Josef Kleeblatt (21.3.1891 Unterdarching – 7.4.1976 Munich)

The office clerk got baptized as a Bible Student in 1923. Even after the National Socialists came to power, he often went to Hellabrunn Zoo on Sundays to have conversations with other visitors about the Bible. However, in January 1937, this became his downfall. A senior tax inspector he spoke to denounced him to the Gestapo. After that, Kleeblatt was kept under surveillance and the next time he visited the zoo was deliberately lured into a trap by a Gestapo employee. According to the Gestapo interrogation report of February 1937, Kleeblatt had described “Hitler and his subordinates[...] as bloodthirsty people who pursue a policy that must necessarily lead to a war with our neighboring countries” (Munich State Archive (StAM), StAnw 8444). As a result, Kleeblatt was sentenced to one year in prison by the Munich Special Court on October 12, 1937. Talking about the time after his release from prison in 1945, he explained: “The usual police interviews and every Sunday someone (sometimes a woman) who followed me around all day, watching my every move.” (Bavarian Main State Archives (BayHStA), LEA 19889). In 1951, he received compensation for wrongful imprisonment of DM 1650. There is no information about his life after this time.