70 years ago on this
date, April 9, 1945, six German Resistance Members were executed by hanging at
Flossenbürg concentration camp. As the German Resistance had inspired the
comrades of Unit 1012, let us not forget them and remember them as heroes who
stood against evil.
We will post
information about one of the six, Ludwig Gehre from Wikipedia and other links.
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| Ludwig Gehre |
Ludwig Gehre (5 October 1895 – 9 April
1945) was an officer and resistance fighter involved in the preparation of an
assassination attempt against Hitler.
Life
Gehre was born in Düsseldorf. Little
detail is known of his early years in the parental home and the education he
received. The first reference to Gehre appears when he was a managing director
of a building contractor. In 1928 he published a study on Clausewitz; by that
time he is supposed to have begun his career as an officer in the Reichswehr.
Contact
man with the Conspirators
At the beginning of the Second World
War Gehre was active as a Captain in the Abwehr (Military
Intelligence) under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.
By 1939 a group in the Abwehr had formed to remove the Nazi regime and end the
War.
This circle included Admiral Canaris, General Ludwig Beck, Hans von
Dohnanyi, Hans Oster, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as Gehre.
By March 1943 Gehre was privy to the
Military Opposition's preparations under Henning von Tresckow to assassinate Hitler. In January 1944 Helmuth James Graf von Moltke was arrested, and in March 1944 Gehre was also
taken by the Gestapo. Gehre, however, was
soon able to flee and disappeared.
After the failed 20 July 1944 assassination attempt to kill Hitler,
the search for Gehre intensified. Gehre, together with his wife, kept himself
hidden for several more weeks. Further shelter was procured by the brothers Hans and Otto John.
When Gehre realized that he was about to be discovered by the Gestapo on 1944
November 2, he shot his wife and then directed the gun toward himself. Although
he was badly hurt, he survived.
On 1945 February 3 the building of the
Central Reich Security Office on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin was destroyed.
Gehre, along with Bonhoeffer, was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
From there he was put onto a transport of SS special
detainees and on April 5 incarcerated in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. On
April 9, 1945, after an SS flying court-martial,
Gehre and Bonhoeffer along with Admiral Canaris, General Oster, General Sack
and Captain Theodor Strünck were executed at Flossenbürg by hanging.
In 1946 the individuals who had
participated in the flying court-martial were brought to justice for murder.
However Otto Thorbeck, the presiding officer, was exonerated
after appeal. The decision was rescinded by the Berlin State Court in 1996.
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