Kléber
24th November 2009, 00:54
http://www.hans-beimler-zentrum.de/images/hansbeimler.gif
Comrade Hans Beimler (1895-1936)
Growing up as an agricultural laborer and then becoming a metalworker, Hans Beimler was drafted into the German Navy in 1914 and helped end WWI as a member of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council. He fought in the Bavarian Soviet Republic militia and may have done sabotage work for the Red Ruhr Army. Beimler helped found the Spartacus League and the German Communist Party and was elected to the Reichstag. He escaped arrest in 1933 and infiltrated the Bavarian police department, but was caught and sent to Dachau concentration camp. His body was permanently scarred with torture but he was never broken. He escaped from his cell by strangling an SS officer and walking out in his uniform. His book "Four weeks in the hands of Hitler's hell-hounds: the Nazi murder camp of Dachau" was the first book about the concentration camps by a survivor. His escape also led to an overhaul of the SS and concentration camp security regulations. Like many German refugees Beimler went to Spain, where he enlisted in the International Brigades of the People's Army of the Spanish Republic and led the Thaelmann Centuria. He was killed during the desperate fight to save Madrid in 1936. His roving funeral attracted combined crowds of two million and a battallion was later named in his honor.
http://berlinstories.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/4397.jpg
http://www.hans-beimler-chor.de/bilder/hansbeimler02.jpg
http://82.143.209.25/1936-1939/images/Spanien-36-39/hans-beimler001.jpg
shot of the funeral:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/361435372_6957d9d15d.jpg?v=0
Comrade Hans Beimler (1895-1936)
Growing up as an agricultural laborer and then becoming a metalworker, Hans Beimler was drafted into the German Navy in 1914 and helped end WWI as a member of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council. He fought in the Bavarian Soviet Republic militia and may have done sabotage work for the Red Ruhr Army. Beimler helped found the Spartacus League and the German Communist Party and was elected to the Reichstag. He escaped arrest in 1933 and infiltrated the Bavarian police department, but was caught and sent to Dachau concentration camp. His body was permanently scarred with torture but he was never broken. He escaped from his cell by strangling an SS officer and walking out in his uniform. His book "Four weeks in the hands of Hitler's hell-hounds: the Nazi murder camp of Dachau" was the first book about the concentration camps by a survivor. His escape also led to an overhaul of the SS and concentration camp security regulations. Like many German refugees Beimler went to Spain, where he enlisted in the International Brigades of the People's Army of the Spanish Republic and led the Thaelmann Centuria. He was killed during the desperate fight to save Madrid in 1936. His roving funeral attracted combined crowds of two million and a battallion was later named in his honor.
http://berlinstories.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/4397.jpg
http://www.hans-beimler-chor.de/bilder/hansbeimler02.jpg
http://82.143.209.25/1936-1939/images/Spanien-36-39/hans-beimler001.jpg
shot of the funeral:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/361435372_6957d9d15d.jpg?v=0