HEYMANN, FRITZ

HEYMANN, FRITZ (1897–1944), German journalist and historical writer. Heymann, who was born in Duesseldorf, volunteered for war service with the German army at the age of 17. He was captured and subsequently escaped from captivity in England to rejoin his regiment. After Germany's defeat, he joined one of the nationalistic (and usually antisemitic) volunteer corps which continued the war against "the enemy within," usually synonymous with socialists and democrats. Eventually, he studied law and literature and, after a period in business, worked for various German newspapers. From German nationalism, Heymann turned later to Jewish nationalism. On the advent of Hitler, he left for the Saarland, from where he continued the fight against Nazism as a coeditor of Westland. After the plebiscite in favor of Germany he took refuge in Holland. Heymann wrote Der Chevalier von Geldern (1937), "a chronicle of Jewish adventures," in which the story of Simon von *Geldern is prominently featured. In 1942 he held a series of lectures in Amsterdam aimed to encourage the local Jewish population, called Marranen-Chronik. These lectures were edited and published in 1988, under the title Tod oder Taufe. In 1943 Heymann was deported to Theresienstadt, and a year later to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.

bibliography:

Kesten, in: F. Heymann, Der Chevalier von Geldern (1963²), introd.; Kobler, in: blbi, 4 (1961), 44–55. add. bibliography: F. Heymann, Tod oder Taufe, ed. H.J. Schoeps (1988); H.J. Schoeps, in: Geschichte als Trauma (1991), 175–83; I. Piel, in: Aspekte juedischen Lebens in Duesseldorf und am Niederrhein (1997), 220–25.