Walter Vielhauer was a communist and anti-fascist of Heilbronn who was held captive by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 before and during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

He was first arrested in March 1933 and was held several weeks at the new concentration camp

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

 Heuberg. After his release, he continued his struggle against fascism and in autumn of 1933, he was arrested again. He was condemned to five and a half years in penintentiary, which he had to spend in solitary confinement. After serving his sentence, he was sent to various concentration camps, Welzheim, Dachau, Mauthausen

Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp

Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...

 and Buchenwald

Buchenwald concentration camp

Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...

, where he was active with the Resistance

Buchenwald Resistance

The Buchenwald Resistance was a resistance group of prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp. It involved Communists, Social Democrats, and people affiliated with other political parties, unaffiliated people, and Christians. Because Buchenwald prisoners came from a number of countries, the...

 activities there.

In June 1945, he was deployed by the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

as assistant of the lord mayor and was responsible for social affairs in Heilbronn until 1948.

Sources

• http://www.mahnung-gegen-rechts.de/pages/staedte/Heilbronn/pages/HeilbronnHoffnungstraeger.htm
• Buchenwald - Ein Konzentrationslager. Bericht der ehemaligen KZ-Häftlinge Emil Carlebach, Paul Grünewald, Helmut Röder, Willy Schmidt, Walter Vielhauer. ISBN 3-87682-786-8
• Trau! Schau! Wem? Dokumente zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung im Raum Heilbronn/Neckarsulm 1844-1949. ISBN 3-929348-09-8