Objection by Theresia Bosel-Münz against the rejection of the status “political prisoner” for her husband Alfred Bosel, received 9 June 1951 (Excerpt)

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796 cal 579

Alfred Bosel

16 June 1904 – 4 July 1945

Portrait photo of Alfred Bosel, before 1945

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv,
Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796 cal 579

Life before imprisonment

Alfred Bosel was born on 16 June 1904, in Vienna. He was a commercial employee. In December 1930, he married Theresia Münz, with whom he had two children, Marlene and Leopold. Alfred Bosel was Jewish and emigrated with his wife and two children to Brussels after the annexation of Austria by the German Reich.

Excerpt from the verdict, 21 January 1942

NLA Abteilung Wolfenbüttel

Arrest and Conviction

On 30 June 1941, Alfred Bosel was arrested and imprisoned in the Wehrmacht prison Brussels-St. Gilles. He remained in pre-trial detention until the Oberfeldkommandantur 672 Brussels sentenced him on 21 January 1942.

According to the verdict, he had sold passes for ten to fifty Reichsmarks to Jewish persecuted individuals, allowing them to emigrate from Belgium and Northern France to England. He had previously acquired the passes from the German Wehrmacht member and NSDAP member Erwin Benedek, who had stolen and forged the documents from the Passierscheinstelle [Pass Office] IV in Brussels.

Also accused was the Jew Hugo Stark, who, like Alfred Bosel, had emigrated to Brussels after the annexation of Austria by the German Reich. Erwin Benedek had also sold stolen and forged passes to Hugo Stark.

The judgement document used various anti-Semitic prejudices against the Jewish defendant Alfred Bosel to his disadvantage in sentencing. Although Erwin Benedek had stolen and forged the passes according to the verdict, Alfred Bosel was portrayed as the initiator of the events, who had incited the “good-natured” Erwin Benedek to assist by “seducing” him. Without Alfred Bosel, Erwin Benedek “would never have come up with the idea of falsely producing passes for a fee.” Erwin Benedek was depicted as being caught in a web spun around him by Alfred Bosel.

Alfred Bosel was sentenced to three years in prison, the same as Erwin Benedek, despite Benedek having stolen and forged the passes. Hugo Stark received a sentence of three years and six months in prison.

Imprisonment Period

While still in pre-trial detention, Alfred Bosel asked the commander of the Wehrmacht prison to allow him to give his wristwatch to his wife, as she and the two children were destitute. This request was granted. Even before his imprisonment, Alfred Bosel suffered from severe health issues such as intestinal ailments and joint rheumatism. As he could not tolerate the food in the Wehrmacht prison St. Gilles, according to his own statements, he applied in July 1942 for permission for his wife to send him a weekly food package. This was approved by the commander.

During his imprisonment, he was treated several times in infirmaries for various periods. After being imprisoned in various penal prisons in occupied Belgium and France following the verdict, most recently in the Merksplas Prison, Alfred Bosel was finally transferred to the Penal Camp Neusustrum (Ems) in April 1943. This was due to an order from the Reich Minister of Justice for the transfer of Belgians to the home war zone dated 14 March 1943.

Curriculum vitae that Alfred Bosel had to write in the Penal Camp Neusustrum (Ems), 7 April 1943

NLA Abteilung Wolfenbüttel

In this penal camp, prisoners were forced to perform the hardest labour, such as drainage, road and path construction, and peat extraction in the moor, for eight to twelve hours daily, depending on the season. Alfred Bosel was transferred back to Belgium after a few weeks. On 22 April 1943, the camp doctor declared him “unfit for moor work” due to his health condition.

After a four-month imprisonment in the Merksplas Prison in Belgium, he was transferred to the Wolfenbüttel Prison for the remainder of his sentence, arriving there in October 1943. This transfer was based on an order from the Wehrmacht High Command dated 13 October 1943, which stipulated that Belgians convicted by Wehrmacht courts should be brought to the “home war zone.”

Initially, according to his work card, he had to work in the wood yard, where mainly older and sick prisoners produced firewood. From 23 October 1943, he was assigned to the Braunschweiger Lime and Marl Works, Lime Works Bahl & Co., Wolfenbüttel, for lime quarry work, a location particularly feared due to the poor working and living conditions.

Transfer to Concentration Camp and Liberation

Alfred Bosel’s regular sentence was set to end on 31 July 1944. However, on 21 August 1944, he was picked up by the Gestapo Braunschweig from the Wolfenbüttel Prison and transferred to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp. From there, on 12 April 1945, he was sent along with 9,500 other Neuengamme concentration camp prisoners on an evacuation transport to the prisoner of war camp Sandbostel due to the advancing Allies.

After the liberation of the prisoner of war camp Sandbostel on 29 April 1945, by British units, Alfred Bosel was taken to the British military hospital No. 86 in Rotenburg and from there, on 26 June 1945, to the hospital St. Pierre in Brussels for better treatment options. At that time, he weighed only 33.4 kilogrammes. Despite efforts to save his life and medical treatments, Alfred Bosel died a few weeks after his arrival on 4 July 1945, at the hospital St. Pierre in Brussels.

Compensation

Since Alfred Bosel had a provisional status as a “political prisoner,” his widow Theresia Bosel-Münz received a monthly allowance in the form of a cash payment from the Belgian state for a short time based on a law dated 21 December 1944.

Authorisation card of Theresia Bosel-Münz for the payment of a monthly allowance, after 1944

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, 
Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796 cal 579

She also applied on 18 June 1947, for the status of “political prisoner” posthumously for her deceased husband Alfred Bosel, to receive recognition and financial compensation for his imprisonment.

Application for the status of “political prisoner” by Theresia Bosel-Münz, 18 June 1947

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, 
Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796 cal 579

For the commission of the Belgian Ministerie for Wederopbouw (Ministry for Reconstruction), which decided on the application, the forgery and sale of passes did not count as “selfless patriotic activity against the occupying power.” Therefore, the application was rejected on 2 April 1951. Theresia Bosel-Münz appealed against this decision of the Ministry for Reconstruction on 9 June 1951.

“I hereby permit myself to appeal against this decision and justify it by stating that the patriotic activities of my late husband, who was deployed against the enemy in Belgium during the occupation of the country, were selfless.”

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, 
Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796 cal 579 (Auszug)

Objection by Theresia Bosel-Münz against the rejection of the status “political prisoner,” received on 9 June 1951

Archivdienst für Kriegsopfer, Belgisches Staatsarchiv, 
Statut Prisonnier Politique Étranger, PP E AD 32796[SM(1] [PD(2]  cal 579

The revision was reviewed but rejected in November 1951. The anti-Semitic prejudices clearly formulated in the judgement and which increased the sentence were not considered in the compensation procedure.

On 8 November 1948, Theresia Bosel-Münz also applied for posthumous recognition of her deceased husband as a “civil resistance fighter.” This application was rejected on 9 May 1952, by the responsible commission of the Ministry for Reconstruction. Here too, the commission did not recognise Alfred Bosel’s actions as selfless.

The anti-Semitic persecution of Jews by the Nazis received little attention in Belgium in the immediate post-war period. Instead, the focus was on resistance activities, whether political, armed, or civil. In the immediate post-war period, Theresia Bosel-Münz received financial support for a short time as the widow of a provisionally recognised “political prisoner.” However, Alfred Bosel did not receive the regular status of a “political prisoner” posthumously, as the criteria for recognition were quickly tightened.

It was only many decades after the end of World War II that the Belgian government issued regulations for compensating Belgians who had become victims of anti-Semitic persecution.