at the time). Wulkan arrived with a little bundle of files neatly tied up with red ribbon, which had been rescued by Wulkan or a friend from outside what remained of the main SS building and, adjacent to it, "Polizeigerichts XV" ("Police court 15"), in the rubble that had been the Agnesstraße. The files, a somewhat grisly souvenir of the destructive siege of Breslau, had been blown into the street by the fire storm that engulfed the buildings on 8 May 1945.[5] Wulkan stated that there had been more papers, but when they had gone back to retrieve these, they found the papers they were looking for had been destroyed by fire.

Thirteen years later, still in possession of those papers, Wulkan had read Gnielka's article about the situation in the Wiesbaden Versorgungsamt and had come to invoke Gnielka's support in his attempts to progress his own compensation claim.[13] When Wulkan left the office, on top of the little sideboard that might normally have accommodated a drink or a small portion of cheese, there was instead the bundle of papers, still tied around with the red ribbon.[5][13]

When he looked at the files left behind by Emil Wulkan, Gnielka found that they dated from 1942. They included a numbered listing compiled with characteristic care and precision which showed the names of Auschwitz detainees who had allegedly been "shot while trying to escape" ("auf der Flucht erschossen"). Also identified by name were the "successful" National Socialist paramilitaries ("SS members") involved in the shootings. The document was stated to have been completed by the camp commander ("Kommandatur Konzentrationslager Auschwitz"), and it was indeed personally signed by Rudolf Höß who had overseen the construction of the concentration camp complex around an old army barracks, and served between 1940 and 1943 as camp commander.[13][17]

Fritz Bauer

[edit]

The state prosecutor for the state of Hessen at this time was a man called Fritz Bauer who was by this time already active in the post–war efforts to obtain justice and compensation for victims of the Nazi regime, and was already investigating suspected war crimes committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Hitler years. Finding evidence that would stand up in court was a major challenge for Bauer, however.[5][13] On the evening of 14 January 1959, after working through the files he had received from Emil Wulkan, Thomas Gnielka arrived home looking "really green faced" (er ist "ziemlich grün im Gesicht nach Hause gekommen"), according to his wife. Ingeborg Euler recalled that Thomas Gnielka made a telephone call to Prosecutor Bauer, and a car was sent round to collect the files later that evening. Other sources state that it was only on the next day, 15 January 1959, that the journalist sent the papers with the signature of the concentration camp commander over to the prosecutor's office.[13] They arrived with a brief (seventeen line) cover letter from Thomas Gnielka. Bauer immediately allocated two staff in his office to the case. The named perpetrators of the shootings had managed to leave their Nazi pasts behind them, but they were now sought out and, over time, arrested. In the end the prosecutor managed to find some 1,500 witnesses. There followed nearly five years of meticulous preparation.[18] But when the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials opened in 1963 it was widely acknowledged that the entire investigation had been made possible by the handing over of those vital files by Thomas Gnielka.[19]

Political journalist: investigative journalist

[edit]

Gnielka remained a member of the Frankfurter Rundschau editorial team till September 1960.[6] After that he was able to become a freelance journalist, although many of his contributions continued to be for the Frankfurter Rundschau. He also wrote regularly for Metallzeitung [de], the newspaper of West Germany's powerful IG Metall trades union, for the illustrated newsmagazine Quick and for the Munich-based news magazine Weltbild [de].[16] As a political correspondent he specialised in "National Socialist continuity", identifying former Nazis who were now hiding in plain view as "respectable citizens" in post–war West Germany, and in some cases exercising influence as members of associations, political parties or employees with government authorities or agencies. Increasingly this meant operating not so much as a political journalist, but more as an investigative journalist.[20] A particularly high-profile case in point was Richard Baer, who served, in Gnielka's words, "as the last and cruellest of the camp commanders" ("der letzte, grausamste Kommandant des Lagers") at Auschwitz between May 1944 and the establishment's hasty dissolution and abandonment (by the Germans) in January 1945. After the war he seemed to have disappeared.[21]

He located and visited the home of Baer's wife, Maria, in Hamburg. Maria was not at home, but her sister was. Gnielka found the answers provided by Baer's sister-in-law "cautious", and her overblown praise for the human qualities of her sister's "exemplary husband" unpersuasive. Gnielka returned home and produced a report which was published in a German illustrated magazine: in his article, he aired his suspicion that Richard Baer was at liberty, leading the "life of a respectable citizen under a false name" ("...irgendwo unter einem falschen Namen das Leben eines Biedermanns...").[6] The article's impact was no doubt enhanced by the large portrait of Richard Baer at its head. Immediately after its appearance, Richard Baer was recognised by a co-worker on the family estate and former retirement home of Chancellor Bismarck where he was employed as a "forestry concierge", using the name "Neumann". Baer was arrested shortly afterwards, and died a few months later while still being held in pre-trial detention.[6]

Death and celebration

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The Auschwitz Trials opened on 20 December 1963. By this time Thomas Gnielka was less in the public eye, increasingly content to work from home in the old village mill-house in Herold from where he witnessed the trial, like most people, through the prism of press reports by others.[6] Thomas Gnielka had been diagnosed with skin cancer earlier that year, and by the time the trial ended, on 19 August 1965, he was dead. His death had been reported in the Frankfurter Rundschau of 8 January 1965 under the headline "Rebell gegen die Trägheit" ("Rebel against inertia").[1] The report continued, "Nothing made him more angry than the attempts of the old die-hard [atrocity deniers] to keep on cleaning up the old rag dolls [of falsehood] and put them back in the shop window" ("Nichts konnte ihn mehr erbittern, als die Versuche der Ewiggestrigen, die alte Lumpenpuppe frisch aufgeputzt ins Schaufenster zu stellen.").[1] At his funeral in Herold the oration was delivered by his friend, the writer Heinrich Böll.[13]

Left with five children to look after, his widow now moved with the family to Frankfurt where she now plunged into a full-time career as a television journalist with Hessischer Rundfunk. With regard to childcare responsibilities, she was able to team up with her own mother, who had been widowed just six months earlier.[11]

Film

[edit]

The history of the Auschwitz Trials of 1963–65 was disclosed to a new generation in 2014 in the drama movie Labyrinth of Lies (Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) written and directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. The part of Thomas Gnielka was played by André Szymanski [de].[22][23]


References

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  1. ^ a b c d Claudia Michels (27 March 2004). "Auf dem Büfett lagen die Erschießungslisten". Frankfurter Rundschau GmbH. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Elisabeth von Thadden (12 February 2015). "Es dreht ihnen den Magen um". Über Auschwitz weiß man längst alles? Nein. Jetzt kann man lesen, wie Berliner Gymnasiasten im Januar 1945 dort Dienst schoben: Durch das Romanfragment des jungen Thomas Gnielka, der später als Journalist die Auschwitz-Prozesse in Gang brachte. Die Zeit (online). Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  3. ^ Devin Pendas (16 October 2015). "Why We Should Still Care About Prosecuting Nazi Criminals". We're History. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  4. ^ a b Michael Uhde (15 January 2015). "Buch über Schicksal einer Klasse des Kant-Gymnasiums". Berliner Woche. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d "Auf der Rampe". Auschwitz-Prozess. Der Spiegel (online). 18 December 1963. pp. 46–55. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d e Claudia Michels (6 June 2014). "Eine Frankfurter Heldengeschichte". Frankfurter Rundschau GmbH. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d e Insa Wilke (2 December 2014). "Krieg statt Kinderstube". Mit 15 Jahren war Thomas Gniellka Flakhelfer in Auschwitz. In seinem Romanfragment "Geschichte einer Klasse" erzählt der früh verstorbene Journalist von deutschen Kindersoldaten – und liefert das Buch zum Film "Das Labyrinth des Schweigens". Süddeutsche Zeitung, München. p. 14. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  8. ^ "Buchvorstellung: Als Kindersoldat in Auschwitz – Die Geschichte einer Klasse". Pressearchiv. Senatskanzlei Berlin. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  9. ^ a b c Thomas Gnielka (2014). Als Kindersoldat in Auschwitz. Die Geschichte einer Klasse. Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-86393-058-5. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  10. ^ Norbert Frei (21 November 2013). "Gerichtstag halten über uns selbst". Im Auschwitz-Prozess, der vor 50 Jahren im Frankfurter Römer begann, stellte sich die Republik den unfassbaren Verbrechen der NS-Diktatur. Der Weg dorthin fiel schwer. Die Zeit (online). Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d Gisela Hoffmann [in German] (9 August 2007). "Eine vielseitige Künstlerin aus Rangsdorf: Ingeborg Euler" (PDF). Allgemeiner Anzeiger für Rangsdorf, Groß Machnow und Klein Kienitz. Heimatblatt Brandenburg Verlag, Berlin. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  12. ^ Monika Melchert (1996). Ursula Heukenkamp [in German] (ed.). "Mutter Berlin" und ihre Töchter. Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co KG. pp. 369, 373. ISBN 978-3-503-03736-0. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Rüdiger Grothues. "Ein Bündel Akten mit rotem Band". Auschwitz-Prozess Zwei Zufälle trugen entscheidend dazu bei, das Mammutverfahren in Gang zu bringen. der Freitag Mediengesellschaft mbh & Co. KG, Berlin. ISSN 0945-2095. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  14. ^ Wiebke Lundius (18 October 2017). Luise Rinser und Ingeborg Euler. Schwabe Verlag Berlin GmbH. pp. 161–164. ISBN 978-3-7574-0001-9. Retrieved 7 December 2019. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  15. ^ Kerstin Gnielka. "Thomas Gnielka: als Kindersoldat in Auschwitz – Die Geschichte einer Klasse" (PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Werner Renz; Monika Hölscher. Aktives Museum Spiegelgasse für Deutsch-Jüdische Geschichte in Wiesbaden e.V. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  16. ^ a b Roger Cousin (16 January 2016). "Gnielka Thomas". Mémoires de Guerre: Mémoires de Guerre... Le site d'un Passionné d'Histoire avec un grand et créateur de la plus grande revue de presse du web...du moins c'est le but. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  17. ^ "1. Frankfurter Der Auschwitz-Prozess: Tonbandmitschnitte, Protokolle, Dokumente. 2., durchgesehene und verbesserte Auflage". Faksimile, Blatt 73. Berlin: Fritz Bauer Institute. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  18. ^ Matthias Bartsch (26 July 2016). "Der Mann, der die Nazis jagte". Erst 18 Jahre nach Kriegsende begann in Frankfurt am Main der Prozess gegen die Täter von Auschwitz. Zu verdanken war dies dem hartnäckigen Juristen Fritz Bauer. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  19. ^ Georg Boenisch (31 March 2009). "Die Gesichter des Bösen". Im Wirtschaftswunder-Deutschland schien es, als wäre das "Tausendjährige Reich" seit tausend Jahren vorbei. Erst der Auschwitz-Prozess führte vielen Deutschen die NS-Verbrechen klar vor Augen. Der Spiegel (Spiegel Geschichte 2/2009). Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  20. ^ Philipp Kratz (4 March 2019). Die antisemitische Schmierwelle: Bewaeltigung 1960–1967. Wallstein Verlag. pp. 166–186. ISBN 978-3-8353-4214-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  21. ^ Sybille Fuchs (27 April 2004). "Forty years since the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, Part one—a belated inquiry". World Socialist Web Site. International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI). Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  22. ^ Stephen Holden (29 September 2015). "Review: In 'Labyrinth of Lies,' the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials Break a Conspiracy of Silence". Labyrinth of Lies: Directed by Giulio Ricciarelli: Drama, History. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  23. ^ Elisabeth von Thadden (6 November 2014). "Leidenschaft für die Wahrheit". Ein Film wagt sich an die Geschichte des Auschwitz-Prozesses: "Im Labyrinth des Schweigens". Die Zeit (online). Retrieved 9 December 2019.
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