Walter Janka

Walter Janka
Walter Janka at the extraordinary party congress of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany/Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) in Berlin (December 1989)
Born	29 April 1914 Kleinmachnow, Germany
Died	17 March 1994 Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Publisher

Walter Janka (born Chemnitz 29 April 1914: died Kleinmachnow 17 March 1994) was a German communist, political activist and writer who became a publisher.

Much of his life was spent as a political prisoner.

Walter Janka was one of six children born to a Tool and die maker called Adalbert Janka. He attended junior school from 1920 till 1928. Between 1928 and 1932 he undertook a type setting apprenticeship.

In 1930 Walter Janka became an Organisation Leader, and then a Political leader of the Young Communists (KJVD / Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands) for the Chemnitz sub-region. After his elder brother, , had been murdered by the Nazis, Walter himself was imprisoned by the Gestapo. He was remanded in custody in Chemnitz and in Freiburg before being convicted of preparing to commit high treason. After 1½ years of imprisonment in Bautzen , he spent a six-month term in Sachsenburg concentration camp. Finally, in 1935 he was deported to Czechoslovakia.

In 1936 Janka went to Spain to join the Thälmann Battalion and fight in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 he became a Captain, and shortly after that, in the Karl Marx Division, he became the youngest Major, and then a Battalion Commander, in the Spanish Peoples' Army. During the second part of 1938 he was badly wounded in the Battle of the Ebro.

After the Nationalists won the war, Janka fled to France, where between 1939 and 1941 he was interned in Camp Vernet, by now a concentration camp. He then fled again this time via Casablanca in November 1941, and ending up in exile in Mexico, where together with Paul Merker and Alexander Abusch he founded the "Free Germany" ("Freies Deutschland") movement.