This episode of Descendants Stuff is about Friedrich “Fritz” Altenhein. He was born in 1893 in Korbach, Germany and was a metalworker and communist city councilor as well as a member of the KPD since 1925.
On February 4, 1937, Fritz was arrested by the Gestapo at his workplace and later sentenced to three years in prison for “preparation of high treason.” In 1940, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he endured years of forced labor, violence, and abuse. He survived both the camp and a death march in April 1945, and returned to Korbach in 1946 after nine years of imprisonment.
Deeply marked by his experiences, he rarely spoke about what he had endured. Fritz Altenhein died in 1978.
In this episode, Nicole speaks with his great-grandson, Claudio Altenhain.
Descendants Stuff podcast is produced by Jakob Feisthauer, Kelsey Snook and Nicole Wines – three descendants of Sachsenhausen prisoners and co-creators of the Sachsenhausen Stuff project.
The Descendants Stuff team would like to extend a special thank you to the team at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum especially Dr. Astrid Ley, and the members of the educational department’s project “What Voice Do We Have?”, as well as the descendant’s collective, Voices of the Next Generation.
Our theme music, “Heil, Sachsenhausen!” was written and performed by former Sachsenhausen prisoner Aleksander Kulisiewicz. Thanks to the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum and the Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection for granting permission for its use. If you are a Sachsenhausen descendant who would like to share your story, please contact us.