Julius Philippson

German-Jewish teacher, socialist and resistance fighter against National Socialism (Nazism). Julius Philippson, the son of philologist and high school teacher Robert Philippson (1858-1942), came from a Jewish scholarly family and was related to Ludwig Philippson, Alfred Philippson, Martin Philippson and the painter Hermann Hirsch. He studied to be a teacher in Göttingen. During the First World War, he became a volunteer in 1914 and was finally captured at Vladivostok. He was able to flee after several years as a prisoner of war. Philippson resumed his studies in 1920 and graduated in 1923. He taught until 1928 at various Magdeburg schools and then in Berlin. Between 1922 and 1925 he was a member of the SPD. After that he was a member of the International Socialist Combat League. This emerged from the International Youth League and defended a non-Marxist ethical socialism. In 1933 he had to leave the school and in 1934 the civil service, due to growing anti-semitism. Phillipson participated actively in the resistance. He headed illegal training and was responsible until 1936 for the East district of the party. Shortly before he was able to flee abroad, he was arrested in 1937. He withstood months of torture. In 1938 he was indicted in the so-called Philippson trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was detained in several detention centres before he was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 and murdered there in 1943 or 1944. Link to Wikipedia biography (German)