KOMITEE EHEMALIGER POLITISCHE GEFANGENER REPORTS AND STATISTICS ABOUT CONCENTRATION...

This collection consists of original reports and personal accounts concerning conditions in concentration camps with special reference to Neuengamme and Dachau. There are other papers covering such topics as political resistance to Nazism and plans for creating a free, democratic Germany. The material was collated and produced by an organisation called the Komitee ehemalige politische Gefangener.

The reports have been arranged chronologically.

The provenance of this collection can only be guessed at. There is no evidence that it was ever formerly accessioned. Nor does there appear to be any correspondence from the depositor which might have shed some light on matters. A letter at 612/19 does, however, put the papers in some context. It is a covering letter for the collection and is signed by Hans Schwarz and Franz Heitgres of the Komitee ehemalige politische Gefangener. The letter is addressed to Paul Anderson and is dated 8 November 1945. The reports were sent to Paul Anderson in order that he might get them published in The Observer newspaper where he worked as a journalist, the intention being to disseminate information about what happened during the war more widely.

Paul Anderson (previously Harald Müller) was born in Hamburg in 1908. He came to London in 1934 and worked as a political commentator for the BBC. Between 1945 and 1947 he was Paris correspondent for The Observer. He died in London on 9 March 1972.

We can reasonably assume, therefore, that the material was deposited by Paul Anderson or (more probably) a relative after his death.

The Komitee ehemalige politische Gefangener was founded in the immediate post-war years to represent the interests of former political prisoners. In 1947 it changed its name to the Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes to include all those who suffered under the Nazis. This anti-fascist organisation still exists with branches all over Germany. For a more detailed description of this Organisation, its founder and the activities of the successor organisation see below.

Hans Schwarz was born in Vienna in 1904. He had already been imprisoned well before 1933 along with Bruno Kreisky and other Austrian Marxists. He was a political prisoner in Dachau from 1934-1944 and from October 1944 to April 1945 in Neuengamme. A committed opponent of the Nazis, he was a member of illegal prisoner organisations in both concentration camps.