Emil Pietzuch
Emil Pietzuch (9 March 1899 - ?1943) was a German Communist activist-militant. After 1933 non-Nazi political activity was banned: Pietzuch became a resistance activist. Although few precise details of his activism during the early Hitler period survive, it is believed that he was at the centre of a resistance network ("...Widerstandorganisation Emil Pietzuch") in Berlin comprising at least 40 men and women. He was forced to flee the country for the last time in 1937 and ended up in the Soviet Union where he fell foul of the institutionalised paranoia that was a feature of Stalin's rule. He died in a Soviet labour camp, probably at the end of 1943.

During the years of one-party dictatorship in East Germany between 1949 and 1990 Pietzuch was officially celebrated as a war hero, and it was believed by scholars that he had been parachuted back into Germany near Munich, and then captured and murdered by Nazi "SS" paramilitaries during 1944, towards the end of the war. It was only with the opening up of previously concealed government records that followed the political collapse of the East German and Soviet dictatorships in 1989/90 that Margarete Forszpaniak, a former resistance comrade, disclosed the truth about Pietzuch's death to the historian , having herself learned it two decades earlier from , the responsible East German Central Committee official.
Q41304
German
Concept
Q153401
Communist
ORG
Q1565271
activist-militant
ORG
Q4684105
1933
Concept
Q327401
resistance activist
ORG
Q7318
Hitler period
Concept
Q64
Berlin
LOC
Q15180
Soviet Union
LOC
Q6591430
institutionalised paranoia
UNK
Q855
Stalin
PER
Q161448
Soviet labour camp
Concept
Q50686
one-
Concept
Q49750
party
ORG
Q564824
dictatorship
MEDIA
Q16957
East Germany
LOC
Q7318
Germany
Concept
Q1726
Munich
LOC
Q44687
Nazi "SS" paramilitaries
Concept
Q362
war
EVE
Q682258
political collapse
EVE
Q682258
East German
EVE
Q5167679
Soviet dictatorships
EVE
Q327401
resistance comrade
ORG
Q16957
East German
LOC
None
Central Committee
UNK
Q23061341
Emil Pietzuch
PER
Q23061341
Emil Pietzuch
PER
1899-03-09T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
9 March 1899
DATE
1933-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1933
DATE
1937-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1937
DATE
1943-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1943
DATE
1949-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1949
DATE
1990-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1990
DATE
1944-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1944
DATE
1989-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1989
DATE
+1943^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1943
NUMBER
+40^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
40
NUMBER
+90^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
90
NUMBER
member of political party
date of birth
date of death
country
country of citizenship
country
participant
conflict
country
country