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Paul Borkowski * 1915

Klaus-Groth-Straße 60 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

Verhaftet 1937 und 1939
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
KZ Neuengamme
ermordet 23.10.1940

further stumbling stones in Klaus-Groth-Straße 60:
Rosa Priebatsch, Rudolfine Zweig, Siegismund Zweig

Paul Borkowski, born 7.6.1915 in Marienburg West Prussia, imprisoned 1937 and 1939 in the concentration camps of Fühlsbüttel and Neuengamme, where he was murdered 23.10.40


Klaus-Groth-Straße 60 (Oben Borgfelde 4)



Paul Otto Borkowski was a homosexual, whose fate is only documented on a few index cards from the concentration camps. Criminal justice and prisoner files that could have supplied details about his biography are no longer existent.

The shoemaker Paul Borkowski was born 7 Jun. 1915 in Marienburg in West Prussia as the son of Paul Borowski and his wife. He was christened in the Catholic church. In 1935 he was taken into custody as he was suspected of theft, was however discharged after more than a month. In 1937 he contravened the law – under paragraph 175 – through his sexual disposition, which resulted in a large fine, the amount of which remains unknown. Following this fine he worked as a deckhand on the passenger steamship "Tucuman” which belonged to the Hamburg-Süd shipping company.

At the end of 1938 the 24th criminal department responsible for homosexual offences admitted him to the Fühlsbüttel concentration camp. At the beginning of January 1939 he was taken into custody, and in April 1929 he was sentenced for "unnatural sexual offences”. He was sentenced to one year and three months imprisonment. After serving his sentence in July 1940 he was handed over to the Police authorities and presumably from there sent to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Oct. 1940 as a restricted preventative prisoner (paragaph175). There he was given the prisoner number 2306 and was shot while "trying to escape” on 23 Oct. 1940. Paul B. died at the age of 25 of a shot through the stomach. His corpse was cremated and buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery.

Translator: Peter Huggett
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH, 242-11II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Krankenrevier-Totenbuch und Feuerbestattungsliste Friedhof Ohlsdorf; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 202.