Alexander Primavesi is a household name at Dortmund Police Headquarters for anyone who has ever studied the role of this authority during the National Socialist era between 1933 and 1945. The trained photographer and detective chief officer worked in the police force until 1986 and archived the dark era of the Dortmund police force.
He began his service at Dortmund police headquarters in 1951, having previously completed an apprenticeship as a photographer and worked for a time as a businessman. As a criminal investigation officer, he played a key role in setting up the photographic department with its photo laboratory. This picture shows Alexander Primavesi in the 1960s as a young detective in the photographic department, front right.
Looking back: To maintain order after the end of the war, most officers initially remained in service - including those who had murdered and tortured for the Nazi regime shortly beforehand. The so-called denazification certificates (also known as "Persilscheine") were issued by a commission of the occupying powers. An original certificate from a Dortmund police officer can be seen in our police exhibition 110 on the 1st floor of the police headquarters. In the post-war period, a lot of work was done to rehabilitate the "old" police officers, as a result of which numerous war crimes simply went unpunished. This injustice also made Alexander Primavesi, who had grown up during the Nazi era and had been a Scharführer in the Hitler Youth, rethink his position.
As the son of an Italian banking family with a long history, he had always been interested in genealogical research. In the early 1980s, former police commissioner Wolfgang Manner commissioned him to research the Nazi history of the Dortmund police force and the Arnsberg administrative district. He quickly found relevant material in the file archives, such as evidence of the infamous Police Battalion 61, which regularly accompanied concentration camp transports to Poland and guarded Jews in the ghettos there.
In four years, he sifted through thousands of documents and around 8,000 personnel files, which he documented and meticulously archived. In the process, he uncovered countless crimes, which rarely led to convictions or official sanctions. He found documents on collective deportations to the various concentration camps of the Nazi regime, which were mostly carried out and accompanied by the police, and the orders for mass executions.
When Primavesi retired in 1986, he continued his mission on a voluntary basis in order to hand over this part of history to the Münster State Archives and preserve it for future generations. This resulted in an entire printed work with over eight volumes. He completed this for the authorities in 1995 and handed it over to the State Archives. One year later, Alexander Primavesi died at the age of 69.
Those who worked with him at the time describe him as a nice, quiet and well-read man who was very interested in literature. During his voluntary work for the NS archive of the authority, the photographic department actively supported him with the development of the negatives found and Primavesi had the highest standards of quality.
His book volumes are an important part of the 110 Police Exhibition archive and can be viewed on request by telephone (0231/132-1034). They are still used today by many historians and archivists as a source for their doctoral theses. This also fulfills the wish of the former colleague, which he expressed in an interview:
"It is important that this material is preserved. It must be used, especially for young people, in the form of lectures or scientific papers."
Written by:
Chief Superintendent of Police M. Jankers