In
late January 1935, fate would
suddenly take a terrible turn for Hencke. After
almost two
years of being an illegal courier traveling everyday between
Hamburg and Uetersen, a man was caught by the Gestapo with
one his
anti-Nazi leaflets. Under torture, the man revealed the name of the
person who gave it to him and where they could find
him. They now turned South to find Hencke. He was arrested by
the
Gestapo on January 25, 1935 at a factory were he worked in Hamburg. Two
officers escorted him outside and put him in a big black car.
There were two other men, the driver and another Gestapo man.
The
curtains were drawn as the car drove off. Then they
proceeded
to beat him with brass knuckles and clubs until he was bloody
and
weak. He was then taken to Fuhlsbüttel and thrown into cell
number
9, in Block C.
It
was at this point that Hencke's
life would be forever changed. Once he was in his cell the
guards beat him even more. They tied his hands, put him in a
corner and took turns abusing him physically. They beat him with clubs
again, however this time more severely taking turns in their abuse. The
four guards pushed and shoved him, punched him in the face and
beat him up until he fell to the floor and then they began
kicking
him in the head with their boots until he was almost unconscious.
There was one man there who would encourage
the other
men to beat him more. As a result of their brutality, Hencke lost
several teeth and by the time they finished he had so much blood in his
eyes that he couldn't see. His clothes were all covered in
blood
and they made him clean himself in his own drinking
water.
At
the time of Hencke's
imprisonment, Fuhlsbüttel was run by SA and SS
guards. It was an exceptionally brutal concentration camp.
Over
250 people died here from starvation, torture and execution. In his
small cell he slept on a fold out metal bed with a
mattress
filled with straw. In the winter months it got so cold that he couldn't
sleep at night. He was not alone however, in is cell
lived
six rats which would haunt him by biting him on his toes at night when
he tried to sleep. When this happened, he attempted to throw
them
off his feet and screamed in pain. The guards heard
this and
used this as an excuse to go into his cell and beat him even
more.
One day he mentioned to one of the guards about the rats in his
cell and the guard coldly replied: "The rats belong
there.
That is there home!"
When it was time for him to
eat, he was not even given the bare minimum amount of
food
for daily sustenance, only three slices of bread and a small
cup
of "corn coffee" which was pushed through the door of his cell with
their boots. Their scorn for him remained constant. "You are a
Communist!", the guards told him and Hencke replied, "No, I am a Social
Democrat." They said : "Eat like an animal, you Red Pig!".
His
abuse from the guards continued daily. He was "visited" by
them up
to three to four times a day. During these so-called "visits", he was
beaten time and again. His only break from his abuse
came in
late July 1935 when the guards were given orders that they
were no
longer allowed to beat and torture him any longer. His trial
was
scheduled for November 5th and the Nazis wanted him to heal so that the
German public could not see the evidence of his abuse at their
hands. His head had swollen up greatly as a result of their
torture and it was filled with puss. His was sent to the infirmary in
the prison to help him heal, not for his health, but only to help hide
the evidence of his maltreatment.
Now
the guards were only allowed to
push and shove him. He was to begin his healing process so
that he
could be presentable for trial. On the day of November 5, 1935
he was sent to the Oberlandesgericht in Hamburg (The
High
Court) before the second senate for his crimes of treason
against
the Nazi regime. There all the cards were stacked against him.
His lawyer was not a Nazi party member and sympathized with
him,
trying everything in his power to save his defendant. He told
Hencke that "we have to be prepared to accept any sentence
that is
passed onto you". He later told him," You have no
rights!".
They can burn you. They can beat you, they can kill you and
there's nothing you can do!"
After Hencke's arrest in January,
twelve of his comrades in his Genossen (youth group) were all
arrested by the Gestapo one by one over the course of six months and
sent to various camps.
After
the verdict
was decided Hencke was sentenced to the hard labor camp
Hahnöfersand, a special work camp for youths aged
18-21. There, he received more abuse at the hands of the
Nazi's.
Here he had to do back breaking work such as pushing heavy
carts on tracks full of rocks. Often times these
carts would
come off the tracks and the guards used this as an excuse to
beat
the prisoners out of anger and cruelty. One day an unforgettable event
happened to him when an SS guard there shot and killed a friend of
Hencke's and he died in his arms. After this happened, the
guard
requested another assignment.
In
late July 1937, Hencke was
temporarily released, but told by the camp commandant Johannes
Rode of Fuhlsbüttel that he was to return there after which
time
he was to be deported to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen in 10
days. Once his mother heard the terrible news, she walked at
once
to the Headquarters of the Gestapo in Hamburg. For nine days she went
there and met with the Gestapo Chief Streckenbach and cried and begged
for her sons freedom from morning until afternoon. On the last day
before Hencke was to be deported to Sachsenhausen with the next
transport, two highly decorated SS officers saw her and asked why she
was crying. She told them of her apprehension and her sons fate and
they told her: "Mother, we are speaking with Herr Streckenbach and we
will see what we can do for you and your son."
They spoke with the Gestapo Chief
about releasing Hencke and helped prevent his deportation to
the
terrible Sachsenhausen concentration camp by convincing him
that
he should be on probation instead. Streckenbach then called up the camp
commandant of Sachsenhausen as well as the commandant of
Fuhlsbüttel and set him free with "many orders". After he was
freed, he weighed only 80 pounds and went straight to the
hospital. He was so weak and frail that the nurses all gave up on
him. He remained sick for many months afterwards, but
eventually
recovered. Later on, he began working in a machine factory as an
engineer and from time to time the Gestapo would come there to check up
on him. They asked his boss: "What does he do here?" "What is his job?"
He told them that he repaired machinery. After they had been following
and eyeing him for a long while he began to develop what he called
"persecution mania" or paranoia and he became deeply afraid of being
arrested again. Sometime later, he went to a
university in
Hamburg where he studied political economy for four
and a
half terms but was discharged by the Nazis.
In 1939, he joined a gymnastics club called
Arnim. There he
met up with seven of his comrades from his SAJ (socialist
workers
youth) who were imprisoned with him. There, Hencke organized
anti-fascist youth work. Hencke never lacked bravery. Although he was issued a special
pass which exempted him from military service due to his imprisonment,
in 1936 he was given a chance to join the army. There were two army
majors who went down the two long lines of men asking each one "Do you
want to go to war?" and when one of them reached Hencke and asked him
the question he defiantly said, "No, not for Hitler!" The major,
admiring his honesty and courage came closer to him
and whispered, "Well, it's a good thing that I asked you,
because
if the other officer had he would have shot you!"
Hencke continued his work at the gymnastics club Arnim until 1943 when
the heavy allied bombing raids occurred. He was then was
forced to
clear away the rubble. The Nazis had great contempt for him because of
his past imprisonment for resistance and placed him in dangerous areas
during the raids. He was not allowed to go down into the shelters with
the civilians, but made to stand in the entrance exposed to the danger.
In
January 1945, he was recruited to
work in a factory where he produced Panzersperren (anti-tanks
obstacles) until May 1945. At night he had to keep watch on the factory
to protect it from the allied bombers. During the last weeks
of
the war, everything in Germany was in chaos. Defeat could no
longer be denied, except only by fanatical Nazis. A strange event
happened one day when Hencke was called into the office of a high
ranking Nazi official. The man asked him "Hencke, I
want your
honest opinion. I promise as a soldier not to shoot you. What
will become of the war and what will happen to me?"
Hencke
replied, "Well as far as the war is concerned, it is lost and
for
you I cannot say it is only written in the stars!", an old German
proverb. The man suddenly became totally enraged at
him
and he saw that he put his hand on his pistol case,
so Hencke
said "Hey, but you promised!" The Nazi screamed, "Hencke Get
Out!"
After the war ended he became a
teacher and head of a children's home. He continued his vocational
training and went on to become an elementary and high school teacher.
Hencke was very proud of his commitment to the resistance against
Hitler and never wanted others to forget that he was one of the few
Germans who risked their lives to fight evil!
Sadly, he died in Hamburg on January 10,
2003 after battling
a long illness at the age of 87. He was a very kind and generous man
and will be remembered for his heroism.
