Location
Straßburger Straße 24
District
Prenzlauer Berg
Stone was laid
June 2009
Born
10 February 1880 in Lieniew
Occupation
Former (Gießereimechaniker)
Dead
im Zuchthaus Sonnenburg
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Fotografie von Josef Nawrocki © GDW -
Stolperstein für Josef Nawrocki © Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin
In 1923 I was working illegally in the ‘Militärapparat’ group and I was also a clerk for the RHD [Red Aid Germany]. That is where I met my husband, who was the head of the RHD at the time. [...] His work took him to Essen and Düsseldorf and I helped him a lot with his illegal activities. In 1926, we moved to Russia because he couldn't stay in Germany anymore. We lived there until 1928. My husband came back to Germany in spring 1928 on a party mission, and he was rehabilitated in the autumn in an amnesty.“
Clara Nawrocki, 1945
Josef Nawrocki, a moulder, became a member of the SPD around the turn of the century. He fought in the First World War and was injured. He joined the USPD in 1917. Unable to work as a moulder because of his war injuries, he took a position as an unskilled office worker in Friedrichshagen in 1919. In the same year, he was voted to the council, which elected him a lay judge. In 1920, he went over to the KPD and was elected an unpaid town councillor by Cöpenick council in 1922. The senior president of Brandenburg approved this appointment but not his election as a salaried city councillor a year later, by which time Nawrocki had become more actively involved in the KPD. In 1924, Nawrocki resigned as an unpaid councillor for Cöpenick and his mandate as a city councillor and went underground. In 1925, he was sentenced in absentia along with Arkadi Maslow and others in proceedings over high treason. He and his wife Clara went to the Soviet Union in 1926. They returned to Berlin two years later and opened a newspaper shop. On 28.3.1933, the night of the Reichstag fire, Nawrocki was arrested. He was released four weeks later. The newspaper shop was closed by the Nazis. Nawrocki began working as an organisation leader of the banned KPD in the Stettiner Bahnhof sub-division. He and some 130 comrades from this district were arrested in 1936 and subjected to severe physical abuse. Afraid of betraying his comrades under torture, he tried to commit suicide. He survived and the torture was stopped. The Berlin Court of Appeal sentenced him to eight years imprisonment in mid-July 1937. He died in Sonnenburg prison four years later. In the last weeks of the war in 1945, his widow Clara was able to hide their son who had deserted from the army. Both survived to see the end of the war in Prenzlauer Berg. On 15.8.1958, Bellevuestraße in the Köpenick district of Friedrichshagen was renamed Josef Nawrocki Straße.
Josef Nawrocki was a city councillor in 1920, Constituency 13 Treptow, Cöpenick (USPD/KPD)
Clara Nawrocki, 1945
Josef Nawrocki, a moulder, became a member of the SPD around the turn of the century. He fought in the First World War and was injured. He joined the USPD in 1917. Unable to work as a moulder because of his war injuries, he took a position as an unskilled office worker in Friedrichshagen in 1919. In the same year, he was voted to the council, which elected him a lay judge. In 1920, he went over to the KPD and was elected an unpaid town councillor by Cöpenick council in 1922. The senior president of Brandenburg approved this appointment but not his election as a salaried city councillor a year later, by which time Nawrocki had become more actively involved in the KPD. In 1924, Nawrocki resigned as an unpaid councillor for Cöpenick and his mandate as a city councillor and went underground. In 1925, he was sentenced in absentia along with Arkadi Maslow and others in proceedings over high treason. He and his wife Clara went to the Soviet Union in 1926. They returned to Berlin two years later and opened a newspaper shop. On 28.3.1933, the night of the Reichstag fire, Nawrocki was arrested. He was released four weeks later. The newspaper shop was closed by the Nazis. Nawrocki began working as an organisation leader of the banned KPD in the Stettiner Bahnhof sub-division. He and some 130 comrades from this district were arrested in 1936 and subjected to severe physical abuse. Afraid of betraying his comrades under torture, he tried to commit suicide. He survived and the torture was stopped. The Berlin Court of Appeal sentenced him to eight years imprisonment in mid-July 1937. He died in Sonnenburg prison four years later. In the last weeks of the war in 1945, his widow Clara was able to hide their son who had deserted from the army. Both survived to see the end of the war in Prenzlauer Berg. On 15.8.1958, Bellevuestraße in the Köpenick district of Friedrichshagen was renamed Josef Nawrocki Straße.
Josef Nawrocki was a city councillor in 1920, Constituency 13 Treptow, Cöpenick (USPD/KPD)