In Miesbach, people remembered the first deportations to the Dachau concentration camp at a memorial event.
Miesbach
- In the presence of around 100 interested people, the Miesbach history workshop recently commemorated the 54 men from the Miesbach district who were deported to the Dachau concentration camp 91 years ago. In doing so, she gave the Nazi victims a face for the first time. District Administrator Olaf von Löwis (CSU) thanked the initiative for this and appealed with glowing words to defend democracy.
54 men were deported to the Dachau concentration camp 91 years ago
The portraits of the communist officials, KPD members and sympathizers, pinned to squared timber, stood in a row in the exact spot in the parking lot of the Miesbach district court from where some of them were deported to the Dachau concentration camp 91 years ago to the day. In total there were 54 men between the ages of 19 and 55 from Miesbach, Bad Wiessee, Marienstein, Schaftlach, Holzkirchen, Gmund and Weyarn who were transported to labor and concentration camps by the National Socialists because of their beliefs - once on April 11, 1933 and once on May 6, 1933. These deportations were the beginning of the terror.
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cross-generational interest in the history workshop in Miesbach
“They stayed in the concentration camp for anywhere from a few months to many years. Some remained in prison until 1945, others died there,” explained Lisa Hilbich from the history workshop, which initiated the memorial event and organized it with the Catholic District Education Center. Hilbich reviewed the historical developments and recalled that the Reichstag fire on the night of February 28, 1933, which was attributed to a politically left-wing worker, was the reason for house searches and arrests of 3,000 people. Victims of the arbitrariness were not only the men, but also their families who remained behind, who were harassed and suffered hardship.
District Administrator von Löwis gives a fiery speech on democracy
Olaf von Löwis emphasized how important it is to remember these people and give them a face. He quoted the American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Löwis called for “zero tolerance for anti-democratic movements.” The district administrator also showed no understanding for so-called protest voters and recalled that the National Socialists had transformed democracy into a dictatorship within a few months in 1933, even though they had already lost votes again.
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“Repel the beginnings,” he warned. “We must not allow racism and anti-Semitism to become fashionable,” he appealed to the people of Miesbach. Anti-democrats are not allowed to hold any state positions. Because they would try to eliminate democracy. “But we won’t allow that,” he shouted, quoting North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet, who said this at an anti-AfD demo.
High school students read out names of the deportees
The high school students Anna and Franz Naumann as well as Beate Kund and Peter Rosner then read out the names of the deportees from the two lists, including age, occupation and number of children. High school student Alia Siebeneicher read out the biography of locksmith and family man Andreas Kinseder from Miesbach, while Simon Töpel reported on the dehumanization of the concentration camp prisoners. Celina Holzapfel recited the “Oath of Buchenwald” while Wolfgang Klaus played the trumpet and flowers were laid. A moment that gave you goosebumps.