Karl Gröger
Karl B. Groeger ( * 1918 in Vienna, † July 1, 1943 in Amsterdam, executed ) was a native of Vienna medical student who was active during the time of National Socialism in the Dutch resistance.
Life
After the "Anschluss " of Austria Karl Groeger fled from Vienna to Amsterdam, where he continued his medical studies begun already in Austria. After the German invasion Groeger was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but released after a few months back, since he was considered a so-called " quarter- Jew " as " unfit for military service ".
Through his work as a dental technician he met several people who were already active in the resistance, including Coos Hartogh and Henri Halberstadt. As of August 1942, they began an underground newspaper called Rattenkruit: publish (Eng. " rat poison " ), in which they called for an armed struggle against the occupation.
Together with a resistance group around the artist Willem Arondeus and Gerrit van der Veen committed Karl Groeger after lengthy preparations on March 27, 1943 an attack on the National Register of the City of Amsterdam. Here, they were also the skills of help that Groeger had acquired during his time in the army. The attack, in which the members of the group dressed as Dutch police officers forced their way into the building, numerous records were destroyed that were needed for organizing the deportation of Jews to labor camps or death camps. The control of fake identity cards should be so difficult. The action, however, was only met with limited success, since the resistance group did not know about the existence of a second, identical register.
After the attack itself Groeger hidden on a farm, but was betrayed by a telegram to a friend; the SS arrested him on April 8. A German state court sentenced him then together with 13 other members of the group to death. After a pardon by Heinrich Himmler had been rejected, Karl Groeger was executed on July 1, 1943.
1986 honored the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem Karl Groeger as Righteous Among the Nations.