Anton Emil Hermann Saefkow (22 July 1903 in Berlin – 18 September 1944 in Brandenburg an der Havel, executed) was a German Communist and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime.
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Anton Saefkow came from a socialist working-class family and in 1920, as a metalworker's apprentice, joined the Young Communist League of Germany to whose Berlin leadership he rose in 1922.
In 1927 he became secretary of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Berlin, then in Dresden. In 1929-1932, he led the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition; RGO) in the KPD's Ruhr district and became in 1932 political leader of the KPD's Wasserkante district in Hamburg. In 1932, Saefkow got married to Theodora Brey, who was also active in the Resistance.
From April 1933 until April 1934, the Nazis imprisoned Saefkow in a concentration camp, followed by two and a half years in a Zuchthaus at hard labour, and then at Dachau concentration camp. There, he organized an illegal remembrance service for Edgar André and was then sentenced to another two years' imprisonment.
Released from detention in July 1939, Saefkow went back to the illegal political work. In Berlin, after the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, he built up the biggest KPD resistance group, called the "Operative Leadership of the KPD". In 1944, he, Bernhard Bästlein and Franz Jacob (Resistance fighter) led the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization, which agitated against the war in Berlin munitions plants, and called on people to commit sabotage.[1]
In April 1944, the Social Democrat Adolf Reichwein established contact with Saefkow to include the KPD group in the July 20 Plot, which sought to assassinate or otherwise overthrow Adolf Hitler. It eventually took the form of a briefcase bomb attack on the Führer at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, but it failed, the consequences were dire for the plotters.
In July 1944, Saefkow was arrested, and on 5 September, he was sentenced to death at the Volksgerichtshof. On 18 September, he was put to death at Brandenburg-Görden Prison.
Saefkow left behind a wife and two daughters. Shortly before his death, he wrote to his wife Änne: "Through this letter I want to thank you, my comrade, for the greatness and beauty that you have given me in our life together... Not till today, writing these lines, thinking about you all, have my eyes moistened since the sentencing. For the pain, which might tear me apart, restrains reason. You know, I am militant and shall die bravely. I only ever wanted good..."
On 2 February 1975, a square in Berlin was given Anton Saefkow's name. Franz Jacob and Bernhard Bästlein were also honoured with streets in the same neighbourhood named after them.[2][3][4] In Prenzlauer Berg, a greenspace called Anton-Saefkow-Park is not only named for Saefkow, but also features a bust of him. In Brandenburg an der Havel, the street running before the very prison where Saefkow and many other members of the antifascist resistance were put to death by the Nazis has been named Anton-Saefkow-Allee.