When Ludwig Holleis was arrested at Daiserstraße 45 on January 7, 1944 he had not committed any crime. He was only arrested because he was the brother of Emma Hutzelmann. She had formed the resistance group “Antinazistische Deutsche Volksfront” (Anti-Nazi German People’s Front) with her husband Hans. Ludwig Holleis was born in Rosenheim on September 30, 1897. He was the seventh of in all 15 children of Master Baker Kaspar Holleis and his wife Maria. In 1912 the family moved to Daiserstraße 45 in Munich. Ludwig Holleis became an electrical engineer. Not much more is known about him. His niece said later that he was friendly and fun-loving. It is not clear whether he knew anything about his sister’s resistance activities. Following the arrest of Emma Hutzelmann and her husband Hans on January 6, 1944 not only Ludwig Holleis but also his brother Andreas, his sisters Rosa and Dora and his brother-in-law Stefan Eckstein were taken into custody as well. Ludwig Holleis was initially interned in the Gestapo prison at Brienner Straße 50; he was later sent to the Stadelheim prison in Munich. He was kept separated from other prisoners there. He was repeatedly badly tortured. On March 3, 1944 the Gestapo (Secret Police) had Ludwig Holleis taken to the Chirurgische Klinik, a hospital in Munich’s Nußbaumstraße. His sister Dora, who, like other family members had been released from custody, was allowed to visit him briefly there. Shocked, she later recalled, “I couldn’t recognise my brother.” On March 29, 1944 Ludwig Holleis succumbed to the effects of being tortured. His mother was informed that he “died as the result of circulatory disorders”. Ludwig Holleis’s brother-in-law Hans Hutzelmann did not survive either. He was sentenced to death and murdered on January 15, 1945. Although Emma Hutzelmann managed to escape from Stadelheim prison, she was killed in an air raid on November 27, 1944. Ludwig Holleis’s brother Andreas died in 1947 of the long-term effects of torture. (text Barbara Hutzelmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)
