page_title: Heinrich Jasper
section_title: Government persecution
hierarchical_section_title: Heinrich Jasper / Life / Government persecution
caption_attribution_description: English: Heinrich Jasper Memorial (Seesen), detail
context_page_description: Heinrich Jasper was a German politician. During the 1920s he served three terms as regional prime minister of the Free State of Brunswick. He died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
context_section_description: Even before the Nazi party took power nationally at the beginning of 1933, Heinrich Jasper found himself on the receiving end of persecution from the new minister-president, the Nazi party member Dietrich Klagges, who was both his successor and his political opponent in the Braunschweig Legislature. During the early part of 1933 the Nazis took power and converted Germany into a one-party dictatorship.  Political activity (except in support of the Nazi party) was becoming illegal. For Jasper personally, long recognised as the leader of the Braunschweig Social Democrats, and according to one source "one of the people most hated by the Nazis" locally, the backdrop was particularly dire.
  On 9 March 1933 the Nazi party's quasi-military wing (SS) took over the "House of the Friends of the People" ("Volksfreund-Haus") which was a substantial building, build for and owned by the SPD, in the city.  Among other things, the party used it for meetings and for printing their local newspaper, "Der Volksfreund".   One employee was shot and several others were badly beaten up. Jasper immediately sent a telegramme to President Hindenburg in which he protested against these excesses.
  On 17 March 1933 the Braunschweig SPD party leadership met in the "Hotel Monopol" in order to discuss the situation and what to do next.  On the way to the meeting Jasper was arrested and taken into "protective custody" on the orders of Klagges. He was taken to the AOK (Health insurance) building, which the Nazis had commandeered, and badly mishandled. He was then taken to the "House of the Friends of the People", now under Nazi control, and subjected to further mistreatment.
  Jasper later reported that Friedrich Alpers, the local SS leader, offered to guarantee Jasper's release from "protective custody" if he would surrender his seat in the Legislature (Landtag) and promise not to submit himself for re-election. Jasper refused. He was released "provisionally" on 19 April 1933. He was re-arrested on 26 June.   In July or August the "House of the Friends of the People", by now being used by the SS as an ad hoc prison and torture centre, was renamed as the "Gerhard Landmann House".   (It would revert to its former name in 1945.)   Some sources indicate that Heinrich Jasper was one of those held in "protective custody" inside, and there is not total unanimity over where he was held when, but during the summer he was taken to the prison at Rennelberg.   In 1935 he was transferred to Dachau concentration camp in the south of the country.   As soon as he was detained, there were numerous people who clamoured for his release, but without any immediate effect. In 1938 or 1939 (sources differ) he was released:  it is not clear what had happened to trigger this development.   He returned to Braunschweig where his legal practice was now ruined. He was kept under strict surveillance, and required to report to the Gestapo  daily.
  Between 1939 and 1942, Jasper was able to undertake historical research at the city archive. Like other surviving politicians of the Weimar Republic,  hIs anti-Nazi past  kept him under watch by the authorities. A failed assassination attempt against Hitler took place on 20 July 1944, which was followed by mass arrests. Jasper was re-arrested on 22 August 1944, under the pretext of what was termed "Aktion Gitter".
  By now Jasper was 69,  and the years of physical and psychological persecution had left him in poor health. On his arrest he was transferred to Hallendorf Work Education Camp ("Camp/Lager 21"); a forced labour facility on the edge of Salzgitter-Watenstedt. In September, he was moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. During the  early part of 1945, and with the Red army approaching,  preparations were made to close down this institution. In February,  Jasper was moved again, to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There, on 19 Feb, 1945,  he died; emaciated and after further subjection to ill treatment. The cause of his death was listed as typhus. His physical remains were placed in a mass grave.
caption: Heinrich Jasper memorial at Seesen
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