Alexander Polenz

Alexander "Alex" Polenz (1 November 1926 – 23 September 2022) was a German veteran of the Kriegsmarine in World War II and author.

Life

At the age of 14, Polenz left his parents' home to fulfill his dream of becoming a sailor. He was trained on the full-rigged sail training ship “Deutschland” (Segelschulschiff „Deutschland“, launched on 14 June 1927) of the German merchant navy, which was in Bremerhaven at the time. He was then employed as a kitchen boy on the cargo and transport ship "Muansa" of the Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie ("German East Africa Line"). In 1944, at the age of 17, he volunteered for the Kriegsmarine and, after his basic military training, was deployed on various ships. He experienced the end of the war in the naval base of Cuxhaven. Because of his knowledge of Russian, he was taken into Russian internment and forced to serve as an interpreter when German warships were handed over to the Soviet Navy as spoils of war due to the dictation of the Potsdam Conference (among them the "Nürnberg", a light cruiser of the Leipzig class, the target ship "Hessen", Hessen's radio-control vessel "Blitz", the destroyer Z15 "Erich Steinbrinck", as well as the torpedo boats T33 and T107).

Post-war

Together with his grandson, he wrote down his life memories for posterity in the booklet “From Sailor to Interpreter”.

Writings

• Vom Matrosen zum Dolmetscher – Lebenserinnerungen, Traditionsbuchreihe 2019