PIRNA-SONNENSTEIN

The Pirna-Sonnenstein Memorial is located on the historic site of a former killing centre. The institution in the Sonnenstein Castle fortress is the oldest psychiatric hospital in Germany. The institution, which was characterised by a reformist approach to psychiatry, began operating in 1811. In the 1930s, with the appointment of Paul Hermann Nitsche as the new medical director, a form of care based on racial hygiene became prevalent. In December 1939, the institution ceased operations. The castle was used as a reserve military hospital and camp for so-called »resettlers«, probably due to its proximity to the areas of Poland occupied by German soldiers.

In the spring of 1940, a killing centre was set up in a secluded part of the institution’s grounds. Between June 1940 and August 1941, over 13,700 people with mental illnesses or disabilities were murdered. The victims were led into a basement room in building C 16, disguised as a shower room, and suffocated with carbon monoxide. A few metres away were two coke ovens in which the bodies were subsequently burned.

On 7 March 1941, as part of »Aktion T4«, at least 123 male patients from the Lüneburg mental hospital were transferred to the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre and murdered immediately upon arrival. It was the only transfer that took place directly from Lüneburg to Pirna.

To certify all deaths, a special registry office was operated in the killing centre, which sent fake death certificates to relatives stating the cause and date of death.

At the end of »Aktion T4« and after its official discontinuation, the killings in Pirna-Sonnenstein continued. Over 1,000 people were murdered from the summer of 1941 onwards as part of the so-called »Special Treatment 14f13.« These were former prisoners of the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps who were no longer fit for work and were murdered in the gas chamber at Sonnenstein Castle. At that time, there were no extermination camps with their own gas chambers.

After the end of »Aktion T4,« one third of the staff from the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre was transferred to the German-occupied General Government in Poland to use their »expertise« to build and operate the three extermination camps Sobibór, Bełżec and Treblinka. Over 1.8 million people were murdered in these camps during »Aktion Reinhardt.«

In the summer of 1942, the killing centre was dissolved and the traces of the crimes were covered up. The »Adolf Hitler School Gau Saxony« and the Reich Administration School moved into Sonnenstein Castle, which was also used as a Wehrmacht military hospital until the end of the war.

The prosecution of doctors and nurses began in 1947. Doctor Paul Hermann Nitsche and two nurses were sentenced to death in the Dresden trial.

From 1945 to 1949, the castle served as a refugee and quarantine camp for former members of the Wehrmacht, and parts of the district administration office were also housed on the premises. Until 1954, the castle housed a police academy. Between 1954 and 1991, a large part of the site was used by a fluid dynamics engineering company for the construction of aircraft turbines. In 1989, a citizens‘ initiative was founded with the aim of establishing a memorial. In 1991, the Workers‘ Welfare Association set up workshops for people with disabilities, and at the same time a board of trustees was formed for the purpose of establishing a memorial. Between 1992 and 1994, the basement rooms were reconstructed and converted into a memorial. In 2000, a permanent exhibition was inaugurated.

In Pirna, the crimes are also commemorated in public spaces. There are 16 signposts leading from the train station to the memorial site, providing information about the murder of patients. In addition, there is a »memorial trail« of colourful crosses throughout the city.