Biographies

Here we present the biographies of a number of people who were considered »asocials« and »career criminals« by the Nazis and persecuted as such. Who were they? What can we find out about them?

Wilhelm Zorichta

born on 31 May 1920 in Hindenburg (Upper Silesia) – date of death unknown

Wilhelm Zorichta’s story can only be told using the files that the authorities and institutions kept on him and are now held in archives. These documents make it possible to sketch a rough outline of his life. However, they do not shed any light on what he experienced or how he viewed things.

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Franziska V.

born in 1927 – date of death unknown

Franziska V. loved to hang out in Vienna’s Prater amusement park or in the pubs in the city’s Second District. She wanted to have fun with people of her own age. She rejected the drill of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel). She was a »Schlurf girl«. »Schlurf« is an Austrian German expression for idleness and means taking things easy, having fun, going for nights on the town, not following the norm.

»Schlurfs« nennen sich Arbeiterjugendliche in Wien, die zur Zeit der NS-Herrschaft ihren eigenen Mode- Stil entwickeln und zu Jazzmusik tanzen. Das Wort »Schlurf­« steht im österreichischen Sprachgebrauch für Müßiggang. Ähnlich wie die Hamburger »Swings«, die Pariser »Zazous«, die Prager »Potápki« leben »Schlurfs« in ihrer eigenen jugendlichen Subkultur, die im entschiedenen Gegensatz zu den militärisch getrimmten NS-Jugendorganisationen steht. Sie werden von den Nationalsozialisten verfolgt.

Der Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) ist die nationalsozialistische Jugendorganisation für Mädchen und junge Frauen, der weibliche Zweig der Hitlerjugend. Alle anderen Jugendverbände werden 1933 verboten. Kinder und Jugendliche sollen nicht nur in der Schule, sondern auch in ihrer Freizeit nationalsozialistisch erzogen werden. Daher ist ab 1939 die Mitgliedschaft im BDM für die 10- bis 17-jährigen Mädchen, die den Nationalsozialisten als »arisch« gelten, verpflichtend.

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Heinrich Schäfer

Born on 2 January 1902 in Marburg – executed on 6 June 1944 in Frankfurt am Main

On 27 February 1934 the Criminal Police arrested Heinrich Schäfer and took him into »preventive police custody«. The 32-year-old was accused of being a »career criminal«. The accusation was based on offences which in some cases had been committed years previously. The mostly short prison sentences for these offences had long been served. At the time of his arrest, Heinrich Schäfer was living with his family at »Am Krekel«, a settlement of barracks-style housing for the homeless in Marburg. People often ended up living in this…

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Georg Tauber

Born on 11 May 1901 in Rosenheim – died on 21 October 1950 in Kempfenhausen

Georg Tauber started out as an advertising illustrator for the press and the film industry. After sustaining an injury, he was given morphine for pain relief and became addicted to it. However, Georg Tauber never had enough money to fund his morphine addiction. As a result, he got into trouble with the law. He was admitted to Erlangen Psychiatric Hospital on several occasions because of his substance abuse, but he never managed to beat his addiction. His marriage also broke down as a result of his drug dependency. He went on to spend…

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Anna Sölzer

Born on 13 February 1919 in Cologne – died on 28 December 1944 in Ravensbrück concentration camp

There is a long tradition of monitoring women who work in brothels or engage in prostitution elsewhere. However, under National Socialism the police and health authorities introduced more stringent checks. At the beginning of the war, they placed further restrictions on prostitutes and monitored their place of residence in all cases. Prostitutes could therefore only work in premises that the Criminal Police had authorised as »brothel apartments« and they were no longer permitted to solicit in public places and streets. The Criminal Police…

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Carl Schrade

Born on 17 April 1896 in Zurich – died on 28 November 1974 in Zurich

In April 1945 Carl Schrade already suspected that no one would want to hear about what had happened to a »career criminal«. Directly after the liberation of Flossenbürg concentration camp, he began to cover up his past. This is why he – or one of his friends – changed his entry in the register of prisoners’ numbers. The abbreviation Sch for »Schutzhäftling« (prisoner in protective custody) was without further ado written over the BV for »Berufsverbrecher« (career criminal) next to his name. This made it look as if Carl Schrade…

Als »Berufs­verbrecher« werden seit den 1920er Jahren Personen bezeichnet, die Straftaten begehen, um daraus ihren Lebensunterhalt zu bestreiten. Bereits im November 1933 gehen die Nationalsozialisten entschieden mit einer vorbeugenden Polizeihaft gegen diese Personengruppe vor. Als »Berufs­verbrecher« gilt, wer in fünf Jahren drei Mal zu einer Freiheitsstrafe von mindestens sechs Monaten verurteilt wurde. Die Kriminalpolizei kann damit Betroffene ohne Verdacht in »Vorbeugungshaft« nehmen.

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Franz Xaver Bremm

Born on 4 August 1887 in Forstacker, near Regensburg – died on 1 March 1944 in Eglfing-Haar Psychiatric Hospital

»Work« was of central significance to the Nazis and their concept of »national community« (Volksgemeinschaft). In September 1933, just a few months after the Nazis had assumed power, hundreds of people with no fixed address or steady employment were sent to concentration camps in what was known as the »roundup of beggars«.

Die »Volks­gemeinschaft« ist das nationalsozialistische Ideal des Zusammenlebens von deutschen »Volksgenossen«. Wer dazugehört und wer nicht, bestimmen rassistische Kriterien. Die Ausgeschlossenen werden als »Volksschädlinge« herabgewürdigt. Zu ihnen zählen Juden und Jüdinnen, Sinti und Roma, politische Gegner/-innen, Menschen mit Behinderungen, Homosexuelle, aber auch »Asoziale« und »Berufsverbrecher«.

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