KARL SCHMID. INTERBRIGADISTA, CIZINECKÝ LEGIONÁŘ, ČLEN DIRLEWANGEROVY BRIGÁDY A RETRIBUČNÍ VĚZEŇ

The biographical study is focused mainly on the war and post-war fate of the German AntiFascist from the Moravian borderland, Karl Schmid (born 1904), mainly from the end of the 1930’s until the end of 1940’s. This native of Sternberk was affected in particular by the events of the war period: Over this period, Schmid changed his uniform several times, when passing from the international brigades in Spain to the French Foreign Legion and subsequently to the German captivity. His next journey lead through the Gestapo prisons to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was recruited to Waffen-SS (SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger); however, before the War ended, he managed to run over to the Partisans in the Slovak territory. In his liberated homeland, he served for a while as the local militia member in Šternberk, later being investigated and judged at the Extraordinary People’s Court in Olomouc.