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Robert Anasch * 1907

Schenkendorfstraße 25 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
ROBERT ANASCH
JG. 1907
VERHAFTET OKT. 1942
1944 ZUCHTHAUS CELLE
ERMORDET 1945
ZUCHTHAUS
BÜTZOW-DREIBERGEN

Robert Anasch, born 22 Dec. 1907, arrested 22 Oct. 1942, murdered 15 April 1945 in the Bützow-Dreibergen prison

Schenkendorfstraße 25

Robert Anasch and his wife Käthe, née Clasen, had six children. Norbert, Ingeborg, Waltraut, Rita, Lothar, and Peter were all born between May 1931 and June 1941. The large family lived in an apartment at Schenkendorfstraße 25.

Robert Anasch began working at Blohm&Voss on 28 January 1938 as a steelworker in the fitter’s shop. He earned about 60 Reich marks a week. He was actively involved in the KPD (the German Communist Party), and, after the Nazi takeover, participated in some of the party’s illegal activities. In doing so he came into contact with the "Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group,” a Hamburg resistance organization that developed around the core members Bernhard Bästlein, Franz Jacob, and Robert Abshagen. The group had a well-developed network at the Blohm&Voss shipyards, and Robert Anasch took part in its activities.

These illegal activites brought Robert Anasch to the attention of the Gestapo, and he was arrested on 22 October 1942 at the shipyard. He was taken into detention at Fuhlsbüttel prison and lost his job. His wife Käthe had to resort to welfare to support the six children.

On 7 March 1944, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg found Robert Anasch guilty of "conspiracy to commit high treason” and sentenced him to prison for three years and six months and to three years of the loss of civil rights, reduced by 14 months time served. The sentence was to be served at the Celle-Mühlhausen prison, where he had been incarcerated since 1 April 1944. On 15 April 1945 Robert Anasch was murdered at the Bützow-Dreibergen prison.

Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: StaHH 242-1 II, Gefängnisverwaltung II , Abl. 1998/1, Untersuchungshaft Männer (jüngere Kartei); StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 22.12.07 Anasch, Robert; Hochmuth/ Meyer: Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand, S. 351, S. 386.