WHO TOOK PART?

Many were involved in the persecution and murder of the sick and people with disabilities. There were judges, doctors, administrative staff, people who reported others, even family members who took part.

This is a black and white photograph of the stately, neoclassical villa at Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. It is a shot from the garden on the rear façade of the two-storey building. There is a basement. A staircase leads to the terrace of the house. Six large multi-paned windows and decorative railings on the roof can be seen.

»T4-Zentrale« »Central Administration« in the villa at Tiergartenstraße 4, around 1935.

Landesarchiv Berlin, F Rep. 290 (01) No. 0152461 | Photographer Walter Köster.

An office (»Zentraldienststelle« or »Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft Heil- und Pflegeanstalten«) was set up in Berlin to administer the murder of the sick. It was based at Tiergartenstraße 4, where all registration forms were received and forwarded to 40 experts. They used these documents alone to decide whether a person should be murdered with gas or not. If yes, they put a red plus sign, if no, they put a blue minus sign on the sheet.

The chief experts were Werner Heyde, Paul Nitsche and Herbert Linden. As a result of their decisions, a total of around 100,000 people were murdered. The gas murder of the sick was labelled »Aktion T4« after the address of the »T4-Zentrale« (»Central Administration«). The gas murder of concentration camp prisoners in three killing centres was called »Special Treatment 14f13«.

It is a black and white photo by Paul Nitsche. The photo has a brown filter. Paul Nitsche is wearing a white doctor's coat, under the coat a small checked woollen suit with waistcoat, white shirt and a dark bow tie dotted with white dots. He is clean-shaven and has only a few very short hairs on his head. He is looking out of the picture into the distance.

Paul Nitsche, around 1930.

Saxon State Archives, 13859 State Chancellery, 6081.

»It’s wonderful when we can get rid of the ballast in the institutions and do some real therapy.«

Paul Nitsche quoted from Georg Andreae, 8 August 1961.

This is a black-and-white photograph of Hans Hefelmann. He is sitting in a relaxed posture on a bench, resting his elbows on his thighs. He is wearing a light-coloured suit and a patterned tie. His legs are stretched out in front of him and he is wearing shiny leather shoes. He is looking relaxed towards the camera.

Hans Hefelmann, around 1954.

From: Andreas Kinast: »The child is not capable of being straightened«. »Euthanasia« in the Waldniel paediatric ward 1941 – 1943, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2014, p. 52.

In May 1939, a »Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden« (»Reichsausschuss«) was planned for the implementation of ‘child euthanasia«. It was a front organisation. The planning group included Karl Brandt, Philipp Bouhler and Werner Catel. They had already been involved in the murder of the child Gerhard Kretschmar. Herbert Linden, Hans Hefelmann and three consultant doctors (Hellmuth Unger, Hans Heinze and Ernst Wentzler) were also part of the organisation.

Hans Heinze, Werner Catel and Ernst Wentzler agreed to be experts on the »Reichsausschuss«. They assessed the children and adolescents to determine whether they were eligible for »children euthanasia«. Their decisions resulted in forced hospitalisation in »Children’s special wards« and killings, depending on an allegedly determined »Educational and developmental incapacity«. The »Reich Committee« was subordinate to the Chancellery of the Führer.

This is a yellowed photograph of a middle-aged Ernst Wentzler examining a child. The child is sitting naked on a raised couch facing the camera. The child's feet appear to be turned inwards. Ernst Wentzler is crouching beside the child. One hand is holding the child's knee, the other is moving its foot. Ernst Wentzler is wearing a white doctor's coat with a stethoscope around his neck. He is leaning slightly towards the child's feet. The child is crying.

Ernst Wentzler, after 1945.

Kopie ArEGL. | World War II Museum New Orleans.

Hereditary health courts were established from 1934. The Lüneburg Hereditary Health Court ruled on sterilisations in at least 2,300 cases. More than 800 young people, women and men were forcibly sterilised by decision of the Lüneburg court. At 2.5 per cent, their proportion was well above the national average (0.5 to 1.0 per cent). The Higher Hereditary Health Court in Celle, as the higher court, ruled in favour of the Lüneburg proceedings in 180 cases.

It is a black and white aerial photograph. The photo shows the street Bardowicker Straße at the corner of Lüner Straße in Lüneburg. It shows the extension to the courthouse. It is an elongated three-storey building with a pointed gable roof. The roof has six dormers with mullioned windows, one of which is open. There are more windows open, the sun is shining. A couple is walking in front of the building towards the market square. The man is wearing a hat and the woman in a short-sleeved dress is pushing a white pram in front of her. They are followed at a slightly greater distance by another man in a dark suit. At the corner of Lüner Straße in front of the grocery shop, a woman is standing with a bicycle surrounded by children. A woman in a dark dress crosses the street.

Lüneburg district and local court and seat of the Lüneburg health authority, 1943/1944.

StadtALg BS-45027.

Each proceeding was conducted by a judge and two medical assessors. These were a district judge (Stölting, Börner, Jahn, Severin or van Leesen), a registered doctor (Dressler, Vosgerau, Bergmann or Cropp) and a civil servant doctor (Bräuner, Rohlfing or Sander). The expert and assessor could not be the same person. The decisions were made in court or in the institution. They followed the recommendations of the health department. Because the health department moved into the annex in 1943, where the hereditary health court was already located, the distances were short.

HANS ROHLFING (1890 – 1977)

Hans Rohlfing from Rohrbach (Heidelberg) studied medicine in Berlin from 1908. He passed his medical examination at the beginning of August 1914 and became a military doctor. From 1918 to 1920 he was interned in Antwerp and was a military doctor. In 1919 he married Annette von Medow. They had no children. In 1920, Rohlfing became a medical officer in Darmstadt and in 1921 a district doctor in Uelzen. From 1928 he was head of the Uelzen health authority, spent a short time in Lüchow and became head of the Lüneburg health authority in 1930.

It is a sheet of paper with densely typed text. There is a wide margin on the left side of the page, and the text extends to the right margin. Underlined in red pencil is the statement that civil servant doctors are at the centre of eugenics measures; the word »assistants« is also underlined. There are rust marks from paper clips.

Lecture text [excerpt] for the course on the implementation of the »Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring« from 1 to 15 June 1934.

NLA Hannover Hann. 138 Lüneburg Acc. 101/88 Nr. 275.

His main task was the hereditary biological registration and assessment of »Hereditarily ill« people. In 1938, Hans Rohlfing reported to the Office for Public Health that 80 per cent of all »Hereditarily ill and hereditarily ill families« were registered by him. He decided on suitability for marriage and child benefit, determined the so-called »racial affiliation« of prisoners on behalf of the Gestapo and trained welfare workers and community nurses to apply the racial laws.

»The National Socialist state was one of the first of the European states to muster the energy […] to lay the foundations through legislation to stop the impending degeneration caused by the increase in the number of people with hereditary diseases.«

Hans Rohlfing, Juni 1934.

NLA Hannover Hann. 138 Lüneburg Acc. 101/88 Nr. 275.

Copy of the certificate of appointment as Oberregierungs- und Medizinalrat dated 2 November 1944.

NLA Hannover Nds. 120 Lüneburg Acc. 131/88 No. 222.

Hans Rohlfing ruled on over 3,700 reports of forced sterilisation. Until 1 October 1944, Rohlfing was involved in every court case concerning sterilisation, either as an expert witness or as a judge. For his diligence, he was personally promoted by Adolf Hitler a month later. His career continued after the war. He died on 26 February 1977 at the age of 86, leaving no children.

It is a narrow, DIN A6 booklet, stapled. The cover is printed with the title of the law, the title of the implementing regulation, the publisher and the respective publication dates. Only old German characters were used. The booklet contains handwritten underlinings, highlights and notes in selected places, made in pencil by Max Bräuner.

Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases in Offspring, 1933.

ArEGL 166.

The »Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases« was passed on 14 July 1933 and came into force on 1 January 1934. It regulated compulsory sterilisation.

This edition was found in the library of what is now the Lüneburg Psychiatric Clinic. Handwritten notes prove that it was used by the medical director, Max Bräuner. He was obliged to report cases of illness. In addition, he was an assessor at the Lüneburg Hereditary Health Court and decided on compulsory sterilisation and compulsory abortions. The document shows how deeply he immersed himself in this task.

EDZARD STÖLTING (1885 – 1960)

Edzard Stölting spent his childhood and youth on a manor in Eimbeckhausen and in Kassel, where his father was a judge. He studied law in Lausanne (France), Heidelberg and Göttingen. In 1913, he worked at the Alfeld district court. He survived the First World War almost unharmed. In 1919, he married Margarethe Schaedtler, the daughter of a Hanoverian architect. Their first child was born in 1920. Five more children followed until 1934.

It is a black-and-white portrait photo of Edzard Stölting in middle age. He has a parted hairstyle and wears round nickel-rimmed glasses. He is wearing a jacket with a white shirt and tie. He looks seriously into the camera with the corners of his mouth turned down.

Edzard Stölting, 1934.

NLA Hannover Hann. 173 Acc. 57/98 No. 361/2.

It is a form. It consists of a table in which assessments by the president of the regional court and senior public prosecutors can be entered in the first column, assessments by the president of the higher regional court and the Attorney General's Office in the second column, and special comments in the third column. The form is filled out in every column. Special language skills and stays abroad are noted under special comments. In the first column, it is underlined in dark blue pencil that he has been a National Socialist for years; in the second column, it is underlined with the same pencil that he is suitable as a supervisory judge because he no longer works satisfactorily.

Extract from a judgement, 1934.

NLA Hanover Hann. 173 Acc. 57/98 No. 361/2.

In 1930, Edzard Stölting took up the post of district court judge at Lüneburg District Court. He and his wife had long been convinced National Socialists. After the »Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring« came into force, he became the head judge of the Lüneburg Hereditary Health Court. By 1 January 1940, he had ruled on over 500 forced sterilisations. He only rejected around 60 applications.

»Stölting[…] works conscientiously, thoroughly and very diligently. He has proven himself in matters of hereditary health. He has been studying the ideology of National Socialism for many years […].«

It is a wafer-thin sheet of paper printed with typewritten text. The text on the reverse side shows through. The text is in English. It is typed in narrow typeface. There are a few handwritten spelling corrections in places.

Certificate of good character [extract] from Curt Mangoldt/Certification dated 5 June 1947.

NLA Hanover Hann. 173 Acc. 57/98, No. 361/2.

Stölting was drafted into military service on 8 January 1940. In April 1945, he was taken prisoner of war. In May 1946, his private home at Egersdorffstraße 4 was confiscated. He then returned to Eimbeckhausen. Stölting retired in 1950 without any losses. A letter describing him as a man of »Fatherly kindness« whose decisions were for the good of those affected helped. He died in Hamelin in 1960.

Auxiliary schools, schools, church-run and privately run homes and children’s hospitals reported children and young people for admission to an institution or directly to the Lüneburg »Children’s special wards«. They therefore shared responsibility for the crimes that followed their selection and registration of their charges. The heads of the institutions characterised the treatment of people with disabilities until well into the post-war period, particularly in the field of special and curative education.

The assessment of Helmut Quast by the auxiliary school led to his forced hospitalisation in the Rotenburg institutions of the Inner Mission. Three years later, he was murdered in the »Specialised children’s ward« in Lüneburg.

It is an assessment form. The upper third of the form is for personal details, such as how long the person has been at the Rotenburg institutions' special school and where they were before. It also asks about an intelligence test. The lower two-thirds of the page contain a field for an assessment. The form is filled out by hand. There are five entries, made several months apart. The same nurse always makes the entries.

Assessments by Helmut Quast, 1938/1939.

NLA Hanover Hann. 155 Lüneburg Acc. 56/83 No. 355.

Adolf Wilke, around 1930.

StadtALg BS 44318.

Doctors and nurses at Lüneburg Hospital were involved in forced sterilisations and the murder of around 50 forced labourers. They also decided on forced abortions and accepted risks and bodily injuries during the procedures for no reason. They administered overdoses of medication to the forced labourers. The main person responsible for the crimes at Lüneburg Hospital was the medical director Adolf Wilke.

GUSTAV MARX (1909 – 1973)

Gustav Marx looked after the children and adolescents in the Lüneburg »Paediatric ward« at weekends and certified numerous violent deaths. His role as a tuberculosis specialist is still unclear. There is evidence of numerous cases in which patients only became fatally infected with tuberculosis in the Lüneburg sanatorium and nursing home. In 1944, he was in charge of the »Ostarbeiterabteilung« (»Infirmary for Eastern labourers«). There he often called in a translator and, unlike his colleagues, ordered life-saving treatment. He retired in 1953 and died 20 years later.

It is a black-and-white photograph of the married couple Emilie and Gustav Marx. Emilie is wearing a black fur coat and a fur hat, while Gustav Marx is wearing a hat, a long woollen coat and leather gloves. They are walking along the paved path in front of the institution's administration building. The scene looks as if they are dressed up for a celebration; the photograph is a snapshot. Both are looking spontaneously into the camera.

Emilie and Gustav Marx in front of Building 29 of the Niedersächsisches Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg (psychiatrical hospital), winter 1950.

Copy ArEGL | Private property Volker Marx.

Marx came from Essen. His father worked for the industrialist Krupp family. Marx completed his medical studies in 1914 and worked as a field doctor during the First World War. In 1916, he married Emilie Boeckling, a merchant’s daughter. After the end of the war, he worked as a doctor in private practice and as a district municipal doctor in Wengern and in Herford in the public health department. On 1 January 1936, he began working at the Lüneburg sanatorium and nursing home. In 1933, he became a member of the NSDAP and joined ten different party organisations. He was released from military service in June 1940. He behaved loyally towards his murdering colleagues.

It is yellowed paper. It shows the imperial eagle holding a wreath of oak leaves in its talons, with a swastika in the centre. Beneath it, in large letters, it says: In the name of the German people, I award. This is followed by typewritten text: to Provincial Chief Medical Officer Dr. med. Gustav Marx in Lüneburg. This is followed by large letters: The War Merit Cross 2nd Class. Berlin. This is followed by typewritten text: 30 January 1943. This is followed by large letters: The Führer. Below this is Adolf Hitler's signature in ink. At the bottom right-hand corner of the page is a second signature: O. Meissner. It is the signature of the State Secretary in the Presidential Chancellery. The paper bears an embossed seal in the lower left corner. It is the emblem with the imperial eagle, oak wreath and swastika.

Certificate of the award of the War Merit Cross 2nd Class to Gustav Marx dated 30 January 1943.

ArEGL 47 | Private property Volker Marx.

This certificate bears the original signature of Adolf Hitler and Otto Meissner, State Secretary in the Presidential Chancellery. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the assumption of power on 30 January 1943, soldiers who had rendered outstanding service in the First World War were awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd Class. Senior physician Gustav Marx was also honoured with this certificate.

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