Albert Christel

An Endless Struggle for Compensation

Albert Christel was born in the city of Metz in northwestern France. After completing his studies in physics and chemistry, he worked as a student teacher at a school in Leipzig. In his free time, he was active in the German Youth Movement. In 1934, he was dismissed from his teaching post because of his opposition to National Socialism.

As a political opponent of the Nazi regime and a homosexual, Albert Christel was arrested several times during the 1930s. In late 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo on political grounds and detained in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was sent to Flossenbürg in April 1940. There he was put to work in the “artists’ commando,” where he wrote poems and painted for the SS. Christel later said his assignment to this commando saved his life. His brother Ernst submitted numerous petitions for his release, with no success. The SS told Albert Christel that he would only be released if he submitted to forcible castration. Although his family urged him to undergo the procedure, Albert Christel refused. After three years in Flossenbürg, he was transferred to several other concentration camps, where he remained incarcerated until the end of the war.