2026-05-02T14:25:42Z https://keydocuments.net/oai

oai:jgo:source-272.en 1900-01-01T00:00:00Z

en Interview with Kurt van der Walde, conducted by Alfons Kenkmann, on May 9 and 30, 1994, FZH / WdE 251 https://keydocuments.net/source/jgo:source-272 Institute for the History of the German Jews Online Ressource Kurt van der Walde was born in Posen (today Poznan in Poland ) on January 20, 1915, but he grew up mainly in Hamburg-Eppendorf, where his father worked in the metal trade. After graduating from the Heinrich-Hertz-Realgymnasium [a high school focused on science, math, and modern languages], Kurt van der Walde completed a commercial apprenticeship in a textile company. In his spare time, he was active in various left-wing (non-Zionist) youth groups, including the Socialist Revolutionary Youth Movement  Sozialistische Revolutionäre Jugendbewegung. He was arrested in 1936 and sentenced for “preparation to high treason” [“Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat”]. After being released from prison in 1938, he emigrated to Britain, where he worked in the industrial sector (such as a wire-weaving mill) in Manchester. He married a Hamburg woman in exile and had a daughter with her. Kurt van der Walde returned to Hamburg in November 1946 because he wanted to become politically active against reactionary tendencies in post-war Germany. He belonged to the Free German League of Culture and later – until it was banned in 1956 – to the Communist Party. Also active in the Committee of Former Political Prisoners Komitee ehemaliger politischer Gefangener and in the Jewish Congregation, he was involved as a contemporary witness for the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – VVN. After studying history and English, he worked as a teacher. Following the death of his first wife, he remarried. Kurt van der Walde died in Hamburg-Eppendorf in 2003.