Harald Poelchau
Harald Poelchau (5 October 1903 – 29 April 1972) was a German prison chaplain,
religious socialist and member of the resistance against the Nazis. Poelchau grew up in
Silesia. During the early 1920's, he studied
Protestant theology at the
University of Tübingen and the
University of Marburg, followed by social work at the
College of Political Science of Berlin. Poelchau gained a doctorate under Paul Tillich at
Frankfurt University. In 1933, he became a prison chaplain in the Berlin prisons. With the coming of the Nazi regime in 1933, he became an anti-fascist. During the war, Poelchau and his wife Dorothee Poelchau helped victims of the Nazi's, hiding them and helping them escape. At the same time, as a prison chaplain he gave comfort to the many people in prison and those sentenced to death. After the war, he became involved in the reform of prisons in East Germany. In 1971,
Yad Vashem named Poelchau and his wife
Righteous Among the Nations.
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