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Willi Milke * 1896

Wilstorfer Straße , Tor 4 der ehem. Phoenix-Werke (Harburg, Harburg)

Berlin
12.1.1944 Freitod nach Todesurteil

further stumbling stones in Wilstorfer Straße , Tor 4 der ehem. Phoenix-Werke:
Herbert Bittcher, Karl Kock

Herbert Bittcher, born on 6 Feb. 1908 in Harburg, sentenced to death, suicide on 22 Jan. 1944
Karl Kock, born on 16 June 1908 in Harburg, sentenced to death, executed on 26 June 1944
Wilhelm Milke, born on 16 Sept. 1896 in Heide (Holstein), sentenced to death, suicide on 12 Jan. 1944

District of Harburg-Altstadt, Wilstorfer Straße, former Phoenix plant, entry gate 4

The Harburg Phoenix plant ranks among the oldest enterprises in Harburg. The founders, the brothers Albert and Louis Cohen, were handed the certificate awarding local civic rights by Harburg’s mayor August Gumbrecht on 13 June 1856. They had obtained a contract from the city to run "a plant for manufacturing rubber boots and vulcanized rubber.” The plant changed names several times. In 1872, it merged with an Austrian company, going by the name of "United Rubber Goods Plants Harburg – Vienna” ("Vereinigte Gummiwaren-Fabriken Harburg – Wien”). In 1922, the company fell apart again due to the beginning inflation. The Harburg operation now did business as "Harburger Gummiwarenfabriken Phoenix,” subsequently as "Phoenix-Gummiwerke,” and in the end as "Phoenix AG.” Since 2007, when Continental AG took it over, its name has been "Conti-Tech.”

In 1934, after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship, all companies were submitted to the "leader principle” ("Führerprinzip”) in accordance with the "Act on the Ordering of National Labor” ("Gesetz zur Ordnung der nationalen Arbeit”). The entrepreneur became a "factory leader” to whom the "followers” had to remain loyal. In coordination with the pseudo union, the "National Socialist Factory Cell Organization” ("Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellen-Organisation” – NSBO), the "factory leader” compiled a list of "councils of trust” ("Vertrauensräte”) whom the "followers” had to confirm by secret ballot. These "councils of trust” had to take the "national state” as a basic principle, which meant that only members of and sympathizers with the NSDAP could be "elected.” Elections such as these were organized in 1934 and 1935, but they resulted in devastating outcomes for the National Socialists. According to a confidential report by the Reich leadership of the NSDAP dated 20 Apr. 1935, at the Phoenix plant only 1,394 votes were cast (of potentially 2,347 votes), with the candidates receiving only 950 yes votes on average. In 1935, no further elections of this kind were organized.

Illegal Communist resistance cells did exist at the plant. A report by the KPD’s Wasserkante District leadership mentioned a cell at the Phoenix plant comprised of ten members. Such cells were looked after by the Section Leadership North (Abschnittsleitung Nord) of the KPD in Copenhagen. There were several couriers who conveyed material from there to Harburg and to the Phoenix plant as well (see entry for Felix Plewa). In Jan. 1938, the Gestapo reported the following on the arrest of one courier: "The material smuggled from Denmark to the company cell at the Phoenix works in Hamburg was hidden in a suitcase with false bottom, and the imported pocket mirror also accommodated in its cover an issue of the Communist ‘Rote Fahne.’”

The illegal group at the Phoenix plant also included Karl Kock and Wilhelm Milke. In 1940, Karl Kock was arrested. The Gestapo accused him of having formed a Communist cell. However, in 1941 the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht – OLG) acquitted him again for lack of evidence. In 1942, Kock and Milke supported the Hamburg resistance group around Bästlein, Jacob, and Abshagen, which had bases mainly on shipyards and other large-scale enterprises (see entry for Karl Kock). Contacts from the Phoenix plant to the leadership were maintained via Berthold Bormann and Oskar Reincke. They also helped the prisoners of war and forced laborers working at the Phoenix plant, slipping to them food, shaving kits, and radios.

That summer, Erna Eifler and Wilhelm Fellendorf, both wanted by the Gestapo, came to Hamburg. Wilhelm Fellendorf went to see his cousin Herbert Bittcher, who lived in Hamburg and worked at the Phoenix plant as well (see entry for Herbert Bittcher).

In Oct. 1942, several Communists and other supporters of the Bästlein Group were arrested. The Gestapo came to pick up Wilhelm Milke and Herbert Bittcher at the Phoenix plant, which caused considerable agitation at the factory. The Gestapo spread the rumor that the two had intended to blow up the Phoenix. Karl Kock was supposed to be arrested as well. However, he was on sick leave and thus not at the company site, receiving a warning in time and fleeing with the help of some friends by streetcar to Hamburg. There he hid with relatives and friends, finally with August Quest at Kapellenweg 15. On 6 Mar. 1943, the police raided the house, arresting him and Karl Kock.

This was followed by repeated torture in Gestapo custody. Subsequently, the resistance fighters were sent to the pretrial detention facility at Holstenglacis. Wilhelm Milke and Herbert Bittcher were transferred to Berlin, where the court trial against the supporters of the parachutists took place on 12 Jan. 1944. Both were sentenced to death by the "People’s Court” ("Volksgerichtshof”). Wilhelm Milke hanged himself in his prison cell the same day; Herbert Bittcher did so on 22 Jan.

Karl Kock was sentenced to death by the "People’s Court” ("Volksgerichtshof”) on 8 May 1944 and executed together with nine other resistance fighters on 26 June at the Holstenglacis prison.

The memory of the men was kept alive: On 14 Sept. 1947, Karl Kock was buried at the Memorial Grove for Resistance Fighters (Ehrenhain der Widerstandskämpfer) on Ohlsdorf Cemetery. On 24 Nov. 1984, the office of the Harburg DKP (Hohe Straße 26) was named "Karl-Kock-Centrum” (it no longer exists). Since 1988, there is a Karl-Kock-Weg (in Wilstorf, turnoff to Radickestraße) and a Bittcherweg (near Mensingstraße).

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Hans-Joachim Meyer

Quellen: VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Die anderen, S. 291ff.; Ursel Hochmuth, Niemand, S. 84ff.; VVN-BdA Harburg (Hrsg.), Stumme Zeugen, s. Personenverzeichnis; Streiflichter, S. 341ff.; Friedrich, Werk, S. 9; Heyl/Maronde-Heyl, Abschlussbericht; Totenliste VAN.

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.