The technical staff of the Hessian Landestheater Darmstadt was systematically purged of all individuals regarded as hostile. On June 12, 1933, the theater’s employees summarily received termination notices, effective July 31, 1933. No reasons were provided. In the weeks that followed, their political and family backgrounds were reviewed by a partisan “Purification Committee”. Those classified as Jewish or politically undesirable were not rehired.
Bruno Paduch was born on January 29, 1897, in the Silesian village of Bonikow (present-day Boników, Poland). Initially a factory worker, he came to the Hessian Landestheater Darmstadt as a stagehand in 1919. Dismissed for “political reasons” in 1933, he was only able to find employment again in 1937, working in underground construction, and in 1939, as a barracks guard. Paduch died in 1981 in Darmstadt.
1897 Boników
1981 Darmstadt