Lothar Salinger (8 May 1919 – 4 March 1943) was a politically engaged

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

worker and part of the Jewish youth movement in Berlin, who became a resistance activist and an associate of

Herbert Baum Herbert Baum (February 10, 1912 – June 11, 1942) was a Jewish member of the German resistance against National Socialism. Baum organized a large network of resisters within Berlin. Most of these activists, like Baum, were Jewish and had backgr ...

. He was executed by guillotine at the Plötzensee execution facility. His fiancée was also an anti-Hitler activist but she managed to outlive the régime, living "illegally" (unregistered) in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and some years later emigrated to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

where she married Dr. Gerhard Salinger, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at

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and brother to her murdered fiancé.

Life and death

Lothar Salinger was born in

, the son of a businessman. On leaving school he worked, between 1936 and 1938, in his father's business. He became politically engaged in or before 1935, the year in which he joined the left-wing Jewish youth association " Habonim". After 1939 Salinger took work as a gardener, in the transport sector and in road building. In July 1941 he was conscripted for

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

in Berlin-Köpenick. In 1941 he was sent to work at the Vogel Cables factory in Friedrichshagen Street. In 1940 Salinger began to take part in the activities of the anti-government resistance group headed up by the former "Young Communists" official,

. The group tends to be identified in subsequent sources as the "Herbert Baum Group", although that implies a level of coherence and organisation that may not have been apparent. Another group member was Salinger's fiancée, Ursel Ehrlich. After the German government suddenly repudiated the Germany's non-aggression agreement with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in June 1941, members of the Baum Group attempted to contribute to the military defeat of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and hence of

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

. This meant complementing from inside Germany the external efforts of the anti-German "allied powers", of which by far the most significant from the perspective of Berlin in 1941 was the

. That meant engaging in acts of sabotage on the home front such as producing and distributing anti-war leaflets and manifestoes. A more widely reported action was the arson attack and leafleting blitz carried out on 18 May 1942 by members of the group against the government's ironically named "Soviet Paradise" in Berlin's

Lustgarten The Lustgarten (, ''Pleasure Garden'') is a park in Museum Island in central Berlin at the foreground of the ''Altes Museum''. It is next to the (Berlin Cathedral) and near the reconstructed (''Berlin City Palace'') of which it was originally ...

park. The physical damage caused seems to have been minimal, but the government Propaganda Ministry was quick to seize on the opportunity to label government's opponents as Communists and Jews intent on securing Soviet victory in the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

. The incident was also the trigger for a wave of arrests across Berlin of anti-government activists, most of whom in this instance were communist or Jewish or both. In the aftermath of the attack on the "Soviet Paradise" exhibition 31 people were arrested. They were all found guilty of high treason. Only 6 were determined to have participated in the arson attack and the court seems to have accepted that most of those convicted were not even present. Lothar Salinger was arrested by the

security services Security Service or security service may refer to: Government * Security agency, a nation's institution for intelligence gathering * List of security agencies (MI5, NSA, KGB, etc.) * (SD), Nazi German agency which translates as "Security Servi ...

on 15 July 1942. The trial of at least 12 of

's associates took place before the special People's Court in

on Thursday 10 December 1942. Conviction and sentencing followed on the same day. Nine of those convicted were sentenced to death. The others sentenced at the trial on 10 December 1942 received lengthy prison terms. They were all young - aged between 20 and 23. They were all determined by the authorities to be members of the "Herbert Baum Group". They were all identified as Jewish. Lothar Salinger was executed at the Plötzensee execution facility on 4 March 1943.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salinger, Lothar Hashomer Hatzair members Executed German Resistance members Jews in the German resistance People from Berlin 1919 births 1943 deaths German World War II forced labourers