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Eduard Olejniczak * 1911

Marckmannstraße 158 (Hamburg-Mitte, Rothenburgsort)

HIER WOHNTE
EDUARD OLEJNICZAK
JG. 1911
VERHAFTET 21.11.1942
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1943 POLIZEIGEFÄNGNIS
BERLIN-ALEXANDERPLATZ
1943 ZUCHTHAUS MOABIT
HINGERICHTET 1.11.1943
BRANDENBURG-GÖRDEN

Eduard Olejniczak, born 16 Jan. 1911 in Bestwin, Posen, executed 1 Nov. 1943 in Brandenburg-Görden

Marckmannstraße 158

Eduard Olejniczak was born in Bestwin, Krotoschin District, located in what at the time was the Prussian province of Posen, and he grew up in a Polish Catholic family. His parents Anna and Franz Olejniczak, apparently farmed their own land. His father’s occupation was noted as carpenter and farmer. At least two of his siblings, Stanislaus and Theresie, moved to Hamburg in the 1920s. Theresie, born on 7 Aug. 1899 in Danischin in Adelnau District, also in "Prussian Posen”, married the laborer Ferdinand Ammon on 15 Sept. 1928, which also was his 34th birthday. They moved from Veddel to Rothenburgsort to live at Marckmannstraße 158.

Eduard Olejniczak attended elementary school and became an auto mechanic. Following a brief interlude in Berlin, he arrived in Hamburg in 1934 where he initially lived with his sister Theresie and his brother-in-law who in the meantime had risen to the rank of a foreman. They looked after Eduard and used their savings to buy him a poultry farm at Tiedekanal 226 in Billbrook, where he also could live.

Eduard Olejniczak had never joined a political party, but after the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland, he let himself be recruited by Polish intelligence "Stragan”. It was under the control of the secret organization "Armed Battle Unit” and the Polish National Army as well as the exile government in London. Its commanding officer, the merchant Sigmund Witczak from Katowice, instructed Eduard Olejniczak to obtain details about German warship building, in Kiel for instance. A comrade in Berlin with a similar assignment lived with him illegally.

In 1940 Eduard Olejniczak found a job as a mechanic at the business Andreas Meinert and in 1941 changed to the plumber’s workshop Heinke at Billhorner Röhrendamm, where he continued to work until his arrest. On 22 Nov. 1942 he and other Stragan collaborators and Sigmund Witczak came together for a meeting at Streit’s Hotel when they were arrested under suspicion of espionage. They were taken to Fuhlsbüttel Police Prison and held in a completely overcrowded hall. There Eduard Olejniczak, Sigmund Witczak and the brothers Anton and Marian Dziamski met detained members of the Jacob Bästlein Abshagen Group who had taken it upon themselves to ensure order. They cared for the four men when they return beaten up from interrogations in town hall. On 4 Feb. 1943, they were transferred to the prison at Berlin-Alexanderplatz. They parted ways on 15 June 1943 during a transfer from there to Berlin-Moabit Remand Prison.

While he was in prison, Theresie Ammon provided her brother with poultry and other foodstuffs. She also paid for his defense lawyer Rudolf Mäder. The proceedings at the People’s Court under the presiding Judge Greulich concluded on 1 Oct. 1943 with the death sentence. Eduard Olejniczak was decapitated one month later at Brandenburg’s new prison in Görden. Sigmund Witczak was executed there on 24 Jan. 1944. The brothers Anton and Marian Dziamski survived.

In 1946 the urn with Eduard Olejniczak’s ashes were laid to rest in the grove of honor for resistance fighters at the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf Cemetery.


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2018
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: VAN-Totenliste 1968; VVN 14; StaH 213-13 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – NSG, 0017-40; 332-5 Standesämter, 3592+ 432/1928; Hochmuth, Ursel, Ehrenhaingedenkbuch; AB 1933;