Alfred Ledermann, born August 26, 1921 in Langenberg, was the youngest of 4 children. His father, a railway worker, divorced his wife and remarried in 1932. Alfred did not have a good relationship with his stepmother. He was jailed at age 18 in 1939 for 5 months for being gay. He was forced into a labor camp which was intended to “cure” him. After four weeks, Alfred escaped the Nazi camp. He was tried in absentia, and wanted posters were put out to attempt to capture him. Alfred would hide at his father’s house when possible, but resorted to sex work out of necessity as he could not work or live openly. His father, to his credit, lied to the Nazis anytime they asked about where his son was. Sadly Alfred and his gay friend Wilhelm Zitschka were both arrested in Düsseldorf and tortured by the police. Alfred was sentenced to one year, and Wilhelm received two years. While Alfred was in prison, the local police were already plotting to remove him from society forever. He was deported to Sachsenhausen on the day he was supposed to be released from prison. During the summer of 1942, there was a mass murder campaign against queer men in Sachsenhausen. It was during this purge that Alfred was murdered on July 12, 1942.
I have chosen to represent Alfred as the strong willed gay teen who was just sick of his stepmother and wanted a better life and country where he was free to be himself. Of note, Alfred’s brother Hermann hated the Nazis and bravely fled when they tried to draft him into the army. He was sent to a concentration camp and sentenced to death, but managed to survive until the Russian Army liberated the camp. Both Alfred and Hermann were labeled Psychopaths by the Nazi authorities.