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Lorenz Knorr was born on July 18th 1921 in Eger (CSSR), today called Cheb. He was the son of functionaries of the labour movement. Before WW2, he was a member of the social democratic party of the CSSR. During Nazi-rule, he participated in spreading information, publications, acts of sabotage on armament- and war-transports as well as in blowing up ammunition depots. He was called up for the German Wehrmacht and in 1942; he came in front of a court martial for undermining military strength. He was sent to a punishment battalion in Africa. Here, as well as later in occupied Poland, he found ways of antifascist action. From 1947-1950, he was county secretary of the Socialist Youth Germany and from 1950-1960 he was their federal secretary. In 1960, he left the social democrat party in protest, being opposed to its affirmation of the NATO-policies. Due to this, he took part in founding the German Peace Union.
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team:
ERA - European Resistance Archive
latest clip entry:
18-06-2008 17:53
number of medias in topic:
14
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| My name is Lorenz Knorr; born in 1921 and grown up in Eger, now Cheb, in the German populated areas of Czechoslovakia. I am a trained typesetter and typographer. After 1945 I was active in the socialistic youth as a state and federation secretary. For 25 years I was the head of the German Union of Peace and then federation spokesman for the Association of the victims of persecution by the Nazi regime. If you grew ... more |
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length: 4:27 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 1.132
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| These preparations that we were able to make before German fascism marched into the German areas of Czechoslovakia, became relevant after German fascism got rid of the Austrian cleric-fascism in 1934 and replaced it by the Nazi regime and then proclaimed the ‘Großdeutsches Reich’ (Greater German Reich). That took place on the 12th and 13th March 1938. Ever since then we knew that the next victim would ... more |
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length: 1:47 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 913
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The party my parents were functionaries in, was called the ‘German Social Democratic Labour Party in Czechoslovakia’. But the name was a diversion, it was a socialistic, an Austro-Marxian party. Our party did not belong to the ‘1st International’ but to the ‘2.5th International’, the ‘Vienna International’, with the slogan: No social democratic opportunism and no Bolshevistic dogmatism.
We worked according to ... more |
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length: 2:13 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 350
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| Fascism was a subject, because of the experiences that we picked up from the immigrants. In our youth group we occasionally invited immigrants from Austria and Germany so they could tell us their story. And we already knew before the high finance and the generals pushed the power towards the Nazi leading clique: Hitler means war. That means we not only grew into the anti-fascist fight, but as well into the fight ... more |
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length: 2:28 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 505
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| Well, of course, at first, we debated with the young people. But more and more we were forced to debate with the adults, as well. It was not, as if only the youth was discussing fascism. We knew exactly how to distinguish between the Italian fascism, the black fascism in Austria and the brown fascism in Germany. There was a difference – you had to know and consider that. But we were also forced into conflict by ... more |
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length: 4:08 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 642
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| We for example carried our knowledge out into the villages. The labour movement was strong in the towns, in the villages lived mainly rural population and a few craftsmen. In order to get an influence there, we, from the Socialist Youth, cycled to those places, carried out some events, tried to involve the people and at these cultural events tried to point out to the people with speeches what fascism meant, what ... more |
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length: 1:28 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 652
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| Well, we worked in groups of three, made agreements, always in a group of three. We met somewhere, where we could not be overheard, to prepare missions. Whether they were campaigns with flyers or posters or later on, when we realised that we did not achieve enough, acts of sabotage - that did not matter. So we thought: “Now the time is right for a big poster campaign!” Half a year after the invasion the two ... more |
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length: 2:19 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 332
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| After the ‘Munich Agreement’ we had the 36 divisions, which marched into Czechoslovakia from all sides. Bohemia and Moravia were encircled by ’Großdeutschland’ from the north, west and south. At this time it was that for start you worked as a civilian and only when in 1939 the war began, the enlistments then started. I myself was not enlisted until the end of 1940, so that we had two years of time for the ... more |
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length: 4:11 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 476
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| In the summer of 1938, before the Nazis marched in, we agreed that we not only want to keep in touch, but as well that we wanted to develop a cipher, a secure code in which we were able to correspond politically, not only in the general and personal way. That was a cipher which the Gestapo was not able to figure out until the end: A very shifty system, the so called „two-box-system“. Which is commonly known, but ... more |
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length: 5:24 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 297
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| Yes, I was sent to Africa. I had to fight in a motorbike patrol. I have to say that we agreed before we became soldiers we would never shoot somebody who had been said to be an enemy. We would shoot into the air, we would never shoot anybody, except in self defence; that was something different. There I kept going on with my illegal work; e.g. in the military hospital in Tripoli I was approached by an ... more |
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length: 3:42 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 1.771
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| It was a bagatelle that brought me in front of the court martial in Africa. If they had known what I really did, I would have been summarily executed. But as it was, I was taken to the court martial and condemned to the punishment battalion in Africa. That was horrible because you were totally isolated and because you were often sent out in front of the tanks – as cannon catch, so to say; near the Highfalla ... more |
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length: 2:49 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 950
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| During the illegal fight emotions had to be pushed back as far as possible. Before the Nazis marched in at our place, from 33 activists in the anti-fascist resistance 11 were female comrades. They achieved the same as the men and there I had to kiss unwillingly, once. The pupils love hearing about that, when I relate my story in a school class. While hanging up posters, we were caught by an SS-patrol, which ... more |
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length: 2:58 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 222
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| Towards the end of the war I was seriously wounded another time. I was buried by a British aircraft-bomb for a short time and was then unconscious for two days. The 8th May I witnessed in an auxiliary military hospital in British captivity. There were only few who were pleased like me. Some just did not care. At the best the war was over. But what was to come towards us now? Some, mostly young officers that were ... more |
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length: 1:03 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 1.053
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| I would have been disloyal to my own convictions, if I hadn’t joined the resistance. My grandfather was jailed in the KUK Empire, Emperor Royal Monarchy of the Habsburgs, because he fought for socialism. My father was jailed because he fought for socialism. It was obvious, that I would work in the same track, therefore would not passively let it wash over me, but work against it. I was not alone and we had ... more |
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length: 1:27 min
| date: 18.06.2008
| video-hits: 579
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