The European Union that exists today is not the first group to take that name. During World War II, a group of German scientists and intellectuals formed the Europäische Union to fight against Fascism and Jewish persecution by the Nazi Regime.
The European Union consisted of Dr. Georg Groscurth and his wife, Dr. Anneliese Groscurth, a chemist named Robert Havemann, architect Herbert Richter, and dentist Paul Rentsch. The Groscurths’ position as doctors, and particularly the fact that Rudolph Hess, the deputy Führer, became a patient of Georg Groscurth, created a chain of events that led to the formation of the European Union.
Rudolph Hess intimated to Georg Groscurth that the Nazi government planned to create concentration camps to house the Jewish population from Germany. Dr. Groscurth decided to break his ethical code as a doctor in order to inform resistance groups that this was about to occur. When he began to see his Jewish colleagues forcibly removed from their positions, losing everything, he decided to begin taking them into his home. He and his wife, Anneliese, continued to take in Jews even after Jews were being sent to concentration camps. At this point, it was illegal to harbor people of Jewish descent. This was the main work carried out by the members of the European Union, although they also worked with other resistance groups to transmit German tactical information to the Allies.
The European Union was also a prolific source of anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets. One of their leaflets read,
“We are on the eve of collapse of European fascism, which has, with brute force, destroyed every intellectual and revolutionary organization and endeavor. The fascists, who have raged in Germany for more than a decade, have now also, in all the countries of Europe, crushed all the liberal organizations that sought to halt the madness. The fascists believed this would destroy not only their opponents today, but also the leaders of tomorrow. This is the basis of the Nazi theory of chaos till their demise. This terrible threat, and the ruthless willingness to continue on till Europe has sunk into rubble and ash, works like a morbid solution on the masses of Europe. It is true that Hitler has thrown untold numbers of the best and bravest political fighters into concentration camps; and true that he has broken all the old political organizations, and sought to choke any new attempt before its first breath. But one thing has eluded him, he cannot annihilate the old and eternal, free and democratic ideas which were born in the big Revolutions of Europe! The number of those who have escaped the Gestapo seem to many to be few, but there are more trained fighters than Hitler suspects. And these revolutionaries were not idle.”
Dr. Groscurth also tried to help his fellow Germans escape the destruction of World War II. When German men came to him to be physically approved for military service, Georg Groscurth would try to prevent them from going to battle by finding them physically unfit for duty.
One member of the European Union, Paul Hatschek, came under surveillance by the Gestapo. After watching him for years, they finally caught him meeting two parachutists who were meeting him with information. The Gestapo brutally interrogated Hatschek, and he gave up other members of the European Union, who gave up others as well. Through this process, both Georg and Anneliese Groscurth were prosecuted as traitors to the nation of Germany. Georg Groscurth was one of 15 European Union members sentenced to death for their participation in the group. Miraculously, Anneliese Groscurth was not executed. Shortly before his death, Georg wrote to Anneliese,
“Dear, good Anneliese, now it is time. In half an hour, the sentence will be carried out. I am composed because I have always known this could happen. They're rattling the keys already. Let me embrace you. Dwell on this: that we're dying for a better future, for a life without man's hatred for man.”
“We are on the eve of collapse of European fascism, which has, with brute force, destroyed every intellectual and revolutionary organization and endeavor. The fascists, who have raged in Germany for more than a decade, have now also, in all the countries of Europe, crushed all the liberal organizations that sought to halt the madness. The fascists believed this would destroy not only their opponents today, but also the leaders of tomorrow. This is the basis of the Nazi theory of chaos till their demise. This terrible threat, and the ruthless willingness to continue on till Europe has sunk into rubble and ash, works like a morbid solution on the masses of Europe. It is true that Hitler has thrown untold numbers of the best and bravest political fighters into concentration camps; and true that he has broken all the old political organizations, and sought to choke any new attempt before its first breath. But one thing has eluded him, he cannot annihilate the old and eternal, free and democratic ideas which were born in the big Revolutions of Europe! The number of those who have escaped the Gestapo seem to many to be few, but there are more trained fighters than Hitler suspects. And these revolutionaries were not idle.”
Dr. Groscurth also tried to help his fellow Germans escape the destruction of World War II. When German men came to him to be physically approved for military service, Georg Groscurth would try to prevent them from going to battle by finding them physically unfit for duty.
One member of the European Union, Paul Hatschek, came under surveillance by the Gestapo. After watching him for years, they finally caught him meeting two parachutists who were meeting him with information. The Gestapo brutally interrogated Hatschek, and he gave up other members of the European Union, who gave up others as well. Through this process, both Georg and Anneliese Groscurth were prosecuted as traitors to the nation of Germany. Georg Groscurth was one of 15 European Union members sentenced to death for their participation in the group. Miraculously, Anneliese Groscurth was not executed. Shortly before his death, Georg wrote to Anneliese,
“Dear, good Anneliese, now it is time. In half an hour, the sentence will be carried out. I am composed because I have always known this could happen. They're rattling the keys already. Let me embrace you. Dwell on this: that we're dying for a better future, for a life without man's hatred for man.”
Anneliese Groscurth kept her life, but she continued to pay for her choice to act out against Hitler’s regime. She lost her job as a doctor, was persecuted as a communist, and was consistently denied travel visas by the East German government. She was also denied the reparations due to her per the 1949 German Restitution Laws.
If you were in Georg or Annaliese Groscurth’s position, would you have done what they did? Georg and Anneliese had two young sons during the war. They risked not only their lives, but the welfare of their children in order to help their Jewish friends and stop World War II. Would you choose doing what is morally and ethically right over the safety of your own family? The Groscurth family did.
If you were in Georg or Annaliese Groscurth’s position, would you have done what they did? Georg and Anneliese had two young sons during the war. They risked not only their lives, but the welfare of their children in order to help their Jewish friends and stop World War II. Would you choose doing what is morally and ethically right over the safety of your own family? The Groscurth family did.