Franz Jacob (Resistance fighter)

Franz Jacob, 1964 stamp from the DDR

Jacob was born in Hamburg in a working-class family. His mother, Marie Pgetz, was a maid and his father, August Moser, was a house servant, who died young. His family lived with his grandfather, an active member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) until his mother remarried in 1917. Her new husband, Gustav Jacob, adopted Franz.[1]

Jacob only attended one year of Oberrealschule. He then learned the trade of machine fitting on Hamburg wharfs and joined the metalworkers' union, where he was elected representative of the apprentices. The First World War and the economic situation in Germany prompted Jacob to join the youth branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1920, at the age of 15. A year later, he joined the SPD.[1] In 1925, he left the SPD for the youth group of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), over the objections of family.[1][2][3]

He also joined the Rote Hilfe and the Rote Frontkämpferbund (RFB). His activity in the Communist Youth group, led to him being elected the organization leader of the waterfront district. In 1928, he joined the KPD itself and was allowed to be a delegate to the 5th International Congress of Communist Youth and the 6th World Congress of the Communist International, both in Moscow. As a result, Jacob lost his job at the Hamburg Telegraph Office. His next job was at Reiherstieg-Werft, but he was fired without notice after calling for a short strike.[1]

In 1929, Jacob began working as a correspondent for the KPD publications for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the Hamburger Volkszeitung (Hamburg Peoples' Press) and the Norddeutsche Echo (North German Echo). For a short time, he went to Kiel to help build a new anti-fascist organization to replace the RFB, which had been made illegal. In 1931, he became Secretary for agitation and propaganda for the KPD's Hamburg waterfront district, working then primarily for the KPD. His flyers made his name well known and in April 1932, he became a member of the Hamburg Parliament, at the age of 26.[1][4]

The March 1933 elections saw great gains by the National Socialists to seats of power, both on the state and national level. On 27 February 1933, six days before the election, the Reichstag was burned, an event that was blamed on the Communists. With Nazis in key positions in government, Adolf Hitler was able to push through the Reichstag Fire Decree, which was then signed into law by President Paul von Hindenburg. The decree withdrew civil liberties and enabled the Nazis to arrest anyone they deemed to be an enemy. This became first and foremost a confrontation with the KPD, but in effect, outlawed all political parties in Germany, other than the Nazi Party. The Enabling Act of 27 March 1933 consolidated their power and authority. By the end of April 1933, the Nazis had arrested 18,000 Communists, 12,000 SPD members and others, filling concentration camps. By June 1933, more than half of the KPD's district leaders were in detention and hundreds of Nazi opponents had been killed. Many people went underground, including Jacob.[1][4]

A year later, in mid-August 1933, he was arrested in Berlin by the Nazis and sent to prison, where Jacob subjected to torture in the Gestapo prisons Columbia Haus in Berlin and KolaFu in Hamburg.[1] In 1934, he was sentenced to three years at hard labor in a Zuchthaus for "preparation to commit high treason. After he had served his sentence, he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp for three years of preventive detention, where he stayed till 1940.[2]

Upon his release, he immediately went to Hamburg, where he found work at a shipyard and got back in touch with friends Bernhard Bästlein and Robert Abshagen, with whom he formed the Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group, a Communist resistance group. He again was responsible for agitation and propaganda, producing flyers and other publications. He also began creating an archive for the group, which he conspired with a friend, Otto Gröllmann, who was a set designer at the Thalia Theater (Hamburg) to conceal there. The archive has since been lost.[1][5]

After a wave of arrests began in Hamburg in October 1942, which included Bästlein and Abshagen, Jacob fled and went to Berlin, where he was again underground. In 1943, he formed another resistance group, this time with Anton Saefkow. Bästlein was able to escape prison during a bombing raid in 1944 and ran into Jacob by chance, after which he joined them in forming the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization,[3] also called the "Operative Leadership of the Communist Party in Germany". It was one of the largest resistance groups in Germany.[4][6] They focused on disseminating information that they were able to glean from foreign newspapers and from radio broadcasts from Moscow.

They also organized the Bewegung Freies Deutschland (Free Germany Movement) to work with people in factories, military units, opposition parties and others, growing to several hundred people. In his publication, Am Beginn der letzten Phase des Krieges ("At the beginning of the last phase of the war"), Jacob wrote that to end the war and overthrow the fascist dictator, Communists should concentrate all their strength "on developing a broad, national front composed of all groups that stand opposed to fascism.[7]

Jacob lived underground in Berlin almost two years, moving frequently, some 30 times in 18 months,[7] and having to remain very quiet during the daytime, so as not to be overheard. Being illegal, meant he also had to sit out bomb raids and dared not seek cover in a bomb shelter.[1]

In April 1944, Social Democrats Adolf Reichwein and Julius Leber, who were members of the Kreisau Circle, got in touch with Saefkow and Jacob to talk about bringing their Communist organization into the conspiracy of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.[2] This was done with the knowledge and agreement of Claus von Stauffenberg.[1] There was a meeting with Reichwein and Leber on 22 June 1944[8] in the apartment of Dr Rudolf Schmid. Then Jacob and Leber, who had been together at Sachsenhausen and had formed a good trust with one another, met again, separately. According to historian Peter Steinbach, they knew this military resistance was an effort without a broad foundation of support and that the leaders of the SPD and KPD, as well as trade unions, had the contacts to turn it into an act of resistance with support.

An additional meeting was planned for 4 July 1944 to discuss concrete measures. They were denounced by an informer, however, and when Jacob, Saefkow and Reichwein arrived at the appointed place, the Gestapo snared them all. Leber was arrested a few days later. Jacob was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichthof on 5 September 1944 and was executed on 18 September 1944, at Brandenburg-Görden Prison, along with Saefkow and Bästlein.[1][2]