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Heinz Prager * 1918

Greifswalder Straße 38 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)

1943 Berlin-Plötzensee
1944 'Heilanstalt' Langenhorn tot 16.2.1945

Christian Otto Heinz Prager, b. 4.12.1918, arrested 1935, 1936, 1941, d. on 2.16.1945 in the Hamburg Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Geesthacht

Greifswalder Straße/corner of Helmuth-Hübener-Gang (formerly, Greifswalderstraße 30)

The Hamburg-born Heinz Prager went to the primary school on Adolfstrasse in Altona. As a 12-year old he joined the Hitler Youth; as a 16-year old he became a member of the SA [Storm Troopers]. After finishing school in 1933, he entered an apprenticeship with a book printer, which he ended prematurely after 15 months, supposedly because of color-blindness. After his "Voluntary Labor Service,” he found occasional work in the SA-relief work camps at Lokstedt and Wandsbek. During this period, he lived with his parents in the St. Georg district of Hamburg on the fourth floor at Greifswalderstrasse 30.

In 1935, for the first time, he began frequenting the popular homosexual bar Marienburg in the new city. After his "homosexual impulses” broke free, Heinz Prager was put into detention on 24 August 1935. In October 1935, the Hamburg District Court sentenced him to eight months in jail, according to §§ 175 and 185 of the Reich Penal Code. In April 1936, there followed a new conviction on account of violation of §175. The Hamburg District Court condemned him to prison for a total of ten months and one week. In addition Prager was prohibited from going to homosexual bars and using public restrooms. He was threatened with police "protective custody” for violation of the prohibitions.

After his release in June 1936, he was again taken into custody from 4 July until 7 August 1936, charged with "unnatural acts. From 24 August to 24 March 1937 and from 14-20 May 1937, he sat in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp as a police "prisoner in protective custody.” Sometime around June 1940, he was in the Neuengamme concentration camp. About four months later, on 10 October 1940, he was registered in the Dachau concentration camp with prisoner number 20266, with the addendum "Invalid.” On 11 December 1940 he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp. When he was released from there is not known.

On 20 December 1941, he was sentenced to a 15-month loss of liberty in a concentration camp for same-sex activities. He was released from the penal institution Berlin-Plötzensee on 20 March 1943.

On 23 March 1943, he moved to Heidenkampsweg 40 in Hamburg. From 27 April to 1 August 1943 and from 30 March to 16 June 1944, he was a patient at the Langhorn psychiatric hospital. On 16 February 1945, Heinz Prager died in the Hamburg Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Geesthacht, probably from the long-term effects of the many years of detention in concentration camps.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Bernhard Rosenkranz/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaHH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 8861/36; StaHH, 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 a und 451 a E 1, 1 b; StaHH, 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; Standesamt Geesthacht, Sterbebuch Nr. 65/1945; Auskunft der Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten, KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Brief vom 24.8.2006; Auskunft von Rainer Hoffschildt, Hannover, E-Mail vom 31.8.2006; Auskunft des Landesbetriebs Geoinformation und Vermessung, Hamburg, E-Mail vom 15.6.2007.