Stumbling block for Carl Becker

Carl Becker

Dreikönigenstraße 29

Stumbling block stories in Krefeld

Persecuted as a homosexual

Carl Becker was born on 13 February 1885 in Duisburg-Neumühl. With his wife Elisabeth he had a son, Karl-Heinz, in 1922. The electrician Carl was first sentenced in 1938 to 6 months in prison for violation of § 175 RStGB.
In 1940, disputes arose between him, the owner of the house at Dreikönigenstr. 29 in Krefeld, and a tenant, which, according to Becker, culminated in an action for eviction. In the course of this, Becker was denounced to the Gestapo by this tenant. He was accused of having refused the Hitler salute in August 1940 and of having insulted Adolf Hitler ("Hitler kann mir was Driete", or "Hitler kann mich mal driete", Driet = dirt).
The proceedings against him were dropped in September 1940 and the tenant moved out, but Becker was taken into custody in April 1941. Because of renewed offences against § 175 RStGB he was sentenced in November to 1 year 6 months imprisonment.
By order of Heinrich Himmler dated 12.07.1940, "repeat offenders" with more than one partner were taken into "preventive custody" by the Gestapo. This happened immediately after Becker was released from prison. He was deported from Düsseldorf to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was registered in July 1943 with the number 49907.

Initially he was registered as a professional criminal, which meant that he had to wear a green corner. However, on 15.02.1945 his record was changed and he was given the pink angle for homosexuals. He had to do forced labour in the field commandos Friedrichshafen and Saalgau in the armament production until the camp Friedrichshafen was destroyed by allied bombs in autumn 1944.
Becker was in the Dachau camp when it was liberated by US troops at the end of April 1945. He did not tell them the real reason for their imprisonment, but allegedly refused to work. Physically marked, he lived on the former camp grounds until April 1946, when he and his wife Elisabeth moved to the Dachau town. His son Karl-Heinz had become a soldier in the Wehrmacht, he was reported missing in January 1944 and declared dead by the Krefeld District Court in 1954.