Saefkow Jacob Bastlein Organization
The Saefkow Jacob Bastlein organization was one of the largest resistance groups in Germany by 1944. It was formed by Communist party official Anton Saefkow and Franz Jacob, who had fled Hamburg to go to Berlin in order to escape arrest. Bernhard Bastlein also helped form the group after an air raid on Plotzensee Prison made it possible for him to escape in January of 1944.
The group put their focus into gathering information from foreign newspapers and Moscow radio broadcasts in order to share them with everyday Germans. They created the Free Germany movement which worked with people in factories, military units, opposition parties, and many others until their group grew to include hundreds of people. They wanted to unify the resistance groups that were spread out across Germany and give them the central leadership that they were lacking.
The 500 members of the Saefkow Jacob Bastlein group came from all walks of life and included men and women. They wanted to create a group that was big enough and strong enough to pull off acts of sabotage and other acts that would bring about the end of Hitler. The group even published their own magazine that gave the resistance information from the international world that the Nazis were keeping from the people of Germany.
In 1944 the group was betrayed. They had planned a meeting with members of the Kreisau Circle for July 4, 1944. However, when Saefkow, Jacob, and Adolf Reichwein (a member of the Kreisau Circle) arrived at the meeting place, they were met by the Gestapo. Bastlein had already been arrested in May of 1944. All three men were sentenced to death on September 5, 1944. Another 280 members of the group were also arrested. Of those arrested, 104 either died in concentration camps or were executed.