Wilhelm Hosenfeld was born on the 2nd of May 1895 in Hünfeld, then part of the German Empire. His family was Catholic, and he grew up in a conservative German patriotic environment. Wilhelm followed in his father's footsteps and graduated as a teacher. Christian charitable work was strongly emphasized during his upbringing, and he was also influenced by Prussian obedience and German patriotism.

The First World War began on 28 July 1914. Hosenfeld enlisted in the German army and served as an infantryman. He returned home seriously wounded in 1917 and for his service he received the Iron Cross Second Class. After the First World War ended on 11 November 1918 Hosenfeld worked as a schoolteacher and in 1920, he married Annemarie Krummacher, a staunch pacifist. The marriage produced 5 children.

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hardly any other professional group supported Hitler as fanatically as German teachers and Hosenfeld was no exception especially in early stages of the Naziregime. He joined the SA in 1933 and 2 years later he became a member of the Nazi Party. In 1936 he participated in the Nuremberg Rally and noted in his diary: "I was overwhelmed by the experience of the large group in which we marched. It's like being at war." On 10 March 1936, he wrote: "Goebbels is a great public speaker. He is persuasive."

However, after he read Adolf Hitler’s 1925 autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf” meaning “ My struggle” and saw the deadly consequences of the Nazis’ rise to power he grew disillusioned with the regime and kept journals detailing the abuse of Jews and others. Mein Kampf promoted the key components of Nazism: rabid antisemitism, a racist world view, and an aggressive foreign policy geared to gaining Lebensraum meaning the living space in eastern Europe.

The Second World War started on the 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland. Warsaw suffered heavy air attacks and artillery bombardment and German troops entered the capital on 29 September shortly after its surrender. The campaign in Poland ended on the 6 October the same year with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of the country.
On the 23 November 1939, German civilian occupation authorities required Warsaw's Jews to identify themselves by wearing white armbands with a blue Star of David. The German authorities closed Jewish schools, confiscated Jewishowned property, and conscripted Jewish men into forced labor and dissolved prewar Jewish organizations.


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