The Graupe family was a well-respected family in Hann. Münden. Father Dr. Walter Graupe was a lawyer and fought on the side of the German Reich in the First World War. In the course of today’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, on which the victims of the crimes are remembered, we tell their story.
Hann. Münden – Today’s Holocaust Remembrance Day stands as a day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism. For known reasons, a public commemoration must be dispensed with. The era of the National Socialist reign of terror has left deep rifts to this day. The following description concerns the work and life of the lawyer Dr.
Walter Graupe: As a soldier in the First World War
Walter Graupe and his family. From the end of the war in 1918 to 1938, Münden was his home town. Walter Graupe, born in Breslau in 1887, studied law and received his doctorate. Then the First World War broke out. As a deputy sergeant, he was taken prisoner by Russia in late 1914. He spent a large part of his captivity in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. He was only released on November 15, 1918 and looked after in Münden.
Walter Graupe decided to gain a foothold in Münden. He became chairman of the Mündener local group of the Reich Association of Former Prisoners of War. He was considered a busy notary and lawyer. He often represented the interests of the city in legal matters, was considered to be of integrity and civilly liberal.
Hann. Münden: lawyer and notary
Family planning, stalled by the years of war and imprisonment, succeeded in 1923 with her marriage to Anna Merten. Annette was born in 1924 and Renate in 1926. This year the newly renovated home was moved into, today “Am Entenbusch 2”.
Soon the political situation darkened. In 1930 Otto Weber-Krohse took over the Mündenschen Nachrichten and redesigned the reporting into a National Socialist combat paper. The city deprived the newspaper of its status as an official bulletin. In the lawsuit against this incident, Graupe represented the interests of the city.
On April 1, 1933, the Nazis, who had come to power, carried out a boycott against the Jews. The publisher Weber-Krohse demanded that the Jewish lawyer and notary Graupe no longer be brought to court.
Incitement against Jews is increasing
“It is high time that this spiritual leader of the Münden Judaism is forbidden from entering the local court.” The Nuremberg Race Laws turned the daughters of this Christian-Jewish marriage into so-called half-Jews. Within the Graupe family, religious affiliation has so far played a subordinate role; the children were considered Protestant.
On November 9, 1938, hatred was also directed against the Graupe family. A troop of the SA broke into the Graupes house by force, destroyed the furniture, threw cooked food against the walls and down the cellar stairs. Walter Graupe was “worked on” with kicks and blows.
In the morning hours of November 10, Walter Graupe was to be arrested, like 50,000 other men, for deterrence and atonement. The battered Walter Graupe was unable to go to the Göttingen judicial prison to collect a bus from the town hall. A car had to be requested.
The Graupe family fled to the USA
At least now, any hope of an adequate life in Münden was destroyed. The family managed to leave the country on December 6, 1938 by ship from Bremen. A long journey was imminent, because the “Swabians” were not to moor until January 24, 1939 in San Pedro, Los Angeles on the US west coast in California.
The family made a fresh start in the city of Glendale in the greater Los Angeles area. Both daughters were able to attend high school. Walter Graupe died in 1958, Anna Graupe in 1970. They are united in Santa Barbara. It is not known whether they visited Germany again. (Stefan Schäfer)
Legal aftermath after the Second World War
In Münden, dealings with the Graupe family became the subject of denazification and criminal proceedings. Pastor Meyer spoke about one of Renate Graupe’s classmates, who reprimanded the classmates against the background of emigration: “How can you cry? Renate is not a classmate. Because Jewish women do not belong to a German school. ”A policeman convicted of crimes against humanity also tried several times to exonerate the fact that he was embarrassed to arrest Graupe. In return for the considerate treatment, Graupe sent the policeman a sum of money through an intermediary to buy a bottle of cognac or rum. This was judged not to be exonerating.
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I am looking to contact Stefan Schäfer, author of the article. I am the great-grandson of Walter Graupe, and his daughter, my grandmother Renate/Rehlein, who is 96 and features in the article, would like to make contact.