The author of the article accused Hape Kerkeling of portraying his grandfather in a speech in the Thuringian state parliament as a victim of National Socialism and of dramatically equating his imprisonment in Buchenwald with that of persecuted Jews. According to the author, Kerkeling concealed the reasons for his grandfather's imprisonment, Hermann Anton Kerkeling. According to the article, Hermann Anton Kerkeling was sentenced to eight years in a correctional facility in October 1933 for 17 counts of livestock and property theft during the economic crisis. Shortly thereafter, an additional year was added for preparation for high treason, among other things in connection with the communist pamphlet Rote Welle. He served his sentence in Münster, Papenburg, and Bremen. After that, the Gestapo ordered protective custody in Münster in May 1942. On July 2, 1942, Kerkeling was brought to Buchenwald as a political prisoner with the number 6117. He worked in the effects chamber and remained in Nazi custody until the liberation of the camp on April 11, 1945 – a total of about twelve years. He died in Recklinghausen in 1993 at the age of 91. The author described him as an active communist and gang thief, not as a typical victim of National Socialism. #Geschichte #Nationalsozialismus #Erinnerung (translated)
