BERNBURG

The Bernburg killing centre was established between November 1940 and July 1943 in a separate part of the state mental hospital in Bernburg an der Saale. It replaced the Brandenburg killing centre. Most of the employees in Brandenburg continued their work in Bernburg. They murdered around 9,300 sick people as part of »Aktion T4«. After that, from August 1941 onwards, around 5,000 prisoners from six concentration camps were murdered with gas in Bernburg. The prisoners came from Buchenwald, Groß-Rosen, Flossenbürg, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. In addition to Hartheim, Bernburg was another killing centre that participated in »Aktion 14f13«. During the period of the murders of the sick and prisoners, the sick in other parts of the Bernburg institution continued to receive care without interruption. Until 1942, the Bernburg killing centre was run by the doctor Irmfried Eberl. In 1942, he became commander of the Treblinka extermination camp, where he murdered more than a million people within a few months as part of »Aktion Reinhardt«. After the war, the institution in Bernburg continued to operate. It was not until after the end of the GDR that a memorial was established there.

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