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Walther Nickels * 1910

Balduinstraße (Parkplatz der Schule St. Pauli) (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
WALTHER NICKELS
JG. 1910
VERHAFTET 1936
1939 KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1942 EMSLANDLAGER
ERMORDET 7.3.1943
KZ NEUENGAMME

Walther "Walter" Nickels, b. 4.15.1910, imprisoned 1936, 1937 and 1942, died on 3.7.1943 im Neuengamme concentration camp

Balduinstraße (früher: Erichstraße 85)

The parents of Walther Nickels, who came from Itzehoe, ran an inn. They were said to have been "upright people." After graduating from school, Walther Nickels learned to be a pastry cook. He worked for a long time in this profession until he went to sea as a cook’s mate. "In his references he was very positively judged both in skill and attitude." On board, he was very popular, "very willing and courteous."

His homosexual tendencies came to light in 1936 through a denunciation by a neighbor of his married sexual partner, Wilhelm Nebelung (b. 2 September 1893 in Oldesloe, d. after 16 July 1942 in Mauthausen concentration camp; commemorative stone: Hansaplatz 8, St. Georg district). As stated in the criminal police report of 14 May 1936:

"It was confidentially brought to our attention that Nebelung, Hermannstr. 5 I., consorts with homosexuals ...
Nebelung is also homosexually inclined. He is said to have a domestic relationship with (first name) Walter. Nebelung has relatives living outside the country to whom he brings money which he then later has sent back to him by post. He pretends to the officials who apprehended him that he is being supported by his relatives. Or he claims to have a car rental business. In reality, he does not own a car."

The Nebelung couple was arrested on grounds of danger of collusion.

On 2 December 1936, the trial took place in the District Court of Hamburg. The judge sentenced Walther Nickels to four months in jail.

From the judicial opinion of Judge Dr. Fromm, Director of the District Court:

"He [Nickels] did not have a room of his own, but rather lived, so to speak, like the wife of the accused Nebelung. They slept together in the same bed and regularly performed the sexual act, like man and wife ... Therefore, it is the firm opinion of the court that the accused Nebelung, between December 1935 and February 1936, committed perverse acts as a man with another man, and that the accused Nickels in the same period allowed himself to be perversely misused by the accused Nebelung."

From 8 June until 8 July 1937, Walther was held in "protective custody" at Fuhlsbüttel, and in August 1937 there followed a second conviction of ten months in jail on grounds of "unnatural acts." On 16 December 1937 he was able to escape from the penal institution, but was quickly again arrested and had to serve his sentence until 8 April 1938.

On 30 April 1942, he was sent in a collective transport to the Emsland Camp 1 at Börgermoor. In January 1943 he was registered under prisoner number 13758 in the Neuengamme concentration camp, where he was murdered on 7 March 1943.


Translator: Richard Levy

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: November 2017
© Bernhard Rosenkranz (†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 1476/37; StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 und 16.