​​​Erich Mühsam was born in 1878 and would become a German-Jewish writer, poet, and political activist. Mühsam would become one of the early victims of Nazi persecution in 1934.

​He was born in Berlin and grew up in Lübeck, where he developed an interest in literature and social issues. Over the years he became known for his strong criticism of militarism and authoritarianism. As a committed anarchist, he supported workers’ rights, social equality, and political freedom.

​After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Mühsam was arrested during the wave of repression targeting political opponents. He was first detained in several prisons and later sent to the Sonnenburg concentration camp in Słońsk, near today’s Polish town of Kostrzyn nad Odrą.

​The camp was one of the earliest Nazi concentration camps and was used to imprison political dissidents, especially left-wing activists. During his imprisonment in Sonnenburg, Mühsam was subjected to harsh conditions, humiliation, and physical abuse.

​Prisoners were forced to perform exhausting labour duties, lived in poor hygiene, and were often beaten by guards. Mühsam’s health declined rapidly, but he continued to write letters and notes that showed both his suffering and his determination to resist spiritually.

​His time in Sonnenburg became a symbol of the early brutality of the Nazi regime and its attempt to silence independent thinkers. In 1934 he was transferred from Sonnenburg to the Oranienburg concentration camp near Berlin. There, after months of torture, he was murdered by Nazi guards.

​His death was presented as a suicide, but it was widely understood to be a political killing meant to intimidate other opponents of the regime.

​Erich Mühsam is remembered today as a courageous intellectual who stood up for freedom and human dignity even in the face of brutal persecution. The former Sonnenburg camp in Słońsk, where he was imprisoned, is now a place of remembrance honouring the victims of the early Nazi terror.

​A plaque now remembers Mühsam and is fixed to his former house where he lived in Berlin.​