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Willi Milke * 1896

Eddelbüttelstraße 24 (Harburg, Harburg)

Berlin
12.1.1944 Freitod nach Todesurteil

Wilhelm Milke, born on 16 Sept. 1896 in Heide (Holstein), sentenced to death, suicide on 12 Jan. 1944

District of Harburg-Altstadt, Eddelbüttelstrasse 24

The worker Wilhelm (Willy) Milke attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) in Harburg. Afterward, he worked at various Harburg-based companies. Since 1920 he belonged to the Factory Workers’ Union (Fabrikarbeiterverband), joining the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1926. Until 1933, he worked at the Harburger Oelwerke Brinckmann & Mergell (Hobum), an oil producer, was a member of the "Revolutionary Union Opposition” ("Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition” – RGO), as well as chairman of the employee representative committee at Hobum for many years. He married the cook Frieda Pubanz, born on 12 Jan. 1899 in Itzehoe. They had one daughter, Gertrud, born on 2 Sept. 1920 in Neumünster. The family’s Harburg residential addresses were Lassallestrasse 52, (starting in 1930) Eddelbüttelstrasse 24, and later (in 1937) Heckengang 54, and finally, from 1 Aug. 1939 onward once again Eddelbüttelstrasse 24.

When employees were called on to attend the May celebrations of the National Socialist Party at Hobum on 1 May 1933, Willy Milke did not show up and was reprimanded. After 1933, he participated in the Communist resistance. Together with Heinrich Frühling, the political leader of the RGO in Harburg-Wilhelmsburg before 1933, and others, he continued the work of the RGO illegally. In the spring of 1933, he also attended a meeting of the former KPD member of the Reichstag, Matthias Thesen, who directed illegal trade union activities in Hamburg at the time.

The illegal writings that Willy Milke and his friends disseminated had titles such as Betriebszeitung der RGO ["company paper of the RGO"], Roter Sender, Kampforgan der RGO und Einheitsverband für das Baugewerbe Harburg ["Red broadcaster, fighting organ of the RGO and the united federation of construction trade in Harburg”], and Der Industriearbeiter ["The industrial worker”]. On 28 June 1933, police seized several copies of these papers and arrested a number of Communists in Harburg. However, work continued, with RGO materials being produced and distributed until mid-1934. After that, a large-scale wave of arrests in Hamburg and environs came down on about 800 RGO members, including Willy Milke, who was apprehended on 9 July 1934. On 13 Apr. 1935, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht – OLG) sentenced him to two years and six months in prison, which he served in Fuhlsbüttel until 13 Jan. 1937.

After his release, he worked at various Harburg-based companies. On 25 May 1938, he found work at the Phoenix plant in Harburg. There he met Karl Kock. Both were active in a KPD company cell operating at the time of the illegal KPD subdistrict leadership under Felix Plewa (see entry on Felix Plewa). After the beginning of the war on 1 Sept. 1939, the operations had to be terminated.

In 1942, Willy Milke supported the resistance organization around Bästlein, Jacob, and Abshagen. Together with Berthold Bormann, who had contact to the leadership of the group, and Karl Kock, he built up a company cell at the Phoenix plant. He helped hide Wilhelm Fellendorf who had parachuted into Germany and who was wanted by the Gestapo (see entry on Herbert Bittcher). Willy Milke and Herbert Bittcher at the Phoenix plant were also caught in the wave of arrests beginning on 15 Oct. 1942. They were apprehended on the company premises, Milke on 21 October. In order to calm the following unrest at the Phoenix plant, the Gestapo started the rumor that both had intended to blow up the Phoenix. The "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft") at the Fuhlsbüttel Gestapo prison lasted from 23 Oct. 1942 until 30 Mar. 1943. There Willy Milke was beaten by Gestapo man Wiese until he collapsed. Alfred Beecken and Emil Lentins, who also worked in the mixing mill at the Phoenix, were arrested by the Gestapo on 31 Oct. 1942. During interrogations in the Stadthaus in Hamburg, they came across Willy Milke and they could tell by looking at his face that he had been mistreated. Together with him, they were transported off to Fuhlsbüttel and released after three days.

Willy Milke was placed in pretrial detention at the prison on Holstenglacis. On 12 Nov. 1943, he was transferred to Berlin-Moabit, then to Berlin-Tegel.

On 12 Jan. 1944, the trial against the supporters of the two parachutists Wilhelm Fellendorf and Erna Eifler took place before the First Senate of the "People’s Court” ("Volksgerichtshof”) in Berlin. The persons indicted were Käthe Fellendorf, Herbert Bittcher, and Wilhelm Milke. The trial was presided over by Roland Freisler. Freisler commented on Willy Milke’s previous conviction, "You were already sentenced to two and a half years in prison. If I had been the judge, you would have received a death sentence.” All three were sentenced to death.

Wilhelm Milke was found dead in his cell in Berlin-Tegel that same evening. According to a communication by the prison, he had hanged himself in his cell. Herbert Bittcher also committed suicide in Tegel on 22 January, and Käthe Fellendorf was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee on 31 March. Herbert Bittcher and Willy Milke were buried on the Berlin-Marzahn cemetery. Wilhelm Fellendorf had already been murdered in 1943 while in Gestapo custody; Erna Eifler was shot in the Ravensbrück concentration camp on 7 June 1944.


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; Hochmuth/Meyer, Streiflichter, S. 352ff.; Bästlein, Niederlage, S. 53, 109; VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Stumme Zeugen, S. 17ff.; StaH, 242-1-II Gefängnisverwaltung; StaH, 331-1-II Polizeibehörde II; StaH, 332-8 Meldewesen, A46; StaH, 351-11, AfW, Wilhelm Milke; StaH, Adressbücher Harburg-Wilhelmsburg und Hamburg; Anklageschrift Heinrich Frühling u .a., Kopie VVN-BdA Harburg; Sterbeurkunde Nr. 30/1944, Standesamt Berlin, Kopie VVN-BdA Harburg; Heyl/Maronde-Heyl, Abschlussbericht; Totenliste VAN.