Alfred Fernholz

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Alfred Fernholz (born November 7, 1904 in Grünenthal near Herscheid , Westphalia, † March 17, 1993 in Karlsruhe ) was a German psychiatrist . During the Nazi era , Fernholz was one of the organizers of the murders during the Nazi era in Saxony .

Life

Medical career

Fernholz grew up in Leipzig from 1907 after his parents moved , where he graduated from high school in 1924. He then took up a degree in medicine at the University of Leipzig , which he completed in 1929 with the state medical examination and a doctorate on a surgical subject. After receiving his medical license in 1930, Fernholz completed his specialist training at the state psychiatric institute in Zschadraß by 1933 . From June 1933 he worked as a government medical advisor in Zschadraß. In October 1934 Fernholz switched to Grossenhain as a medical officer ; from April 1935 he headed the local health department . As a civil servant doctor at the Higher Genetic Health Court for Saxony, Fernholz was involved in decisions about forced sterilization . Fernholz married in 1933 and the marriage had two children.

Career in the NSDAP

Fernholz joined the NSDAP on August 1, 1931 ( membership number 599.260) and the SS on November 1, 1931 (membership number 121.298). Fernholz worked as a doctor in the SS; after his promotion to SS-Untersturmführer in September 1935, he headed the medical squadron II / 84 in Meissen . He was last promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer in November 1943 . From 1939 he was also HJ area doctor .

From February 1938 Fernholz headed the “People's Care” department in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior under Minister Karl Fritsch . In this position, he urged in early 1939 that the minimum nutrition applied by Paul Nitsche in the Sonnenstein state institution for disabled psychiatric patients should be introduced in other institutions. According to witnesses, Fernholz gave the directors of the Saxon state institutes guidelines on medical "euthanasia" shortly before the start of the Second World War . The reason he gave was that "hopeless cases [...] should not be dragged through at the expense of their surroundings, fellow patients and staff." In the winter of 1939/1940, Fernholz was jointly responsible for a drastic reduction in the cost rates for the Saxon state institutions, in theirs Result about 1500 patients starved to death .

During Operation T4 , the murder of patients in gas chambers between January 1940 and August 1941, Fernholz was presumably authorized by Minister Fritsch to make independent decisions. According to witness statements, Fernholz informed the prison directors in mid-1940 that the aim of the pending transfer of sick people was to kill them. The “People's Care” department headed by Fernholz was the interface between the institutions and the Gekrat , which carried out the transports of patients to the killing centers. Fernholz and his closest employees made the final decision if patients were to be removed from the transport lists at short notice. In the summer of 1942 Fernholz took part in discussions about the dissolution of the Nazi killing center Sonnenstein ; He was probably already involved in the selection of Sonnenstein as a killing facility at the beginning of 1940. Fernholz was also involved in personnel decisions, for example in the delegation of the Waldheim director Gerhard Wischer to the central office T4 .

Correspondence received documents the involvement of Fernholz in central decision-making processes of child “euthanasia” in Saxony. Fernholz, for example, arranged for children to be transferred to the two Saxon “ children's departments ” in Dösen and at the Leipzig University Children's Clinic under Werner Catel , where the children were usually murdered. In 1941 Fernholz became the head of the Saxon district office for public health of the NSDAP "Gaugesundheitsführer" and thus an advisor to the district leader Martin Mutschmann ; in the same year he took over the management of the Nazi medical association in Saxony. He was also promoted to government director in 1941 .

In a further phase of the National Socialist murders, often referred to as Aktion Brandt , Fernholz asked doctors in Saxon state institutions to kill patients with the help of drugs. According to witness statements, Fernholz approved the killings even before the relevant authorization from the Berlin T4 central office in August 1943. In Saxony, the initiative for further murders of the sick presumably came from the NSDAP Gauleitung. The historian Winfried Süß sees Fernholz in a key role and classifies him as an "exponent of 'political administration'" "which emerged from the combination of state and party offices".

After the end of the war

At the end of the war, Fernholz went into hiding in Leipzig. In June 1945 he was allegedly arrested by an American military patrol without his functions during the Nazi regime being known. In the run-up to the Dresden “euthanasia” trial , in the course of which Paul Nitsche was sentenced to death, an arrest warrant was issued against Fernholz in 1946. The arrest warrant could not be carried out because Fernholz had moved to the western occupation zones. At the beginning of the 1950s he ran a general practice in Plettenberg , Westphalia ; at the same time he was involved in the local shooting club. Fernholz died in 1993 without being prosecuted.

literature

  • Boris Boehm: Alfred Fernholz. A desk clerk in the service of "public health". In: Christine Pieper, Mike Schmeitzner , Gerhard Naser (Eds.): Braune Karrieren. Dresden perpetrators and actors in National Socialism. Sandstein, Dresden 2012, ISBN 978-3-942422-85-7 , pp. 154-161.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Contribution to the surgical therapy of neurogenic joint affection, spec. of tabular arthropathy , see Böhm, Fernholz , p. 154, and DNB entry
  2. ↑ Thomas Schilter: Inhuman discretion. The National Socialist “euthanasia” killing center in Pirna-Sonnenstein 1940/41. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-378-01033-9 , p. 23.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 148.
  4. ↑ Testimony of the director of the Großschweidnitz institution, Alfred Schulz , from 1947, quoted in Böhm, Fernholz , p. 155.
  5. ↑ Böhm, Fernholz , p. 156.
  6. ↑ Böhm, Fernholz , p. 156 f.
  7. ↑ Böhm, Fernholz , p. 158.
  8. ↑ Böhm, Fernholz , p. 157 f.
  9. ↑ Winfried Suss: Decentralized Sick Murder. On the relationship between central and regional powers in “euthanasia” since 1942. In: Horst Möller, Jürgen John, Thomas Schaarschmidt (eds.): NS-Gaue - regional central bodies in the centralized “Führer state”. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58086-0 , pp. 123-135, here p. 134.
  10. ↑ Böhm, Fernholz , p. 160; Entry Fernholz, Dr. med. Alfred at www.plettenberg-lexikon.de; Three happy holidays in Plettenberg. “König Willi” (Cordes) and “Queen Adele” (Fastenrath) rule the Plettenberg rifle people - The traditional folk festival of our city in full swing - Greetings from the former Plettenbergers in New York and the surrounding area. ( Memento of January 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Retrieved November 9, 2013).
personal data
SURNAME Fernholz, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist and organizer of the National Socialist murders in Saxony
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünenthal near Herscheid , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1993
Place of death Karlsruhe