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Charles Hennings * 1901

Klaus-Groth-Straße 25 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

1937 - 1939 mehrfach verhaftet
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Straflager Rodgau
KZ Neuengamme
ermordet 03.05.1945

After inserting the stumbling block we were informed that Charles Hennings did not - as listed in the first memorial book for the victims of Neuengamme concentration camp - probably died in 1945 in the sinking of Cap Arcona, but was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1941 and died there in the same year.

Charles Hennings, born on 4 May 1901 in Hamburg, arrested several times from 1937 to 1939, detention in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, Rodgau prison camp, in 1940 in the Neuengamme concentration camp, in 1941 in the Dachau concentration camp, and in the Buchenwald concentration camp, death there on 16 Aug. 1941

Klaus-Groth-Strasse 25

The worker Charles Hermann Hennings was among the cases whose biographies were destroyed along with the documents. Only a few prisoner registration cards provide meager clues about his fate.

Charles Hennings was born on 4 May 1901 in Hamburg as the son of the hairdresser Friedrich Hennings and his wife Magdalene, née Nohren. The occupations indicated are messenger and packer. Three times overall, he came into conflict with the law because of his homosexual tendencies. From 5 May until 4 June 1937, he was detained for the first time, being committed to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. Afterward, in June 1937, there followed a sentence before the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht), serving as a summary court of lay assessors (Schöffenschnellgericht), because of offenses against Sec 175 [of the Reich Criminal Code] to four months in prison (with the pretrial detention calculated against the overall penalty). He served his sentence in the Harburg-Wilhelmsburg court prison until Sept. 1937.
From 14 Feb. until 3 Mar. 1938, he was taken into pretrial detention again for "unnatural sexual offenses” ("widernatürliche Unzucht”). However, no charges were brought and he was released.

However, soon after, in 1939, Charles Hennings was caught once more in the clutches of the Nazi regime due to his sexual inclinations. On 24 Apr. 1939, the Hamburg District Court sentenced him as a repeat offender to one year and six months in prison. In June 1939, he was transferred to the prison camp in Rodgau/Dieburg (Upper Hessen). After having served his sentence purely in terms of figures by Sept. 1940, Charles Hennings never saw freedom again but was instead taken into police preventive detention and transported to the Neuengamme concentration camp. The date of his admission and his prisoner number remain unknown. For 22 Jan. 1941, his admission at the Dachau concentration camp is recorded in the files; he received prisoner number 23,438. On 12 July 1941, he was transported further to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he died the same year on 16 Aug. at the age of 40.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH, 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13 und 16; 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 b; KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Transportliste KZ Dachau; Auskunft von Rainer Hoffschildt, Hannover; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Ver­folgung, S. 217/219.