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Ewald Ernst

Ewald Ernst

References

  • Ernst, E.: Ein guter Kampf. Fakten, Daten, Erinnerungen 1945-1954 (1998)
  • Fricke, K. W., Steinbach, P., Tuchel, J. (Hg.): Opposition und Widerstand in der DDR, S. 25-30 (2002)

Ewald Ernst was a technical draftsman who became a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in October 1945. In March 1946, he was appointed the primary spokesman of youth affairs for the regional CDU association in Saxony. In the same year, he entered the regional parliament (Landtag) representing the CDU and was elected manager of the parliamentary faction. After being interviewed by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), Ernst was arrested in the doorway of his home in Halle in March 1947. After being temporarily held in various prisons under the Moscow People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), Ernst was eventually incarcerated in the main Soviet remand prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen under accusations of espionage.

Until November 1948, he was held on remand in solitary confinement. The cell in which he was held was completely without windows and natural light and was furnished with merely a wooden bed without a mattress and a bucket to serve as a toilet. His only blanket was his coat. It was forbidden to lie on the bed during the daytime. Ernst was not only kept in solitary confinement but also maltreated by being subjected to standing detention and interrogation while standing or denied food and access to washing facilities. In December 1948, a Soviet Military Tribunal sentenced him to 25 years in a labour camp, resulting in his transfer to Bautzen. In January 1954, he was released from there to West Germany as part of an amnesty deal.