Helmut Hirsch - The Black Front

The Black Front

Shortly after arriving in Prague, Hirsch became involved in the Black Front, a group of anti-Hitler German expatriates. He was encouraged to introduce himself to its head, Otto Strasser, by his mentor, Tusk (Eberhard Köbel). Tusk had been a leader of Deutsche Jungenschaft, a branch of the German youth movement (Bündische Jugend) to which Hirsch belonged. The Jungenschaft itself was outlawed in 1935 and Tusk escaped arrest by fleeing to London.

Hirsch's family joined him in Prague in 1936, after his sister, Kaete, graduated from gymnasium (high school) and, like him, was forbidden to attend a German university. By then, he was deeply enmeshed in clandestine Black Front activities, which he kept secret from his family.

On December 20, 1936, after telling his family he was going skiing with friends, he returned to Germany with a travel permit obtained on the false premise that he was visiting his mother, who he claimed was ill. In his naiveté, he did not realize German authorities knew his family had moved to Prague. It is likely that German agents in Prague had been watching him for some months, but were unable to arrest him while he remained on Czech soil.

Hirsch's handler was Strasser's right-hand man, Heinrich Grunov, who used the nom de guerre Dr. Beer. According to the plan, Hirsch was to place two suitcases containing explosives at one or two sites in Nuremberg. The suggested targets were the Nazi party headquarters and the office or printing plant of Der Stürmer.

Grunov instructed Hirsch to buy a round-trip ticket from Prague to his hometown, Stuttgart, but to travel only as far as Nuremberg. There he was to meet a contact, who would give him baggage claim tickets for the two suitcases, which had been smuggled into Germany. Instead, he went on to Stuttgart, where he had arranged to meet an old friend. According to letters he wrote to his family from prison, he was wavering in his commitment to the plot and hoped his friend would talk him out of it.