Heinrich Feisthauer

Heinrich Feisthauer (14 September 1898 – 11 November 1964) was an opponent of the Nazi regime and survivor of Sachsenhausen concentration camp from Silesia.

Feisthauer was born on 14 September 1898 in Eckersdorf (now Bożków in Poland) in Grafschaft Glatz, Silesia. After leaving school, Feisthauer worked as an apprentice clerk in the administrative office of the count’s estate in Eckersdorf. After that, he attended a six-month commercial course at the private Barber School in Breslau.^[1]

Heinrich Karl Feisthauer entered military service at the end of 1916 as a gunner (Kanonier) in the 3rd Battery, 5th Guards Field Artillery Regiment. His regiment was deployed on the Somme sector in France, where it took part in positional warfare.^[2][3][4] During the first half of 1917, his regiment fought in the Battle of Arras and was later deployed in the Champagne region. A hospital admission recorded at Mons also indicates service in Belgium during this period.^[5][6][7] In the second half of 1917, Feisthauer's division participated in the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in Flanders and was subsequently pushed back into the Zonnebeke basin.^[8][9] By 1918, he was serving with Field Artillery Battery 804.^[10][11] After the Armistice, Feisthauer served as a musketeer (Musketier) in the 10th Company, III Battalion, Landsturm Infantry Regiment 614.^[12][13] He later became a driver in Reichswehr Brigade Motor Transport Column 12, as recorded in the register of the Fortress Hospital Glatz, Garrison Hospital Division, covering the period from 12 February 1919 to 31 March 1920.^[14][15]

In the early 1920s, he worked above ground as a miner in the Johann-Baptista Mine; a coal mine within the Neuroder Revier. In the mid 1920s he began working as a traveling salesman for various companies in the food industry. In 1928, he took over a margarine distributorship in the Bölck system. ^{[16] [17]} He drove his deliveries with a baker's bike to his customers. As a result of the Third Reich’s foreign trade policy and the so-called Fettlücke (“fat gap”) caused by trade restrictions, Feisthauer lost his livelihood in 1933.^[18]

Feisthauer was arrested on June 14, 1938, as part of the Juni Aktion. He was temporarily imprisoned in Neurode prison.^[19]

After 1945, several witnesses stated in sworn declarations that Feisthauer had not been regarded as "asocial", but had stood in sharp opposition to the Nazi regime and had been sent to Sachsenhausen because of anti-NSDAP statements he had made publicly.^{[20] [21]}

On June 23rd he was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen.^[22] He remained there until January 31st 1939.^[23] His prisoner number was 5680, he was placed in block 22, the block was later renamed Block 31.^[24]

In Sachsenhausen Feisthauer was forced to work at the Klinkerwerk.^[25] He mentioned that he had to do hard labor, such as cutting down trees and shoveling sand.^[26]

Feisthauer was physically abused by the SS in Sachsenhausen. Feisthauer later described several specific acts of violence during his imprisonment. According to statements he submitted after the war, he was struck in the face with fists, kicked, pushed with rifle butts and choked by SS guards; blows to the head knocked him to the ground.^[27] In later records, Feisthauer describes SS Hauptscharführer Richard Bugdalle as particularly notorious and feared.^[28]

He was taken to the concentration camp together with two other men from his area, Alfred Hilbig and Max Trautmann. ^{[29] [30] [31]} Trautmann and Hilbig died later in Mauthausen.^{[32] [33][34] [35]}

According to later statements and post-war compensation records, Feisthauer fell seriously ill during his imprisonment. On 20 January 1939 he was admitted to the camp infirmary, and when he was released on 31 January 1939 he was suffering from severe rheumatism, open tuberculosis and a fever of 40 °C.^[36]

In post-war medical assessments, his imprisonment in Sachsenhausen was associated with chronic rheumatism, lung disease and circulatory weakness; in a 1949 expert opinion he was assessed as 70 per cent disabled for work, with 40 per cent of this recognized as damage caused or aggravated by political imprisonment.^[37]

After the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Silesia in 1946, he arrived in Esperke, Lower Saxony.^[38] A war refugee commission was formed in Esperke on June 4th 1946. Feisthauer was a member of this commission.^[39] Feisthauer was a member of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime. He died in Esperke on November 11, 1964.

Shortly after his arrival in Lower Saxony, Feisthauer wrote to the British occupation authorities in Hanover on 14 March 1946, describing himself as a displaced concentration camp survivor who had been left ill and destitute by his imprisonment.^[40]

In the course of the Lower Saxony proceedings, Feisthauer was repeatedly treated as a persecuted person and continued to receive support, even though officials simultaneously questioned whether his imprisonment had been political.^[41]

Under the Lower Saxony Act on the Granting of Special Assistance to Persons Persecuted by the National Socialist Regime (Personal Injury) of 22 September 1948, Heinrich was recognized as a victim of National Socialist persecution.^[42]

In 1953, the compensation laws of the federal states were superseded by the Federal Compensation Act of 1953.^[43] According to the Federal Supplementary Compensation Act for Victims of National Socialist Persecution (BEG) from 1953 Heinrich was not recognized as a victim of Nazi persecution.^{[44] [45]} The law explicitly excluded persons who had been labelled “asocial” from recognition.^[46]

In 2020, the German Bundestag formally recognized people persecuted by the Nazis as "asocials" and "professional criminals" as victims of National Socialism, thereby belatedly acknowledging the injustice suffered by people such as Heinrich Feisthauer.^[47][48]

• Juni Aktion
• Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich
• Sachsenhausen concentration camp