Plotzensee Prison

Helmuth Hubener, the main character in the book, was sent to Plotzensee prison after his arrest for distributing information against the Nazis.  Plotzensee prison was built between 1868 and 1879 as a prison outside the Berlin city limits.  The prison housed both regular criminals and political prisoners, and was used to carry out executions.  During the Nazi regime, a total of 2,891 people were executed in Plotzensee. About half of those executed were Germans, most of whom were sentenced to death for acts of resistance against the Nazi regime. 677 executed prisoners were from Czechoslovakia which Germany occupied in 1938-39. 253 death sentences were carried out against Poles, and 245 against French citizens. These people included both the members of resistance organizations and people who were deported to Germany for forced labor.  Helmuth Hubener spent 264 days in the prison and was executed on October 27, 1942.

This chart shows executions in the Plotzensee Prison between 1933 and 1945.

Executions in Plötzensee between 1933 and 1945.
1933 4 1934 13 1935 21 1936 7 1937 38 1938 55 1939 95 1940 190 1941 87 1942 535 1943 1180 1944 534 1945 132 2891 All information are based upon the analysis of the sources available to the German Resistance Memorial Center up to and including spring 2002.