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Theodor Skorzisko * 1899

Rathausmarkt 1 (links vor dem Rathaus) (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

THEODOR SKORZISKO
MDHB 1931 – 1932 KPD
JG. 1899
FLUCHT 1939
FRANKREICH
INTERNIERT GURS
SCHICKSAL UNBEKANNT

further stumbling stones in Rathausmarkt 1 (links vor dem Rathaus):
Kurt Adams, Etkar Josef André, Bernhard Bästlein, Adolf Biedermann, Gustav Brandt, Valentin Ernst Burchard, Max Eichholz, Hugo Eickhoff, Theodor Haubach, Wilhelm Heidsiek, Ernst Henning, Hermann Hoefer, Franz Jacob, Friedrich Lux, Fritz Simon Reich, August Schmidt, Otto Schumann, Ernst Thälmann, Hans Westermann

Theodor Skorzisko MdHB (Member of the Hamburg City Parliament)

Theodor Franz Leopold Skorzisko was born on 9 Nov. 1899 in the Upper Silesian town of Raschlowitz/Neustadt administrative district (today in the Prudnik County in Poland). After finishing the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule), he initially attended an agricultural technical school, though he did not work in the agricultural field but as an electrician. In the 1920s, he worked for a while in the company of the Hamburg publisher Weissenberger, who later emigrated to the USA.

Skorzisko’s early political career and particularly his path into the Hamburg branch of the German Communist Party (KPD) remain unclear. For the first time, he appeared on the scene in the course of the elections to the Hamburg City Parliament in Sept. 1931. The period of his membership in the parliament already ended with the new elections in Apr. 1932, which resulted in his party losing nine seats. During the few months as a deputy in the city parliament, Skorzisko was a member of the mixed "commission for the fixing of rents” ("Kommission zur Festsetzung der Mieten”) as well as deputy executive board member of the "Hamburg lending back for mortgages” ("Hamburgische Beleihungskasse für Hypotheken”). Theodor Skorzisko did not make a name for himself as a speaker for his parliamentary group.

After the party ban in 1933, he served as "political leader” of a party cell within the illegal party organization in the Eppendorf quarter, and in this context, he probably worked closely with his former colleague in the parliamentary group, August Schmidt, who coordinated the illegal party work in Winterhude.

With the Nazis’ assumption of power, for Theodor Skorzisko, the time of politically motivated state persecution started as well. He was taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”): on 15 May 1933, for five months and again at the end of Mar. 1934, for a week. On 15 Sept. 1934, Skorzisko was arrested once more and charged with illegal political activities. Following extended pretrial detention, the Hamburg Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) sentenced him to an 18-month prison in 1935.

Immediately upon being released from prison, Skorzisko left the Hanseatic city and spent a short time with relatives in Gleiwitz/Upper Silesia (today Gliwice in Poland). Since he feared further "political pestering,” he left Germany that same year, traveling via Poland to Czechoslovakia. At this stage, perhaps he intended to emigrate, like many of his fellow German party members, to the Soviet Union via the transit camp in Prague. At the end of 1936, mail contact to his wife in Hamburg broke off.

Theodor Skorzisko probably fled to Paris just before the occupation of Prague by German troops in Mar. 1939. According to oral tradition, he was politically active there among German exile circles into the year 1940. Admitted to a Paris hospital with severe pneumonia at the beginning of 1940, reportedly he was evacuated as late as mid-June, just before German troops occupied the French capital. Possibly, he was arrested by French police a short time afterward and perished in one of the internment camps set up immediately after the armistice came into effect.

Theodor Skorzisko left behind two sons in addition to his wife. At his family’s request, he was declared dead after the war, with the court setting his date of death on 31 Dec. 1941.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Text mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Bürgerschaft der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg (Hrsg.) entnommen aus: Jörn Lindner/Frank Müller: "Mitglieder der Bürgerschaft – Opfer totalitärer Verfolgung", 3., überarbeitete und ergänzte Auflage, Hamburg 2012