Franz Xaver Peter (29.9.1906 Munich – 6.6.1982 Munich)

The laborer Franz Xaver Peter was employed at the municipal streetcar operator in Munich from 1928.
After two years at the Socialist Working Youth (SAJ), he went over to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1924 and switched to the SAPD in 1930. After the chair Franz Vogel’s flight in 1933, Peter became one of the five chairs and got involved in re-establishing the SAPD, which distributed illegal publications in very small groups and collected contributions and donations from members for the families of imprisoned party members.  

He withdrew from illegal work at the end of 1935 because a member of the group had been arrested after the admission of a new member who turned out to be working as an informer for the Gestapo. He himself was arrested in 1937. The Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced him in 1938 to two years and three months in prison, with credit for one year’s imprisonment, for preparing a treasonous enterprise. After his release, he was taken into ‘protective custody’, which brought him to the concentration camps Dachau, Flossenbürg, Dachau again and finally Buchenwald (Langensalza satellite camp) from shortly before the start of the war until the end of the war. After the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, he was able to leave the camp on May 12, 1945.  

During his camp imprisonment, he suffered serious damage to his health and was completely unable to work after his liberation.