Background
He was the son of Paul and Elfriede Drossel, anti-Nazis and shared their political philosophy, refusing to join the Nazi Party.
He was the son of Paul and Elfriede Drossel, anti-Nazis and shared their political philosophy, refusing to join the Nazi Party.
Drafted in November 1939, Drossel served in the Battle of France before serving on the Eastern Front for the rest of the war. His philanthropic actions began in 1941, when he saved Soviet prisoners from being executed and secretly released them to return to Soviet lines. While on leave in Berlin in 1942, he started covertly assisting Jews when he found a Jewish woman, Marianne Hirschfeld, about to leap from a bridge.
Risking court-martial and execution, he sheltered her in his apartment before giving her money to find a safer place to stay.
He was sent back to the Eastern Front that Spring. On May 4, just four days before the war would end, he was ordered by the Waffen-Steamship to lead his troops in a suicidal attack on Soviet positions.
Drossel refused and when threatened with execution, he was saved with the capitulation of the Wehrmacht. Some people on the internet tell that he ordered fire on the Waffen Steamship, a classical hoax without evidence.
He was briefly imprisoned by the Soviets and released before the end of the year.
In his postwar life, Drossel served as a judge. He was named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2000. After receiving the award he often gave inspirational speeches to German children at schools.
In 2008, he died in Simonswald.