Paula Rueß: Difference between revisions
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==Life== |
==Life== |
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Paula Kopp was born in [[Lichtensteig]], a small town in the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[Canton of St. Gallen]], a short distance from the three-way frontier with [[German empire|Germany]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austria]]. At the age of 21 she was already a member of the [[Communist Party of Germany]]. From 1928 she was working at [[Berlin]] in the secretariat at the international office of the [[Young Communist International|Young Communists]]. From here she moved on to a job as a typist in the press department of the [[Communist Party of Germany|party]] central committee's own secretariat.<ref name=PGlautBL>{{cite web|url=http://www.frauen-aktiv.de/portraet/ausgabe.php?nummer=77|title=Paula Rueß geb. Kopp verh. Nuding|author=Beate Latendorf|publisher=Fraueninformationssystem Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart|accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> She married [[Hermann Nuding]] in 1923 or 1925. The [[Machtergreifung|Nazi takeover]] in January 1933 was quickly followed by [[Gleichschaltung|the switch to]] a [[Enabling Act of 1933|one-party state]], and at the end of February 1933, following the [[Reichstag fire]], Hermann Nuding was among the first of a large batch of German Communists to be arrested and placed in "protective custody".<ref name=HNlautwww>{{cite web|url=http://bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=2545|title=Nuding, Hermann * 3.7.1902, † 31.12.1966 KPD/SED-Funktionär|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur,Berlin|work=Wer war wer in der DDR? (The appropriate extract from "Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten" by Hermann Weber and Andreas Herbst is published on the same webpage.)|author=[[Bernd-Rainer Barth]]| accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> Political work was now illegal and, as a paid official of the Communist Party, Paula Nuding accordingly lost her job and faced state persecution. She escaped via [[Copenhagen]] to [[France]] where [[Paris]] was rapidly becoming an ad hoc headquarters for the German Communist Party in exile.<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> In Paris she worked on distribution for the "illegally" produced German language Communist newspaper "Volk und Vaterland" and for the [[Comintern]].<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> |
Paula Kopp was born in [[Lichtensteig]], a small town in the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[Canton of St. Gallen]], a short distance from the three-way frontier with [[German empire|Germany]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austria]]. At the age of 21 she was already a member of the [[Communist Party of Germany]]. From 1928 she was working at [[Berlin]] in the secretariat at the international office of the [[Young Communist International|Young Communists]]. From here she moved on to a job as a typist in the press department of the [[Communist Party of Germany|party]] central committee's own secretariat.<ref name=PGlautBL>{{cite web|url=http://www.frauen-aktiv.de/portraet/ausgabe.php?nummer=77|title=Paula Rueß geb. Kopp verh. Nuding|author=Beate Latendorf|publisher=Fraueninformationssystem Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart|accessdate=21 September 2016|archive-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011115345/http://www.frauen-aktiv.de/portraet/ausgabe.php?nummer=77|url-status=dead}}</ref> She married [[Hermann Nuding]] in 1923 or 1925. The [[Machtergreifung|Nazi takeover]] in January 1933 was quickly followed by [[Gleichschaltung|the switch to]] a [[Enabling Act of 1933|one-party state]], and at the end of February 1933, following the [[Reichstag fire]], Hermann Nuding was among the first of a large batch of German Communists to be arrested and placed in "protective custody".<ref name=HNlautwww>{{cite web|url=http://bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=2545|title=Nuding, Hermann * 3.7.1902, † 31.12.1966 KPD/SED-Funktionär|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin|work=Wer war wer in der DDR? (The appropriate extract from "Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten" by Hermann Weber and Andreas Herbst is published on the same webpage.)|author=[[Bernd-Rainer Barth]]| accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> Political work was now illegal and, as a paid official of the Communist Party, Paula Nuding accordingly lost her job and faced state persecution. She escaped via [[Copenhagen]] to [[France]] where [[Paris]] was rapidly becoming an ad hoc headquarters for the German Communist Party in exile.<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> In Paris she worked on distribution for the "illegally" produced German language Communist newspaper "Volk und Vaterland" and for the [[Comintern]].<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> |
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Following the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in the later summer of 1939, France [[Battle of France|was invaded]] by the [[Wehrmacht|German army]] in May/June 1940: the northern part of the country was directly occupied while the south was administered by [[Vichy France|a collaborationist government]]. In this context large numbers of exiled German communists in Paris were identified as [[enemy alien]]s and arrested in the summer of 1940. Paula Nuding was one of these, and was taken to the [[:fr:Camp de Rieucros|internment camp at Rieucros]] in the south. Under circumstances that remain far from clear she was nevertheless among those who escaped or were released from Rieucros during 1941, and she returned to [[Paris]].<ref name=RieucrosselonKJBuAR>{{cite web|url=http://www.klaus-j-becker.de/docs/veroeffentlichungen/ENDE.pdf|title=Das Parteiverfahren gegen Lex Ende im Sommer 1945 in Paris|work=Dokumente aus dem Nachlaß Herbert Müller|author1=Klaus J. Becker| author2=Annette Roser |publisher=Dr. Klaus Jürgen Becker|accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> |
Following the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in the later summer of 1939, France [[Battle of France|was invaded]] by the [[Wehrmacht|German army]] in May/June 1940: the northern part of the country was directly occupied while the south was administered by [[Vichy France|a collaborationist government]]. In this context large numbers of exiled German communists in Paris were identified as [[enemy alien]]s and arrested in the summer of 1940. Paula Nuding was one of these, and was taken to the [[:fr:Camp de Rieucros|internment camp at Rieucros]] in the south. Under circumstances that remain far from clear she was nevertheless among those who escaped or were released from Rieucros during 1941, and she returned to [[Paris]].<ref name=RieucrosselonKJBuAR>{{cite web|url=http://www.klaus-j-becker.de/docs/veroeffentlichungen/ENDE.pdf|title=Das Parteiverfahren gegen Lex Ende im Sommer 1945 in Paris|work=Dokumente aus dem Nachlaß Herbert Müller|author1=Klaus J. Becker| author2=Annette Roser |publisher=Dr. Klaus Jürgen Becker|accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> |
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Between November 1941 and November 1943 she worked underground in Paris as a member of the local German Communist leadership, and was involved in illegally contributing to and producing newspapers and leaflets on behalf of the liberation movement (''"Komitee Freies Deutschland für den Westen"'').<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> At the end of November 1943 Paula Nuding was arrested by the [[Gestapo]]. She was pregnant at the time,<ref name=WiderstadPE>{{cite web| url=https://pauleuziere.wordpress.com/page/6/|title=Der deutsche Widerstand gegen Hitler|author=Paul Euzière, Grasse| accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> but as a result of physical mistreatment she lost her child. On 13 August 1944 she was taken, as part of the final transport of approximately 800 women, from France to the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]], where she was registered as prisoner number 57,895.<ref name=PGlautBL/> The concentration camp was liberated by the [[Red army|Soviet army]] in April 1945, and Paula Nuding made her way, not without difficulties and hold-ups, to [[Esslingen am Neckar]], a town near [[Stuttgart]] which by the end of the war in May 1945 had ended up not in the [[Soviet occupation zone]] but in the [[Allied-occupied Germany|US zone]].<ref name=PGlautBL/> |
Between November 1941 and November 1943 she worked underground in Paris as a member of the local German Communist leadership, and was involved in illegally contributing to and producing newspapers and leaflets on behalf of the liberation movement (''"Komitee Freies Deutschland für den Westen"'').<ref name=PRlautGSJ/> At the end of November 1943 Paula Nuding was arrested by the [[Gestapo]]. She was pregnant at the time,<ref name=WiderstadPE>{{cite web| url=https://pauleuziere.wordpress.com/page/6/|title=Der deutsche Widerstand gegen Hitler|author=Paul Euzière, Grasse| accessdate=21 September 2016}}</ref> but as a result of physical mistreatment she lost her child. On 13 August 1944 she was taken, as part of the final transport of approximately 800 women, from France to the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]], where she was registered as prisoner number 57,895.<ref name=PGlautBL/> The concentration camp was liberated by the [[Red army|Soviet army]] in April 1945, and Paula Nuding made her way, not without difficulties and hold-ups, to [[Esslingen am Neckar]], a town near [[Stuttgart]] which by the end of the war in May 1945 had ended up not in the [[Soviet occupation zone]] but in the [[Allied-occupied Germany|US zone]].<ref name=PGlautBL/> |
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By this time Paula and Hermann Nuding's marriage had ended in divorce. Esslingen was the home town of another former and current Communist activist {{Interlanguage link |
By this time Paula and Hermann Nuding's marriage had ended in divorce. Esslingen was the home town of another former and current Communist activist {{Interlanguage link|Hans Rueß|de}} (1901-1974)) whom she married in 1947. Hans Rueß had spent the Nazi years in Germany, interned in a succession of concentration camps. Paula Rueß had been deprived of her German citizenship during the Nazi years, and she had to struggle with the authorities in what would become [[West Germany]] for more than a year to recover it.<ref name=PRlautRS/> |
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During the postwar period Paula Rueß resumed her political activities and became a trades union secretary. She was one of the founding members of the [[Democratic Women's League of Germany|Democratic Women's League (''"Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands"'' / DFD)]] and campaigned for restitution on behalf of former concentration camp inmates. She also involved herself in the peace movement and with the [[Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime|Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (''"Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten"'' / VVN-BdA)]]. |
During the postwar period Paula Rueß resumed her political activities and became a trades union secretary. She was one of the founding members of the [[Democratic Women's League of Germany|Democratic Women's League (''"Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands"'' / DFD)]] and campaigned for restitution on behalf of former concentration camp inmates. She also involved herself in the peace movement and with the [[Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime|Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (''"Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten"'' / VVN-BdA)]]. |
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Latest revision as of 01:54, 14 July 2024
Paula Rueß (born Paula Kopp: 3 May 1902 - 8 August 1980) was a German political activist (KPD). Forced into exile by the Nazi takeover, during the early 1940s she worked with the French Resistance.[1][2]
Leben
[edit]Paula Kopp was born in Lichtensteig, a small town in the Swiss Canton of St. Gallen, a short distance from the three-way frontier with Germany and Austria. At the age of 21 she was already a member of the Communist Party of Germany. From 1928 she was working at Berlin in the secretariat at the international office of the Young Communists. From here she moved on to a job as a typist in the press department of the party central committee's own secretariat.[3] She married Hermann Nuding in 1923 or 1925. The Nazi takeover in January 1933 was quickly followed by the switch to a one-party state, and at the end of February 1933, following the Reichstag fire, Hermann Nuding was among the first of a large batch of German Communists to be arrested and placed in "protective custody".[4] Political work was now illegal and, as a paid official of the Communist Party, Paula Nuding accordingly lost her job and faced state persecution. She escaped via Copenhagen to France where Paris was rapidly becoming an ad hoc headquarters for the German Communist Party in exile.[1] In Paris she worked on distribution for the "illegally" produced German language Communist newspaper "Volk und Vaterland" and for the Comintern.[1]
Following the outbreak of the Second World War in the later summer of 1939, France was invaded by the German army in May/June 1940: the northern part of the country was directly occupied while the south was administered by a collaborationist government. In this context large numbers of exiled German communists in Paris were identified as enemy aliens and arrested in the summer of 1940. Paula Nuding was one of these, and was taken to the internment camp at Rieucros in the south. Under circumstances that remain far from clear she was nevertheless among those who escaped or were released from Rieucros during 1941, and she returned to Paris.[5]
Between November 1941 and November 1943 she worked underground in Paris as a member of the local German Communist leadership, and was involved in illegally contributing to and producing newspapers and leaflets on behalf of the liberation movement ("Komitee Freies Deutschland für den Westen").[1] At the end of November 1943 Paula Nuding was arrested by the Gestapo. She was pregnant at the time,[6] but as a result of physical mistreatment she lost her child. On 13 August 1944 she was taken, as part of the final transport of approximately 800 women, from France to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was registered as prisoner number 57,895.[3] The concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet army in April 1945, and Paula Nuding made her way, not without difficulties and hold-ups, to Esslingen am Neckar, a town near Stuttgart which by the end of the war in May 1945 had ended up not in the Soviet occupation zone but in the US zone.[3]
By this time Paula and Hermann Nuding's marriage had ended in divorce. Esslingen was the home town of another former and current Communist activist Hans Rueß (1901-1974)) whom she married in 1947. Hans Rueß had spent the Nazi years in Germany, interned in a succession of concentration camps. Paula Rueß had been deprived of her German citizenship during the Nazi years, and she had to struggle with the authorities in what would become West Germany for more than a year to recover it.[2]
During the postwar period Paula Rueß resumed her political activities and became a trades union secretary. She was one of the founding members of the Democratic Women's League ("Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands" / DFD) and campaigned for restitution on behalf of former concentration camp inmates. She also involved herself in the peace movement and with the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime ("Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten" / VVN-BdA).
During the 1950s the West German Federal Constitutional Court placed a ban on the Communist Party of Germany, but as cold war tensions eased marginally it proved possible to launch a modified version of it in 1968, and was an early member of the German Communist Party. In the local election of 1975 she was a candidate for the party.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Dr. Gudrun Silberzahn-Jandt (18 October 2010). "Paula Rueß - Widerstandskämpferin". Staatsanzeiger für Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Stuttgart. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
- ^ a b Robert Steigerwald (28 June 2002). "Staatsanzeiger für Baden-Württemberg GmbH". Buchempfehlung: Paula und Hans Rueß. DKP-Parteivorstand, Essen ("Unsere Zeit"). Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
- ^ a b c Beate Latendorf. "Paula Rueß geb. Kopp verh. Nuding". Fraueninformationssystem Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ Bernd-Rainer Barth. "Nuding, Hermann * 3.7.1902, † 31.12.1966 KPD/SED-Funktionär". Wer war wer in der DDR? (The appropriate extract from "Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten" by Hermann Weber and Andreas Herbst is published on the same webpage.). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ Klaus J. Becker; Annette Roser. "Das Parteiverfahren gegen Lex Ende im Sommer 1945 in Paris" (PDF). Dokumente aus dem Nachlaß Herbert Müller. Dr. Klaus Jürgen Becker. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ Paul Euzière, Grasse. "Der deutsche Widerstand gegen Hitler". Retrieved 21 September 2016.
Further reading
[edit]- Heidi Großmann: Paula Rueß - Kommunistin und Widerstandskämpferin. In: Friedrich Pospiech (Hrsg.): Unbelehrbar auf der Wahrheit beharrende... Paula und Hans Rueß Pahl-Rugenstein-Verlag: Köln 2002
- Heidi Großmann: Paula Rueß – Kommunistin und Widerstandskämpferin. In: Stadt Esslingen (Hg.): WeiblichES. Frauengeschichte gesucht und entdeckt. Esslingen 1999, pp. 89–112.
- Frauen aus Deutschland in der französischen Résistance. Reihe Arbeiterbewegung: Forschungen, Dokumente, Biografien, compiler-editor Ulla Plener. Berlin 2005 ISBN 3-929390-80-9 p 120ff
- Friedrich Pospiech: Unbelehrbar auf der Wahrheit Beharrende...: Paula und Hans Ruess: zwei Leben im Widerstand gegen Krieg und Faschismus. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag Nachfolger: Bonn 2002
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