Hugo Armann

Hugo Armann (11 August 1917 – 9 May 1989) was a German army officer, teacher, and rescuer of Jewish people during the Holocaust. His parents were anti-Nazi, but for a short time Armann was in the Hitler Youth program. Armann was increasingly upset by the treatment of Jews during the persecution and pogroms against Jews. He was able to use his position as a head of a unit that arranged travel for soldiers and security police to protect and provide food for Jewish people. He saved six people from a murder squad and another 35 to 40 people who worked for him. He received the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1985 for his contributions during the Holocaust.

Armann watched the events leading up to the Holocaust and concluded that "Everybody knew the Jews weren't being shipped to paradise." He stated that someone had to be aware to recognize the trend of events for Jews, like Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) on 9 to 10 November 1938. Jews were required to wear yellow star-shaped badges that identified them as Jews. Jews were lined up at railroad stations to be deported. And, information was spread about concentration camps. Armann says that ignorance is not an answer for people who would not help the Jews.

World War II Armann was drafted about 1939, when he was 22. By the spring of 1942, Armann was a sergeant major (hauptfeldwebel) in the Nazi armed forces Wehrmacht. Posted at the railway station in Baranavichy, Belorussia, he managed a team that arranged for travel for security police and soldiers on leave.

Czazkes-Manishevitz's relatives were in forced labor camps and Armann tracked them down and helped them and two more people escape, too. They met in the forest outside of the town. He saved between 35 and 40 Jews who worked for him. He saved another six men from Belorussia from murder squads. Armann provided ten rifles and ammunition for several Jewish mechanics who later escaped. He also provided food to the people he was helping. Armann made it safely through the war, although ten or more German soldiers were aware of what he was doing to help Jews. In 1944, Armann was transferred to France, where he was wounded by shrapnel.

After the war Armann taught school in the town of Detter after the war and he became headmaster of a primary school. Czazkes-Manishevitz survived and stayed in contact with Armann after the war. Armann also helped Dr. A. Sternfeld, Czazkes-Manishevitz's brother-in-law, who also maintained contact with him after the war. Hugo Armann died on 9 May 1989.

He received the title of Righteous Among the Nations on 5 September 1985. A ceremony was held by Yad Vashem. In September 1986, Armann planted a tree at Yad Vashem on the Avenue of the Righteous. Questioning if we had done enough or did too much, he said, "I helped human beings at a time when they were not being treated like human beings.