RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN OF RESISTANCE (LORENZ KNORR)

During the illegal fight emotions had to be pushed back as far as possible. Before the Nazis marched in at our place, from 33 activists in the anti-fascist resistance 11 were female comrades. They achieved the same as the men and there I had to kiss unwillingly, once. The pupils love hearing about that, when I relate my story in a school class. While hanging up posters, we were caught by an SS-patrol, which came along out of schedule, walking a path no patrol ever used. As I am sticking, I say: “Oh, the SS is coming!” I then instinctively put my back to the poster, and as was a cold season, I covered the bucket of glue with my coat and she snuggled up to me and said: “Now we have to kiss – it’s the rule!” And then we kissed to cheat the SS-people and they really thought that is a loving couple. They actually had the cheek to say: “Kissing is not enough. Remember the ‘Fuehrer’ needs soldiers, the ‘Fuehrer’ needs offsprings!” We just went through such a thing with throbbing heart, but that had nothing to do with emotions. That was an act of necessity. Apart from that we had connections to our (female) radio operators that were abroad, but that was initially limited to radio contact and coded correspondence. Of course, when I was in Eger on holiday or because I needed my glass eye I used to say to the battalion’s doctor: “Well, in Warsaw they are not able to make decent glass eyes. In Wiesbaden they make the best glass eyes. Then I got marching orders from near the front or from Russia or Poland to Wiesbaden and then I took a detour past Eger. And i told to one or two: “During this time I will be available in Eger. Can’t you come there, as well?” We then met female comrades who were in Norway or Copenhagen. The other things did not work most of the time. It was very hard to co-ordinate such a holiday, but it was obviously an exchange of experience that was thorough, because you had to confine yourself to communicating in telegram styles during radio or coded correspondence. And now you were able to analyse together: What has happened and what needs to be done? These meetings took place, but it was really a thing that was quite free of emotions. It was sober-minded about what you could achieve as an anti-fascist and what does not work under these conditions.

more clips: Contemporary witnesses of the Nazi-Regime • 1942 • Widerstand • Knorr, Lorenz
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Team: ERA - European Resistance Archive