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Bruno Selck * 1900

Auenstraße Ecke Von-Essen-Straße (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
BRUNO SELCK
JG. 1900
VERHAFTET 1933 UND 36
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
NEUENGAMME
ERMORDET 11.2.1943

Bruno Wilhelm Adolf Selck, born on 25 June 1900 in Wusterhausen/Dosse, died on 11 Feb. 1943 in the Neuengamme concentration camp

Intersection of Von-Essen-Strasse/Auenstrasse 2a (von Essenstrasse 10)

In the summer of 1936, while the international guests attending the Olympiad in Berlin were supposed to experience the city undisturbed by a special unit of the Berlin Gestapo used to combat homosexuality, this formation, operating from what was then still Prussian Altona, hunted down gay men in Hamburg as well. At the same time, the Hamburg criminal investigation department was "trained” in these search measures. In the course of numerous police raids of homosexual meeting places (bars, restrooms, and parks), the commercial clerk Fritz Nitzsche, born in Hamburg in 1888, also ranked among the persons arrested. Like many of his fellow sufferers, he too revealed his sex partners during the Gestapo interrogations. Among those he gave away, on 24 July 1936, was Bruno Selck, already entered in the "male prostitute and homo file card” ("Strichjungen – wie in der Homo-Kartei”) "in connection with such offenses.”

Bruno Selck was born on 25 June 1900 in the Brandenburg town of Wusterhausen/Dosse as the son of the merchant Adolf Selck (the family also spelled the last name Selk) and Rosa, née Karol. The family moved to Hamburg, where Bruno Selck grew up and attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule). He received practical training in agriculture, also working in this field following the First World War. Afterward, he initially made a living as a trainee, then as a commercial clerk working for various companies in Hamburg. He established his first homosexual contacts in 1917 during his membership in a Boy Scout association. After that, his next encounters supposedly did not take place until 1927, following a visit to a nightclub called "Zillertal” in St. Pauli. In May 1933, he appeared for the first time as a homosexual in the files of the criminal investigation department, when he was surprised with a sex partner in a restroom on Hopfenmarkt. He was sentenced to two weeks in prison in accordance with Sec. 183 of the Reich Criminal Code (Reichsstrafgesetzbuch – RStGB) for "jointly causing a public nuisance,” a sentence that was commuted to a fine of 30 RM (reichsmark). To the police, he explained these contacts with the fact that until then had been alone quite often and that during his search for friendly contacts, he got entangled in a circle of artists and musicians, many of whom were homosexuals.

In the course of the interrogations conducted in the summer of 1936, he got caught up in contradictions when questioned by the investigating police officers about his homosexual contacts, though he revealed practically none of his partners by name, not even during his "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp that lasted from 12 to 24 Aug. 1936. His conduct as he gave statements had the effect that neither the public prosecutor entrusted with his case, Nicolaus Siemssen, nor the judge at the District Court (Amtsgericht), Günther Riebow, believed him. Both men rank among the figures primarily responsible for a largely merciless and fervently pursued persecution of homosexuals. Although the sentence pronounced before the Hamburg District Court on 12 Jan. 1937 was only one year in prison, the prognosis for Bruno Selck, in Riebow’s judgment described as a person "withdrawn” and not prepared "for a full confession, was considered unfavorable. Initially, Bruno Selck served his prison term in Fuhlsbüttel and from 25 May 1937 onward until 31 Oct. 1937, in the Altona court prison. A plea for clemency submitted earlier in the summer of 1937 by his sister and his employer, the commercial agent Friedrich Pannier, with whom he had also resided as a subtenant, was turned down.

The reason that caused his committal as a professional criminal ("Berufsverbrecher” – BV) to the Neuengamme concentration camp on 19 Dec. 1942 is not known. However, since Selck was a previously convicted homosexual, any additional homosexual incident constituted grounds for committal to a concentration camp. In Neuengamme, he had to bear prisoner number 13,223 and he did not survive his imprisonment there for long: As early as 11 Feb. 1943, his death was documented in the files, with the stereotypical cause of death indicated as "heart and circulatory failure from gastroenteritis.”


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 5206 u. 712/38; 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 a; 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 u. 16; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 10720 (Eintrag Nr. 762); Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Krankenrevier-Totenbuch Stammlager III, Dank an Alyn Beßmann für ihre Auskunft vom 20.1.2014; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 257.