PAUL HAUSEN (1917 – 1941)

Paul Hausen was born on June 27, 1917 in Lüneburg. At the age of 17, he is said to have tried to have sex with a younger girl. He was then sent to the Gut Kronsberg reformatory near Hanover-Wülfel due to what was described as an »abnormal sex drive«. From there, forced sterilization proceedings were initiated in 1938.

On 28 May 1938, the hereditary health court in Lüneburg decided on Paul Hausen’s sterilization. Just one month later, three days before his 21st birthday, he was also admitted to the Lüneburg institution and nursing home. Due to alleged »congenital imbecility« and »moral crimes«, he was kept in the Lüneburg institution as a so-called »moral criminal« in accordance with the »Law against Dangerous Habitual Criminals and on Measures of Security and Correction« of November 24, 1933 (»Habitual Criminal Law«).

However, this placement in no way prevented sterilization, on the contrary. Section 42a of the »Habitual Offender Act« offered the possibility of forced castration. By removing sexual organs, this operation went far beyond forced sterilization. The law was also applied to Paul Hausen. He was therefore not operated on at the Lüneburg Municipal Hospital like other forced sterilized persons in Lüneburg, but at the Henriettenstift in Hanover on 30 March 1939. The doctors mutilated his genital organs.

In the period between 1939 and his transfer to Herborn for »Aktion T4«, Paul Hausen was also diagnosed with »schizophrenia«. Whether the »schizophrenia« was only triggered by the forced castration or was a consequence of the total operation, or whether it was more a symptom independent of it, can no longer be determined. It is also not clear whether it was actually present in Paul Hausen’s case. However, the diagnosis of »schizophrenia« combined with his preventive detention was the decisive factor in Paul Hausen being selected for a »planned transfer«. He was transferred to the Herborn transit institution on April 23, 1941 and from there to the Hadamar killing center. He died there in the gas chamber on May 21, 1941, an agonizing death by asphyxiation. Paul Hausen was only 23 years old.