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Helmut Petersen * 1919

Wandsbeker Chaussee 118 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
HELMUT PETERSEN
JG. 1919
VERHAFTET 1938
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
BUCHENWALD
KZ NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
ERMORDET 25.7.1942

further stumbling stones in Wandsbeker Chaussee 118:
Adolf Schütz

Helmut Christian Petersen, born 2/8/1919, died on 7/25/1942 at Natzweiler concentration camp

Wandsbeker Chaussee 118 (Wandsbeker Chaussee 124)

"So long, keep chirpy, and long live swing music!” was the ending of a Wehrmacht postal service letter confiscated from Helmut Petersen on August 15th, 1940. The letter was from Petersen’s friend Erich Kunwaldt, written from a Wehrmacht post in East Prussia.

A week earlier, a man had named Helmut Petersen to the criminal police as a sex partner, and all persons identified on pictures and in letters found at his home were also considered to be possible offenders. In addition, the reference to the Kuhnwaldt was lucky and not included in the police investigations; possibly, the distance between Hamburg his place of action in the war made the difference. In addition, the reference to the Swing Music movement suspect to the Nazis apparently was not further investigated in this case.

Helmut Petersen was less fortunate after his home was searched. He was arrested and never regained freedom.

He was born in Hamburg on February 8th, 1895 as the son of the Dutch sea captain Peter Petersen and his wife Auguste, née Bellmann. Due to the fragmentary preservation of his penal records, little is known of his life. His mother died early, his father lived in the Netherlands, and he lived as a subtenant at varying addresses in Hamburg. Helmut Petersen worked as a clerk at the Bauer & Schauerle Company in Wandsbek.

Because of his homosexual disposition, the district court of Westerland on the island of Sylt took Petersen into remand custody for the first time from April 8th to 20th, 1938. Apparently, the sentence possibly was served by his remand detention. The same year, he was again imprisoned for "unnatural buggery”, first from September 17th to 26th in the Fuhlsbüttel Police Jail (formerly Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp), then until June 20th, 1939 in the remand jail in Holstenglacis. Before, he had been sentenced to one year in jail pursuant to Art. 175 of the Penal Code. He served that sentence in the jail for juveniles on the island of Hahnöfersand in the Elbe River.

After new incriminating testimony from a sexual partner, Helmut Petersen was interrogated at the 24th precinct of the Criminal Police. Because he initially denied having relapsed after his last conviction, he was taken into "police custody” by order of the Gestapo, probably at the police jail in the street named "Hütten.” In the course of the lengthy questioning there, he gave detailed information about further homosexual partners he had met at dubious bars, e.g. "Loreley”, "Anker”, "Stadtkasino” and "Theaterklause.”

Because of Petersen’s previous convictions, Judge Erwin Krause, head of the district court, in his verdict of November 12th, 1940, emphasized that the defendant "could no longer expect clemency.” For three counts, he sentenced him to a total of one year and four months; Petersen served his time in Fuhlsbüttel.

A fact that further incriminated him was the testimony about a further potential sex partner his landlady Elisabeth Velden, née Stannsbein gave in December 1940. Although he was able to credibly dispel the suspected contact to the man in question, Petersen was again subject to police questioning. In September 1941, his attorney submitted an appeal for clemency with probation at the front, which was rejected. Possibly, the attorney was aware that his client might be admitted to a concentration camp because of his three previous convictions. And that is exactly what happened.

After his "release” to the custody of the Hamburg Criminal Police on December 15th, 1941, he was detained at the Fuhlsbüttel Police Prison until January 19th, 1942, and then transported, via the Hütten jail, to Buchenwald concentration camp on January 30th, 1942. From there, he was taken to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp near Strasbourg in occupied Alsace on March 12th, 1942, where he died on July 25th, 1942 at the age of 23.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Bernhard Rosenkranz (†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 185/42; StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 c; 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 u. 16; 331-1 II Polizeibehörde II, Ablieferung 15 Band 2; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 244.