Paul Junius

Passions

Vocation

German communist and resistance fighter against Nazism, who began his activism in 1916 when he became a member of the German Metalworkers Association. By the end of 1923 he had become a member of the KPD, for which he worked as an honorary functionary in the south of Berlin. After the "seizure of power" of the National Socialists in 1933, he led a communist operating cell in the Askania works in Berlin, where he worked as a turner, and maintained contact with other operating groups of various armaments companies in Berlin. In 1933 he granted the requested communist functionary Werner Prochnow shelter and later had contacts with the Neukölln resistance group around John Sieg, Herbert Grasse and Otto Grabowski. As a member of the Saefkow group, Junius was responsible for the illegal work in the companies in Berlin-Marienfelde and Berlin-Mariendorf. On 13 July 1944 Junius was arrested in Helmstedt. The Askania plant, which was vital to the war, had been relocated here, and he and his comrades tried to sabotage it. On 26 October 1944, the People's Court sentenced him to death. The judgment was enforced on 4 December 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary. Link to Wikipedia biography (German)