Wilhelm Hammann

Life & Legacy

Willhelm Hammann (German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈhaman] ; 25 February 1897 in Biebesheim am Rhein – 26 July 1955 in Rüsselsheim) was a German educator and communist politician. A town councilor and a member of the provincial parliament of Hesse in the 1920s, he was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp from 1938 to 1945. In April 1945, Hammann, who was the blockälteste of the children's barrack, sabotaged the planned movement of Jews on a death march to a certain extermination. Yad Vashem awarded Hammann the title of "Righteous among the Nations". Yisrael Meir Lau, current chairman (as of May 2010) of Yad Vashem Council, was one of the children saved by Hammann.
In 1946, the American authorities questioned Hammann's real role as a privileged prisoner, accused him of active collaboration with the SS and imprisoned him at Dachau concentration camp. Hammann was acquitted by the Buchenwald Trial in May 1947. He became a hero in East Germany posthumously when propagandists elevated the antifascist resistance in Buchenwald to the level of a foundational myth of the DDR. Attempts to honour his name in the united Germany failed due to his commitment to communism.