Willy Loich 1897 - 1943

Born 30.11.1897 in Gütersloh
Died 1.2.1943 in Gusen

Biography

The bank clerk Wilhelm Theodor Heinrich (known as Willy) Loich was born on 30 November 1897 in Gütersloh to Wilhelm Eduard Julius Loich, a barber, and Katharina Dorothea Köker. He went to school in Gütersloh and was confirmed at Easter 1912. In the same year he began training at the bank, which he completed in 1915. In 1916 he served in the war and sustained a head injury. His nerves were also badly damaged, which meant he was periodically unable to work. Sojourns in sanatoria followed in 1923 and 1930.

On 20 August 1920, Willy Loich married Paula Niewöhner, three years his senior, in Minden. At the time of their marriage Loich was living in Goslar and his wife was a native of Minden. The marriage, which produced two children (a son and a daughter), ended in 1935. Until 1931 he worked at the Office of Craft Industries, after which he stated his profession as ‘self-employed’. He moved house several times. The stages on his path through life included Minden, Bielefeld, Osnabruck and Höxter.

Willy Loich came into conflict with the law several times. On his admission to Hamelin jail, where he was imprisoned on 4 July 1936, an index card and prisoner information file were created; today these documents are held in the Lower Saxony State Archive in Hannover and consist of around 460 pages, including several letters written by Loich himself but not dispatched by the prison administration. The file reveals many details about his life and his appearance. According to the file, Willy Loich was 1.67m tall and slim. He had dark hair and brown eyes and had a moustache. He had a narrow face; some teeth were missing. Because of his war injury, the scar on his head is noted as a distinguishing feature.

On his reasons for breaking the law, he stated in his biography that his family was in financial distress. After a little under two years in jail he was released on 15 June 1938 to his parents in Gütersloh. From there he moved to Dortmund on 28 June 1939, probably to a woman with whom he was involved. On 25 November 1939 she bore him a child, but he left this new family a short time later and moved to Remscheid. Interestingly, according to his residency registration card kept in Gütersloh, he lived in Dortmund in the ‘Heilbronner Straße’, then registered on 21 December 1939 in Remscheid, and his final place of residence is listed as ‘Heilbronn’. Presumably this is an error.

What took him to Remscheid is unknown. During his short time there he lived at 30 Hermannstraße in an apartment block belonging to the city of Remscheid. According to his registration card, Loich went to jail on 8 August 1940 but no place of imprisonment is listed. What is certain is that in 1942 he was imprisoned again in Hamelin and was transferred from there to the prison at Schwäbisch Hall.

Willy Loich finally arrived in Mauthausen on 7 January 1943, where he was assigned prisoner number 20719. Later he was transferred to the Gusen branch camp, where he died on 1 February 1943. His death was officially registered some years later by the special registry office in Arolsen under registration number 69/1959.

Viola Schwanicke

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

 

Sources:

Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Hannover, Gefangenenpersonalakte [Prisoner files], Archiv-Signatur NLA HA Hann. 86 Hameln Acc. 143/90 Nr. 2786, Bl. 16-17, 457.

Stadtarchiv Gütersloh, Geburtenbuch Gütersloh [Gütersloh register of births], Reg.- Nr. 193/1897; Einwohnermeldekarte [Residency registration card].

Kommunalarchiv Minden, Heiratsbuch Minden [Minden register of marriages] Reg.-Nr.: 217/1920.

Historisches Zentrum Remscheid, Bestand D_33_1 (Einwohnermeldekartei, Abgänge 1940–59 [Residency registration card index, departures 1940–59]).

Historisches Zentrum Remscheid, Bestand D_55_1 (Wiedergutmachungskartei [Restitution card index]) AZ: 235028.

 

Archive of the Mauthausen Memorial, written notification dated 2.12.2014.

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