Fritz Heilscher

Fritz Heilscher was born on 2 October 1898 in Berlin. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, he began training to be a dancer at the Deutsche Opernhaus theatre in Berlin in 1920. In 1923 he was engaged as principal dancer at the opera house in Breslau (Wrocław) and henceforth called himself Ferry Dworak. From 1926 to 1930, he was ballet master at the Chemnitz city theatre; in 1931 he was principal dancer at Dortmund city theatre. In 1932 he moved to Karlsruhe to work as a choreographer at the Badische Landestheater, where he was acclaimed for his choreographies and held on to his post despite criminal proceedings against him for homosexual relations. In 1933 he went to the Schlesische Oberlandstheater in Beuthen (Bytom), where he held the post of ballet master for two years. In April 1935 he was sentenced by the regional court to two years’ imprisonment for homosexuality. At the same time, he was debarred from the artists’ association, which was tantamount to a professional ban. On his release from prison, Fritz Heilscher returned to Berlin and found a job as a warehouse worker for a firm making riding boots. He settled in and became a popular employee. In late 1941 he was arrested again and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment for his predilection for young men. He was subsequently handed over to the criminal police, who sent him to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Two months later, a campaign was carried out here to murder homosexuals. Fritz Heilscher was killed in the camp brickworks on 21 June 1942.