In 1940 the Jewish businessman Walter Boldes met the worker Paul Küster in a bar known as a meeting place for homosexuals on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. The two of them soon developed a relationship. Küster was drafted into military service in 1941 and housed in barracks in Berlin. They were unable to enact their plan to escape to Switzerland together. When his partner deserted, Boldes helped him with money and food.
However, Küster was found and arrested on February 18, 1942, followed by Walter Boldes a day later. Küster was sentenced to death for desertion by a Wehrmacht court and murdered in Brandenburg-Görden penal institution on May 19, 1942.
On July 2, 1942, the Berlin Special Court sentenced Walter Boldes to death for “subversion of the war effort” and five years’ imprisonment for “unnatural fornication.” In an appeal trial, the Reich Court upheld the verdict. Walter Boldes was admitted to Berlin-Plötzensee criminal prison on November 20, 1942, and hanged there on December 14, 1942.
In 2007 two Stolperstein cobbles were installed in Berlin-Mitte to commemorate Walter Boldes and Paul Küster.
Walter Boldes (right), Paul Küster (center), and their friend Wilhelm Finger in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, undated. Source: Landesarchiv Berlin, A Rep. 358-02 Nr. 1604
Walter Boldes’s prisoner card from Berlin-Plötzensee criminal prison, 1942. Source: Landesarchiv Berlin, A Rep 369 Kartei
Stolperstein cobblestones commemorating Walter Boldes and Paul Küster, Berlin, 2007. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
