 It did not mention Hammann, but his ordeal fitted the propaganda model, and in 1959, Hammann's life story was serialized in East German press.Hammann, like fellow communist prisoners, was presented as a larger-than-life hero of resistance.Independent research by Yad Vashem in 1982 attested to Hammann's "pivotal role" in saving the Jewish children without the "theatrical flourish" of East German propaganda.