German Resistance Memorial Center Biographie
Ernst Strohbeil
Ernst Strohbeil Ernst Strohbeil, a mechanic, refused to do military service in the First World War between 1914 and 1918, and was consequently imprisoned. During that time he came in contact with the Spartacus League. In 1920-21 he joined the FAUD, the German Free Workers Union (Anarcho-Syndicalists) in Dresden and became the movement’s head of literature sales and chief subscriptions collector. After the National Socialists took power and the FAUD went underground, it was primarily subscriptions collectors like Ernst Strohbeil who ensured local and regional contact. Because of their work they knew both the officials and the grass roots members of the movement. Strohbeil paid out financial support to prisoners’ families, distributed literature and maintained contacts abroad. He was imprisoned for the first time between May and August 1933. He was arrested again in 1937 and sentenced in 1938. After imprisonment in Zwickau and Waldheim penitentiaries, Ernst Strohbeil was eventually deported to Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he perished on March 1, 1942.
