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Friedrich Bohn * 1904

Brennerstraße 54 (ggü. Haus Nr. 71) (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)

1940 KZ Sachsenhausen
ermordet 22.02.1943

Friedrich Hermann Ernst Bohn, born 31 Oct. 1904, imprisoned 1939, died 22 Feb. 1943 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Brennerstraße, opposite number 71 (Brennerstraße 54)

Friedrich Bohn was born in Klein Koethel near Guestrow in Mecklenburg in 1904. After completing Volksschule (the compulsory eight years of schooling), he first worked as a farm hand on his parents’ estate before finding a position as a domestic servant. In 1927, Friedrich Bohn moved to Hamburg, where he was employed as a laborer and as a hotel servant in various restaurants. As early as 1928, he was arrested for frequenting pick-up places (Klappen). At the beginning of the war on 1 Sep. 1939, he was conscripted as an auxiliary policeman ("increased police protection” "VPS-Mann” = "verstaerkter Polizeischutz”).

On 5 Nov. 1939, he was apprehended during a police raid in the street named Koppel in the St. Georg district. He had met a man in the public toilet at the corner of Lange Reihe and Greifswalder Straße, and the two had withdrawn behind the corner of a house on Koppel.

In the night of 5 to 6 Nov. 1939, Bohn tried to take his life in his jail cell. From 7 through 11 Nov. 1939, he was in police "protective custody” (polizeiliche "Schutzhaft”) in the concentration camp at Hamburg-Fuhlsbuettel before being taken to the detention center Hamburg-Stadt.
On 9 Jan. 1940, the Hamburg Local Court (Amtsgericht), presided over by Amtsgerichtsrat Dr. Wilhelm Oehlckers, sentenced him to two years in jail because of continuing offenses in accordance with § 175 RStGB (Penal Code of the German Reich; translator’s note: § 175 made homosexual activity a punishable offense). The judge wrote: "The unrestrained homosexual activity of the accused, which went on for many years, but in particular the temerity to commit such deeds in public wearing the uniform of the state, require considerable sanction.” Friedrich Bohn filed an appeal five days after the verdict was handed down, but without success. His mother’s plea for clemency was not granted, either.

On 7 Jan. 1942, he had served his sentence in the Wolfenbuettel jail. We do not know whether he lived in freedom for a short time or was immediately taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”). In any case, the first record in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp concerning him is dated Sep. 1942 ("prisoner in limited-term preventive custody” "befristeter Vorbeugungshäftling”). Friedrich Bohn met his death there on 22 Feb. 1943.

Translator: Sandra H. Lustig
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Bernhard Rosenkranz (†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaHH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 2274/41; StaHH, 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferung 16; StaHH, 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; Joachim Müller/Andreas Sternweiler: Homosexuelle Männer im KZ Sachsenhausen, Hrsg.: Schwules Museum Berlin, Verlag Rosa Winkel, Berlin 2000, S. 23.