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August Mondry * 1901

Ruststraße 11 (Harburg, Eißendorf)

HIER WOHNTE
AUGUST MONDRY
JG. 1901
IM WIDERSTAND
VERHAFTET 1934
ZUCHTHAUS RENDSBURG
ENTLASSEN 1937
1943 STRAFBATAILLON 999
KROATIEN
???

August Mondry, born on 23 Oct. 1904 in Eissendorf near Harburg, drafted into the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999), missing in Croatia since Mar. 1945

Eissendorf quarter, Ruststrasse 11

The worker August Mondry was married to Elfriede Bienwald, born on 24 Apr. 1913 in Harburg. They had a son named Uwe, born on 9 May 1942 in Harburg. The family included two children from Elfriede Mondry’s first marriage as well: Lisa Kuch, born on 18 Dec. 1932, and Lothar Kuch, born on 10 Sept. 1934. The apartment at Ruststrasse 11 also accommodated August Mondry’s mother, the widow Anna Mondry, née Prinz, born on 23 Jan. 1866 in Waltersdorf (Bohemia).

Since 1932, August Mondry was a member of the German Communist Party (KPD). When the KPD was broken up after the Nazi Party assumed power, many KPD members went underground. Following a first wave of arrests in the summer of 1933, a new illegal Harburg-Wilhelmsburg subdistrict leadership took shape under the political leader Erich Meyer. The organization was divided into district groups, these in turn into cells of three to a maximum of five persons. They distributed leaflets and flyers, sold the Norddeutsche Zeitung, and collected money for the "Red Aid” ("Rote Hilfe”). The money served to support the families of arrested Communists. August Mondry belonged to the district group of Harburg-Altstadt and the Hoppenstedtblock.

In July 1934, about 200 members of the German Young Communist League (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands – KJVD) were arrested in Hamburg. The wave of arrests also began sweeping Harburg-Wilhelmsburg, affecting more than 100 people there. On 24 July 1934, August Mondry was placed in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) and on 16 August in pretrial detention at the Harburg court prison on Buxtehuder Strasse. In the spring of 1935, the "Third Criminal Senate” (3. Strafsenat) of the Berlin Court of Appeal (Kammergericht Berlin) tried the resistance fighters in eleven trials overall held before the Altona and Stade Regional Courts (Landgerichte). The trial against August Mondry and 16 of his friends from Harburg-Altstadt took place on 22 Mar. 1935 (Indictment D). August Mondry was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "preparation to high treason” ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat”), which he served in Rendsburg until 26 July 1937.

August Mondry was a laborer in rubber processing and he had worked at the Phoenix plant. After his release from the penitentiary, he was unemployed until May 1939, afterward working for the Max Brinckman timber company (at Blohmstrasse 11).

During the war, many convicted resistance fighters were drafted into punishment battalions and deployed in particularly dangerous theaters of war, used as cannon fodder, as it were, especially in areas where strong partisan armies were operating, such as Yugoslavia and Greece.

August Mondry had to report for duty in the 999th Division Probation Battalion (Bewährungsbatallion Division 999) on Heuberg in the Swabian Jura on 3 Feb. 1943. One last message arrived from him in Mar. 1945 from Croatia. Since then, he has been considered missing. On 16 Dec. 1951, he was declared dead by the Harburg District Court (Amtsgericht).


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Hans-Joachim Meyer

Quellen: VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Die anderen, s. Personenverzeichnis; StaH, 351-11, AfW, August Mondry; StaH, 332-8 Meldewesen; StaH, Adressbücher Harburg-Wilhelmsburg und Hamburg; Totenliste VAN.