On the night of 22 January 1945, the Communist Albert Kuntz died in the Mittelbau-Dora detention cell building. The exact circumstances of his death were never clarified.

A representative of the German Communist Party in the Prussian parliament until 1933, Kuntz had been in custody for twelve years. At the Buchenwald concentration camp, he was a leading member of the secret German Communist Party leadership. He had been sent to the Dora subcamp in September 1943. As an inmate functionary, he enjoyed the trust of the camp commander. Yet he was also active in the camp resistance. He used his position to improve the conditions for political inmates.

After several resistance groups were exposed in the autumn of 1944, he was one of those confined in the “Bunker”, Mittelbau-Dora’s infamous prison. The Gestapo tortured him for weeks to get him to reveal names of other resisters. On the morning of 23 January, Albert Kuntz was found hanged in his cell.

(Anett Dremel)

Reference: Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.), Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp 1943–1945: Companion Volume to the Permanent Exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial, Göttingen 2011.