Karl Gröger
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Karl Gröger († July 1, 1943) was given the title Righteous Among the Nations in 1986 by Yad Vashem. In 1943 the SS and police court sentenced him to death in Den Haag. In collaboration with an Dutch resistance group he destroyed the registration of address office of Amsterdam. Due to that, file cards of Dutch people which would have faced forced labour and deportation to concentration camps were destroyed.
[edit] His Life
Karl operated in the association of social democratic high school students. After that he studied medicine at the University of Vienna.
Following his graduation in March 1938, Gröger fled to Amsterdam, where he continued his medicine study. Two years later, in May 1940, the German Wehrmacht marched into Holland. He had to join the German army. After some months the army kicked him out, because he was declared as a partly Jew.
Gröger joined the resistance movement of Gerrit van den Veen, a sculptor. Karl worked also for the underground newspaper "Rattenkruit" (rat poison) and took part in the assault against Amsterdam’s registration of address office at March 28. This assault killed nobody but probably saved 1000’s lives of Dutch Jews and other citizens.
Grögers resistance group broke into the building dressed up as policemen. They bemused the guards and blasted the building. Through this act 1000’s of file cards of Dutch people who would have been deported to concentration camps were destroyed.
Afterward Karl had to flee again. He hid himself at a farm but was discovered from the SS as he sent a message to his girlfriend.
Gröger was arrested by the Gestapo and was brought to the Amsterdam police jail. He was sentenced to death by the SS and police court in Den Haag in 1943. A mercy petition was refused from SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Thereon Gröger was shot by the police in the dunes of Amsterdam. Gröger told his lawyer that he hopes his actions would serve to establish a better relationship between Holland and Germany.
Before his execution Gröger wrote in his farewell letter to his parents: "Lovely mother, lovely father. I will be killed tomorrow. I really had to act like this. I had no other choice. God gave me the power to put up with the situation. I prepared myself for death. Above all I refused to feel hate or revenge. I will be tough with the help of god and will die as a man if he wants. Lots of kisses, Karl."
