Hermann Friedrich Graebe was born in 1900, in Gräfrath, a small town in the Rhineland in Germany. He came from a poor family – his father was a weaver and his mother helped supplement the family’s income by working as a domestic. Besides the economic hardship, the Graebes were Protestants who lived in a predominantly Roman Catholic area. In 1924 Hermann Friedrich Graebe got married, and soon completed his training as an engineer.
Graebe joined the Nazi party in 1931, but soon became disenchanted with the movement. By 1934 – one year after Hitler's rise to power – in a party meeting he openly criticized the Nazi campaign against Jewish businesses. If he needed to be taught a lesson about the danger of such a move, it soon came. Following that incident, Graebe was apprehended by the Gestapo and jailed
Hermann Friedrich Graebe was born in 1900, in Gräfrath, a small town in the Rhineland in Germany. He came from a poor family – his father was a weaver and his mother helped supplement the family’s income by working as a domestic. Besides the economic hardship, the Graebes were Protestants who lived in a predominantly Roman Catholic area. In 1924 Hermann Friedrich Graebe got married, and soon completed his training as an engineer.
Graebe joined the Nazi party in 1931, but soon became disenchanted with the movement. By 1934 – one year after Hitler's rise to power – in a party meeting he openly criticized the Nazi campaign against Jewish businesses. If he needed to be taught a lesson about the danger of such a move, it soon came. Following that incident, Graebe was apprehended by the Gestapo and jailed in Essen for several months. Fortunately for him he was released without trial.
