A Communist Teacher Rescued 159 Jewish Children in Buchenwald

Wilhelm Hammann -- image via Wikimedia Commons

Junge Welt, May 27, 2026. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

Fabian Lehmann interviews Bernd Heyl, author of a forthcoming biography of Wilhelm Hammann:

Why is the life of Wilhelm Hammann (1897-1955), a teacher, antifascist and Communist Party (KPD) member of the Hessian state parliament, worth sharing with a broader readership today?

Antifascism is more urgent today than in recent years. It is therefore important to remember people who played a major role in the regions. The biography of Wilhelm Hammann is exemplary for a resistance fighter in many respects. In this respect, it is also interesting beyond Hesse’s regional history.

Hammann was imprisoned as a communist in the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was the elder of Block 8, which housed hundreds of children and young people. In April 1945, he saved 159 Jewish children from the death march. How was he able to do so?

His act demonstrated great personal initiative and courage, but he could never have done it alone. An illegal antifascist resistance organization in the camp had managed to organize the inmates in Block 8. The young people and children were protected from the SS by the clandestine network of this resistance organization. The children's block was set up with the approval of the SS, since the camp elders managed to convince them that it was better for camp discipline to house the young people together. This protected them from the brutalities of everyday camp life. Shortly before the liberation of the camp by the US Army, the SS planned a camp evacuation by sending the inmates on a death march. When the SS came to take the Jewish children out of Block 8, Hammann denied that there were Jewish children there. This had all been planned long in advance. All the children wore the red triangle, so they were considered political prisoners.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1943

How did Hammann continue his political commitment after the Second World War?

Hammann was acting district administrator in the Groß-Gerau district from July to October 1945. During this time, he was involved in several conflicts with American occupation officers. He had a real feud with an officer named Wanner who was with the US secret service Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC). Hammann had refused to accede to Wanner’s demands to hand over food that had been painstakingly collected for a hospital. Because he did not follow the orders of the military government, he was placed on leave on October 19, 1945. Trials took place before a military court, which acquitted him.

In a campaign of revenge, Wanner then accused Hammann in the context of the Buchenwald trial of committing crimes against humanity in the concentration camp. To this end, he compiled fabricated witness statements. Hammann was subsequently imprisoned in Dachau with the same SS men who had previously tortured him in Buchenwald. He was in US custody for a total of 14 months and was only released due to an international solidarity campaign. In the 1950s, he was active in the district council for the Communist Party of Germany in Groß-Gerau.

Hammann was killed in 1955 when his car crashed into a US Army tank. The accidental death raises questions for you. Why?

As a result of the presence of the US Army, there were some accidents of this kind. Hammann, however, had also come to the attention of the Bund Deutscher Jugend (BDJ), a network of old Nazis, SS men and Wehrmacht officers. In the early 1950s, the BDJ maintained a paramilitary operation, the so-called Technical Service (Technischer Dienst). This private army was to carry out guerrilla actions in the event of a Soviet occupation and was militarily trained by US officers at the Grafenwoehr military training area in Bavaria. The Technical Service had also drawn up a list of people who were to be eliminated in the event of a Soviet occupation. Many communists and social democrats were included, including Hammann. The Technical Service had connections to right-wing circles in the US military and certainly had the capacity to stage such an accident. However, I only have a hunch about this and have not found the relevant documents.

__________

Original article: Fabian Lehmann: Wie bewahrte er 159 Kinder vor dem Tod? Sein Buch über Wilhelm Hammann soll an den hessischen Kommunisten und Antifaschisten erinnern, sagt Bernd Heyl. Junge Welt, 27.05.2026.