"One of the darkest end-time crimes" - Penzberger remember the night of the murder and its 16 victims

Created: 04/30/2022, 12:02 p.m

By: Wolfgang Schörner

At the memorial: commemorating the victims of the night of murder;

in the picture the youth choir “Voice happenZ”.

© Wolfgang Schorner

The murder of 16 men and women on April 28, 1945 in Penzberg was “one of the darkest end-time crimes of the National Socialists”, as Mayor Stefan Korpan put it.

On Thursday, the anniversary, the victims of the Penzberg murder night were commemorated - overshadowed by the war in Ukraine.

Penzberg - At four events - at the memorial, at a peace march, at the cemetery and in the town hall - many Penzbergers, including young people, commemorated the victims of April 28, 1945 on Thursday. The day before, stumbling blocks had been laid.

Mayor Korpan (CSU) spoke of the crime as a "brutal and cruel act of arbitrariness, of denunciation, driven by a pathological ideology".

Penzberg, he said in the town hall, also experienced a "heroic intervention" by people who wanted to prevent the mine, the livelihood of many families, from being blown up in accordance with Hitler's Nero order and bloody settlements in the prisoner-of-war camps .

Taking a stand against the Ukraine war

Earlier, at the wreath-laying ceremony in the cemetery, surrounded by the town and miners' bands, Korpan had asked whether humanity had learned anything.

One stands here, he said, "not only in deep mourning for the dead," one also wants to send a signal against the senselessness of the Ukraine war.

He called for standing together with the same determination against the destabilizing forces of an autocratic ruler in Russia.

Laying of wreaths at the graves in the cemetery.

© Wolfgang Schorner

In his speech, Korpan spoke of "not forgetting", of truth as a decisive weapon and the task of sensitizing young people.

This has been successful in Penzberg for decades.

The processing must be a duty from generation to generation.

The pastors Bernhard Holz and Philipp Roß and Imam Benjamin Idriz also confirmed this with their prayers for peace at the cemetery.

For peace, it was said, one had to stand up anew every day.

The fascists hated Penzberg

SPD leader Clemens Meikis and former SPD member of the Bundestag Klaus Barthel commemorated the atrocities at the "An der Freiheit" memorial.

Barthel pointed out that 77 years ago it was a "non-violent fight" against "brutal fascism".

He said the fascists hated the town of Penzberg because of its history, which is based on mining, diverse backgrounds and the labor movement.

16 victims of the Penzberg murder night

14 men and two women were murdered in Penzberg on April 28, 1945.

In the early evening, Wehrmacht soldiers shot dead the former mayor Hans Rummer (64), Ludwig March (47), Rupert Höck (54), Hans Dreher (49), Paul Badlehner at the spot where the memorial "An der Freiheit" stands today (45), Michael Boos (56) and Michael Schwertl (43).

Then fanatical Nazi supporters ("werewolf"), equipped with lists of names, also with the help of locals, hunted down other people.

Gottlieb Belohlawek (47), Therese Zenk (44), Johann Zenk (45), Agathe Fleissner (40), Franz Xaver Fleissner (44), Franz Biersack (48), Johann Summerdinger (45), Albert Grauvogel (43) were hanged. and Josef Kastl (39).

In 2005, the city posthumously made the 16 victims honorary citizens.

SPD chairman Meikis said his generation had believed it was safe from war all its life.

That changed on February 24th.

The pictures from Bucha and other places of war, the refugees and the threats from the Russian dictator showed that peace cannot be taken for granted.

"The Moor Soldiers" and an impressive documentary

The vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra, conducted by Günther Pfannkuch, opened the commemorative event in the town hall in the evening with the song “Die Moorsoldaten”, which was written by concentration camp prisoners in 1933.

The film by Günter Bergel, which was shown for the first time, was impressive, documenting the events 77 years ago up to the trials.

Author Kirsten Boie at a panel discussion with students

Author Kirsten Boie, who wrote the youth book “Dunkelnacht” a year ago, a fictional story about the murder night, was also a guest.

At that time, her statement in the foreword that in Penzberg the night of the murder was only thought of "very cautiously", caused irritation.

At least Klaus Barthel and former mayor Hans Mummert addressed this directly on Thursday as unjustified criticism.

Otherwise, the book by the woman from Hamburg, who read from it in the town hall, was recognized as an important contribution to reaching young people.

The students Jan Roentgen, Jasmin Banani and Lukas Hezel confirmed this during a panel discussion.

They spoke of a poignant and shocking book and said that more needs to be done to commemorate youth.

boie told

she came across the murder night in a small paragraph of the book "Wolfzeit" and was amazed that she had never heard of it.

Since publication, she has received a lot of mail, also from the Penzberg area, from people who only found out about it through the book.