Contemporary Witness Accounts

Resi Kohlhofer

Resi Kohlhofer, now 81, met her husband Otto in Kempten in 1943. He was a prisoner, and she was a part-time milk-shopkeeper. They had barely two months to get to know one another. They married shortly after the end of the war, in September 1945. Resi Kohlhofer now lives in Munich.

A book was recently published about your husband, who was a Dachau concentration camp inmate. You got to know him during his confinement. How was that even possible?

I met my husband in Kempten. There was a sub-camp in the factory at the former spinning mill. My husband was in charge of cooking for the inmates in Kempten, and so he was allowed to go shopping to the bakery, the butcher's and the milk shop, accompanied by a guard. I worked part time at the milk shop at weekends to earn a bit of extra cash. Of course, we hardly had time to talk. Since it was winter and the shop window panes were steamed up, we wrote our names on the window. So we knew that his name was Otto, and my name was Resi. If I wasn't there, a friend of my mother, who managed the milk shop, passed on Otto's news to me.

Otto Kohlhofer

I met Otto for the first time in December 1943, and in January the munitions factory where he worked was moved to Kottern and Otto had to leave Kempten. Before he went, he said to me, "Resi, if I am still alive when the war is over, I will come and get you." I gave my mother's friend a photo to give to him. I had written on it, "Look at the picture and keep the original in your thoughts".

How did you manage to keep up your relationship back then? What hurdles did you have to cross?

For us it was clear that we wanted to stay in touch, but that wasn't easy, of course. The guard who used to accompany my husband was very cooperative. He wasn't in the SS, but the Luftwaffe. Once he said, "Resi, I'll lend Otto my uniform if you want me to so he can visit you." But we decided not to do that; it would have simply been too dangerous. The person in charge of the camp lived in the house next door to my family. She had already warned me once saying, "If you meet the prisoner often, I will have to report it". She didn't. You cannot imagine how dangerous things were back then. Also for anyone who dealt with the prisoners, such as the guard who used to accompany my husband in Kempten. The Nazis murdered him shortly before the end of the war because his attitude was too tolerant.

How did your family, your friends and the general public react to your relationship with a prisoner?

In Kempten, people used to say of the prisoners, "Here come the criminals" or things like that. My family's attitude was different and I was brought up differently. My mother always gave me bread and whatever else she could spare for me to give to the prisoners I met on my way to work. I just put the things down and walked on. My father was in the war, and my brother as well. And my mother said to me, "Be careful!" After all, there were people like our neighbours. My little brother was seven when I met my husband in 1943 and did not understand the precariousness of the situation. When he saw Otto once, when the prisoners were taken for a bath, he called to him, "Otto, Resi sends her greetings!" That was very dangerous, of course. But nothing happened, there were just warnings.

You were an outsider, but also someone who knew something as well. What did you know about the conditions in the camp?

I didn't know anything at all. Only that the prisoners were opposed to the Nazis and that was why they had been locked up. I was not politically involved back then. And because a guard always came along with him, Otto could not say anything either.

To what extent did that period and your husband's experiences influence and change your life together, also later on?

Dachau

My husband did come back shortly after the end of the war, in September 1945, and said, "Now I am here and we can get married." My reply to that was, "You must be crazy, I am still much too young." I was 20. But he said that we had to get married because Munich had been badly bombed and otherwise we would not get a flat. So we got married and I went to Munich with him. Otto worked first with the Americans as an investigator, which means he helped to track down Nazis. Then in 1946 he got a job at the Ministry of Agriculture where he stayed until he retired. I myself did not find a job as a payroll department bookkeeper at first, and then in 1947 our daughter was born and I took care of her. Later I went back to part-time work. Through my husband, I also became politically involved and joined the Communist Party. His experiences had a great influence on my life; I was always greatly influenced by him.

Did you ever think about turning your back on Germany?

For us it was always clear that we wanted to stay here. We went on lots of trips, to France, Turkey, and Poland. But we did not think of emigrating.

Your husband was influential in setting up the memorial site in Dachau and was very involved in youth work. You are continuing that work. Didn't he want to forget as well?

Dachau

My husband always wanted posterity to know everything about this period. The work, the discussions with young people were always very important to my husband. Now I tell young people our story and come to events at the youth guest house as often as I can. The young people are very interested. They ask lots of questions.

The then Minister of Agriculture, who had been imprisoned in Dachau for a few months himself, provided my husband with an office for his memorial site work. A few friends and I helped to make the preparations. Otto was a member of the International Dachau Committee, helped to set up the museum and later put in a great effort for the youth guest house. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the new building being built.

How do you feel when you hear right-wing extremist slogans or see neo-Nazis?

It is awful, it makes me furious. But what can you do about it? Demonstrate. There is nothing else you can do.

What do you wish for most for Germany?

Absolute peace at last, no more. That is what my husband always wished for, too. That there is peace at last and no Nazis anymore.

Otto Kohlhofer was 19 when he was arrested by the Nazis in 1935 after joining the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) in 1932 and leading a resistance group in Munich-Neuhausen. He disseminated anti-Fascist publications under the pseudonym Betti Gerber. As well as flyers, these included the pamphlet "Dachau, the Murder Camp" (by Hans Beimler). Kohlhofer was sentenced to two-and-a-half years' as a principal defendant. He served his time in solitary confinement in Amberg prison. In February 1938, he was sent to Dachau concentration camp. When the camp was closed down temporarily in 1939, Kohlhofer was sent to Flossenbürg concentration camp and was sent back to Dachau in February 1940. In 1943, Kohlhofer gave up the relative security of his commando and volunteered to go to the sub-camp in Kempten, where Messerschmitt had a munitions factory, in order to help to improve the situation there. He met his wife Resi in Kempten. Otto Kohlhofer was influential in establishing the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. As the only former German inmate, he was one of the four-man working group of the International Dachau Committee. Kohlhofer died in Wolfratshausen hospital on 14 August 1988 following a heart attack.

Recommended reading: Christa und Peter Willmitzer: Deckname "Betti Gerber". Vom Widerstand in Neuhausen zur KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau. Otto Kohlhofer 1915 – 1988. Allitera Verlag Munich, 2006 Max Mannheimer: Spätes Tagebuch. Theresienstadt - Auschwitz - Warschau – Dachau. Pendo-Verlag, Munich and Zürich, 2005