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Theodor Rehbehn * 1901
Koppel 50 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)
HIER WOHNTE
THEODOR REHBEHN
JG. 1901
IM WIDERSTAND
VERHAFTET 1941
ZUCHTHAUS WALDHEIM
1944 NEUENGAMME
CAP ARCONA
TOT 3.5.1945
NEUSTÄDTER BUCHT
Theodor Rehbehn, b. 4.16.1901, prisoner in the Neuengamme concentration camp, went down with the "Cap Arcona" on 5.3.1945
last address: Koppel 50
Theodor Rehbehn was a worker and a member of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). He was arrested for listening to foreign radio broadcasts, and between May 1941 and December 1944 he was incarcerated in the Waldheim penitentiary in Saxony. Then he was sent to the Neuengamme concentration camp. At the end of April, beginning of May, he was evacuated from there along with 9000 other prisoners distributed in three ships anchored in the Bay of Lübeck: the "Cap Arcona,” the "Thielbek,” and the "Athen.” Despite the resistance of the captains of the commercial ships, the SS pushed through the acceptance of the inmates with threats and compulsory measures. Within a short time after embarkation, many began to die of hunger, thirst, and diseases. The R.A.F. bombed the ships while still in the bay on 3 May, setting the Cap Arcona and the Thielbek ablaze; only the Athen, with barely 2000 prisoners, turned and ran in time, making it into the harbor at Neustadt unscathed. Approximately 7000 prisoners on the other two ships, among them Theodor Rehbehn, burned, drowned, or were shot, while trying to save themselves. Only 450 survived.
Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2018
© Benedikt Behrens
Quellen: VAN (Hrsg.), Totenliste Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer und Verfolgter, Hamburg 1968; StaH, 332-8, Meldewesen, Fotoarchiv 741-4, Meldekarten der zw. dem 1.8.1943 und 31.12.1945 Abgemeldeten und Verstorbenen; Meyer, Gertrud, Nacht über Hamburg. Berichte und Dokumente 1933–1945, S. 192ff.; Schwarberg, Günther, Angriffsziel "Cap Arcona", Göttingen 1998.
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