Ernst Thälmann Executed (1944)

Fri Aug 18, 1944

Image: Ernst Thälmann in 1932 [Wikipedia]

Ernst Thälmann was a German communist leader executed by the Nazis on this day in 1944, killed in the Buchenwald concentration camp after being subjected to more than a decade of solitary confinement and physical torture.

He served as the leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed supporter of Stalin, Thälmann played a major role during the political instability of the Weimar Republic, especially in its final years when the KPD explicitly sought the overthrow of the liberal democracy.

After the Reichstag Fire took place on February 27th, 1933, the Nazi Party launched a new wave of violence and arrests against members of the KPD and other left-wing opponents of the regime. This included Thälmann, who was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned on March 3rd of that year.

He was kept in solitary confinement for the next eleven years before finally being executed at the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.

"I have been and I am being tortured! Greet the workers of the Saar from me as I would greet them!"

- Ernst Thälmann, bidding farewell to workers visiting him in prison

• Date: 1944-08-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org