In late August 1944, the Gestapo carried out a nationwide operation under the code name “Gitter.” The aim was to preemptively arrest potential members of the resistance. Joseph Roth, a public school teacher in Bonn, was taken away in front of his wife and three children. He was a former official of the Center Party. Despite the professional disadvantages, he openly professed his faith in the Catholic Church. For the Gestapo, this is reason enough. Via a camp in Cologne, he is deported with others to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Like most “Gitter prisoners,” he is released after a few weeks under certain conditions. For him, however, the release comes too late. A few months later, he dies as a result of his imprisonment.
