Three different crimes were committed against sisters Anna Schwarz and Margarete Betz: attempted forced sterilisation, murder as part of »Aktion T4« and murder as part of so-called »decentralised euthanasia«. Anna, born on 15 September 1889, had been married to master baker Karl Schwarz since 1909. She gave birth to her two sons in 1910 and 1912. The family lived in Meckelfeld (Harburg district). When Anna was 35 years old and pregnant with her third child, she fell ill and was admitted to the Lüneburg mental hospital. She was discharged and gave birth to her child. A few months later, she fell ill again. However, as she was needed in the bakery and to care for her infant, her second stay was only brief. A few months later, she was admitted to the hospital again, this time permanently. She had become violent towards her husband and needed help.
On 9 April 1941, Anna Schwarz was transferred to the Herborn transit institution and on 28 May 1941 to the Hadamar killing centre.
Anna Schwarz’s eldest son, Karl Schwarz, and her sister Margarete also fell victim to »euthanasia«. Two years after the murder of their mother and sister, respectively, they were transferred to the Pfafferode killing centre on 8 September 1943. Karl Schwarz was working as a journeyman for his father when he fell ill. In 1931, he was admitted to the Lüneburg mental hospital for the first time, and from 1933 onwards, he was permanently institutionalised. It is unknown whether Karl had contact with his mother during his stay, and if so, what form this contact took. There are no records of this.
Margarete had been admitted to the Lüneburg mental hospital just a few months before her sister, who was 17 years older, was transferred and murdered. She had married in 1931; her husband worked for the telegraph construction office. The marriage produced two sons, born in 1933 and 1935. Margarete was admitted to the institution in 1941, escaped in 1942 and returned to Lüneburg via Hamburg-Langenhorn.
Karl Schwarz died on 18 February 1944, his aunt Margarete Betz two and a half months later, on 2 May 1944 in Pfafferode.
