Grandson of anti-Hitler plotter seeks restitution
Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth was swept up by the Gestapo the day after a failed 1944 bombing attempt on Hitler and thrown into the secret police's notorious Prinz Albrecht Strasse prison in downtown Berlin.
Unlike scores of others connected with the Kreisau Circle of plotters who were executed, the German aristocrat was eventually released — but not before he had signed away ownership of his family's estates on the order of Gestapo and SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
Now, some 60 years later, Solms-Baruth's grandson is continuing the family's fight for compensation for the millions of dollars (euros) in lost property, taking his case to court.
"My father did it for his father, and unfortunately didn't live to the day to see justice served ... therefore I am virtually making this a life's quest," Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth, who shares his grandfather's name, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Barcelona, Spain, ahead of a Thursday hearing.
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Unlike scores of others connected with the Kreisau Circle of plotters who were executed, the German aristocrat was eventually released — but not before he had signed away ownership of his family's estates on the order of Gestapo and SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
Now, some 60 years later, Solms-Baruth's grandson is continuing the family's fight for compensation for the millions of dollars (euros) in lost property, taking his case to court.
"My father did it for his father, and unfortunately didn't live to the day to see justice served ... therefore I am virtually making this a life's quest," Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth, who shares his grandfather's name, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Barcelona, Spain, ahead of a Thursday hearing.