Helmut Hirsch
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Helmut Hirsch (; January 27, 1916 – June 4, 1937) was a
German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...
artist and activist who was executed for his part in a bombing plot intended to destabilize the
German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...
. While a full and accurate account of the plot is unknown, his targets were understood to be the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
headquarters in
Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
, and/or the plant where the antisemitic weekly propaganda newspaper '' Der Stürmer'' was printed.


Early life

Hirsch was the elder of two children of Marta Neuburger Hirsch and Siegfried Hirsch. In 1935, after the Nuremberg Laws excluded
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
from German universities, he moved to
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, then capital of
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
, where he enrolled as a student of architecture at the ''Deutsche Technische Hochschule'' (German Institute of Technology).Details of Helmut Hirsch's family, his life prior to his arrest, and subsequent efforts to save his life were obtained from his sister, Kaete (Katie Sugarman), through a series of interviews and an account she wrote in 1962. Documents, including Hirsch's journal and letters he wrote before his arrest and, from prison, after he was sentenced to death, are in the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department at Brandeis University. Most are in German; some have been translated into English.


The Black Front

Shortly after arriving in Prague, Hirsch became involved in the Black Front, a nationalist group of anti-Hitler German expatriates who advocated
Strasserism Strasserism () refers to a dissident current associated with the early Nazi movement. Named after brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser, Strasserism emphasized revolutionary nationalism, economic antisemitism, and opposition to both Marxist socia ...
. He was encouraged to introduce himself to its head, Otto Strasser, by his mentor, Tusk (Eberhard Köbel). Tusk had been a leader of ''Deutsche Jungenschaft'', a branch of the German youth movement ''(Bündische Jugend'') to which Hirsch belonged. The ''Jungenschaft'' itself was outlawed in 1935 and Tusk escaped arrest by fleeing to London. Hirsch's family joined him in Prague in 1936, after his sister, Kaete, graduated from ''gymnasium'' (high school) and, like him, was forbidden to attend a German university. By then, he was deeply enmeshed in clandestine Black Front activities, which he kept secret from his family. On December 20, 1936, after telling his family he was going skiing with friends, he returned to Germany with a travel permit obtained on the false premise that he was visiting his mother, who he claimed was ill. In his naiveté, he did not realize German authorities knew his family had moved to Prague. It is likely that German agents in Prague had been watching him for some months, but were unable to arrest him while he remained on Czech soil. Hirsch's handler was Strasser's right-hand man, Heinrich Grunov, who used the ''nom de guerre'' Dr. Beer. According to the plan, Hirsch was to place two suitcases containing explosives at one or two sites in
Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
. The suggested targets were the Nazi Party headquarters and the office or printing plant of ''Der Stürmer''. Grunov instructed Hirsch to buy a round-trip ticket from Prague to his hometown, Stuttgart, but to travel only as far as Nuremberg. There he was to meet a contact, who would give him baggage claim tickets for the two suitcases, which had been smuggled into Germany. Instead, he went on to Stuttgart, where he had arranged to meet an old friend. According to letters he wrote to his family from prison, he was wavering in his commitment to the plot and hoped his friend would talk him out of the attack.


Arrest and imprisonment

Hirsch arrived in Stuttgart late in the evening of December 20. When his friend failed to meet him as arranged, he checked into the Hotel Pelikan, across the street from the railway station. In the early hours of the morning of December 21, agents of the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
arrested him in his hotel room. Hirsch was interrogated, first in Stuttgart, then after his transfer to Berlin's Plötzensee Prison. He was charged with conspiracy to commit high treason, and was indicted for possession of explosives with criminal intent, despite the fact that he had no explosives at the time of his arrest.The indictment and details of the secret proceedings of the People's Court are contained in a dossier entitled ''Referat Deutschland: Case of Helmut Hirsch. Dated: March 18, 1937 to July 16, 1937.'' After the war, the dossier was found in the British sector of Berlin by the Document Field Team of the British Foreign Office. It contains papers headed ''Geheime Reichssache'' (Secret Affair of the Reich) and includes the indictment (''Anklageschrift'') and verdict (''Urteil'') rendered in the name of the German People (''Im Namen des Deutschen Volkes''), as well as a narrative of the trial and the investigation that preceded it. These documents were found by a researcher in the Wiener Library, London; a photocopy is in the Helmut Hirsch Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. Hirsch was held in solitary confinement for nine weeks while awaiting trial. He was permitted to communicate with his family or relatives who still lived in Germany. A letter he wrote to his uncle, in Stuttgart, was held back by censors.


Trial

Testimony at the trial made it clear that there was at least one double agent in the Black Front, who had informed on Hirsch. A witness for the prosecution described the plot in detail that no one but a trusted member of the Black Front could have known. Under questioning, Hirsch did not deny involvement in the plot, though the public defender assigned to his case argued that he should be acquitted since he had never carried it out. When asked whether he would, if given the chance, have attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Hirsch acknowledged he would. Although Hitler was never a target of the plot, Hirsch's response gave rise to rumors printed in the international press that Hitler's assassination had been Hirsch's goal. Hirsch was found guilty and condemned to death. His friend was acquitted. Although the proceedings of the trial remained secret, the verdict was made public. It was only upon hearing on the radio on March 20 that "the stateless Jew, Helmut Hirsch," had been condemned to death that his family learned what had become of him after he left home three months earlier.


International appeals for clemency

Hirsch's family and friends launched a campaign to free him, or at least have his sentence commuted to life in prison. The International Red Cross, the Society of Friends, and an international association of lawyers made appeals on his behalf. A human rights organization convinced the government of Norway to offer him asylum if the Germans would release him. An appeal was made to the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
, and the case was brought up in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
in London. Among the most promising avenues was the intervention of the United States. Hirsch's father, Siegfried, had lived in the United States for about ten years before his marriage in 1914. He became a naturalized American citizen before returning to Germany. During World War I, Siegfried lived with his wife and two children in the German state of Alsace. At the end of the war, when Alsace became part of France, the family moved to Stuttgart. Through a bureaucratic mix-up, the exact nature of which is unclear, Siegfried Hirsch's American citizenship was rescinded, rendering the entire family "stateless persons". Even though Hirsch was born in Germany and lived in Stuttgart for most of his life, he never held German citizenship. Hirsch's cousin, George Neuburger, who had moved to New York, enlisted the aid of an American lawyer, Irving S. Ottenberg, who was married to Hirsch's father's first cousin. Ottenberg petitioned to have Siegfried's citizenship reinstated. Their appeal was initially rejected, but a month later the decision was reversed. On April 22, 1937, by virtue of his father's newly restored citizenship, Helmut Hirsch was also declared an American citizen, albeit he'd never set foot on American soil.


American diplomacy

Hirsch's American citizenship immediately changed the situation. William E. Dodd, the American ambassador in Berlin, was instructed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull to intervene on Hirsch's behalf. Dodd chronicled his efforts in his diary. These included meetings with
Konstantin von Neurath Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was a German politician, diplomat and convicted Nazi war criminal who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938. Born to a Swabian noble famil ...
, the German Foreign Minister, and Otto Meissner, a key aide of Hitler. Even with the force of American diplomacy, Hitler refused Dodd's eleventh-hour request that Hirsch's life be spared. His execution by decapitation was carried out at 6:00 am, June 4, 1937. His sister, Katie Sugarman (Kaete Hirsch), died in 2016 having moved to the United States and possibly spared from the Nazi regime due to her family's immediate entry due to her brother.The New York Times Catherine M Sugarman (1917–2016) Obituar

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See also

* Assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler


Notes and references


External links

*
Helmut Hirsch collection
held by th

at
Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Helmut 1916 births 1937 deaths 20th-century American Jews American people executed by Nazi Germany Jews in the German resistance Jews executed by Nazi Germany Executed German Resistance members Naturalized citizens of the United States People from Stuttgart People from Baden-Württemberg executed at Plötzensee Prison People executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison Strasserism