Alfred Wödl

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Alfred Wödl (born on November 25, 1934 in Vienna ; died on February 22, 1941 there ) was one of those Austrian children who were described by the Nazi regime as “unworthy life” and who were murdered in the Am Spiegelgrund institution . He was six years and three months old.

Political background

The racial ideology of National Socialism unreservedly accepted the maxim that the strongest would always prevail on the level of individuals as well as that of peoples and states. Hitler not only wanted to oppress or murder other peoples and races classified as "inferior", but also to "eradicate" the weak and sick within his own national community. The murders of the sick during the time of National Socialism , including the T4 campaign for disabled adults and child euthanasia , as well as the exclusion and murder of the Jews of Europe were aimed at the enforcement of National Socialist racial hygiene .

The child euthanasia program affected so-called “hereditary” infants and children as well as children with epilepsy as well as those children who were diagnosed with “nonsense” by a Nazi psychiatrist. Most of the 789 documented murders of children and adolescents on Spiegelgrund took place in the infant department, which in internal jargon was called the Reich Committee Department . Equally cynical was the renaming of the killing facility as the curative education clinic of the City of Vienna Am Spiegelgrund in 1942.

Life

Alfred was the illegitimate son of the nurse Anny Wödl. His mother suffered from smoke inhalation - three weeks before Alfred was born - which resulted in prolonged unconsciousness. The child's general development was impaired. His mother said: “It turned out that although he understood everything, he could not speak. Also, his legs were apparently too weak to carry him, so that he could hardly walk. The doctors could not actually determine what he was actually suffering from and what the cause of his condition was. "

Mother and child lived in Wiener Neustadt . At the age of two, Alfred developed polyarthritis , an inflammation of the joints. During the treatment at the children's clinic in Glanzing , it was found that the child was “mentally retarded”, suffered from weak muscles and was not able to perform target movements. One year after the annexation of Austria by the Nazi regime, on April 1, 1939, mother and child were separated. The four and a half year old Alfred came to the state mental hospital Gugging and the state guardianship of Wiener Neustadt decreed that the child could not be handed over to the child's mother. At that time, the guardianship for illegitimate children was principally with the authorities. Gugging's patient file gives the following assessment by the medical staff: The child is “still unable to walk or stand, cannot make any target movements with the hands, is constantly in bed, has to be fed, is alone, is perfect In need of care, is not responsive, only occasionally makes some inarticulate sounds. "

Fight of the mother Anny Wödl

Although the Nazi regime attempted to cover up the euthanasia programs on a large scale, for example children murdered in Hartheim Castle were recorded as deaths in Brandenburg, word of the killings quickly spread among the population. In particular, questionable causes of death, death from tonsillitis in a child whose tonsils had been removed, or sending an urn twice to the same parents led to a blatant lack of credibility on the part of the relatives affected by the regime.

Alfred's mother worked as a nurse at the General Hospital in Vienna. When she learned about the evacuation of foster children from the Am Steinhof institution , she immediately traveled to Berlin and, on July 23, 1940, managed to get to Herbert Linden , one of the organizers of the Nazi euthanasia in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and she brought the Concerns of relatives. The interview was unsuccessful. In Berlin, however, it became clear to her that the fosterlings evacuated were apparently murdered in large numbers. She drove back to Vienna and organized protests by relatives by means of letters and telegrams, which arrived in Berlin “by the washing basket”. Demonstrations in front of the institution against the transports were stopped by the police and the SS. After another transport on August 30, 1940, the illegal Graz KPÖ around Herbert Eichholzer condemned the murders of Steinhof-Pfleglingen in a leaflet.

In January 1941, the mother visited her son in the Gugging state mental hospital . There she learned from a sister that Alfred was planned for removal. Anny Wödl immediately traveled to Berlin a second time, this time to fight Linden for the life of her own child - again without success. All she achieved was that her son should be transferred to the children's department “Am Spiegelgrund” and killed there with medication.

death

With the consent of his mother, little Alfred was transferred to the “Am Spiegelgrund” asylum on February 6, 1941 and accepted under number AZ 19/41. On February 15, 1941, the Nazi psychiatrist and multiple murderer Heinrich Gross emphasized in a report: "The child is half-Jewish!" On February 20, an admission examination was carried out by Margarethe Hübsch , who was also responsible for the serial murders at Steinhof. On February 22, 1941, Alfred Wödl died early in the morning - officially of " pneumonia ".

Commemoration

Memorial for the children from Spiegelgrund
Stolperstein in Wiener Neustadt, 2013

A grave of honor, a memorial and a stumbling stone remember Alfred Wödl:

  • In April 2002 the remains of the victims of child euthanasia at the Am Spiegelgrund institution were solemnly buried in a grave of honor for the City of Vienna at the Vienna Central Cemetery . The boy's brain, which had been preserved by Heinrich Gross , was also brought to rest.
  • Since November 2003, a memorial in the form of light steles on the prison grounds has been commemorating the children and young people who were murdered there. For every life extinguished in the institution, at that time 772 victims were recorded, a light column was set up. Their strict arrangement reflects the situation of children and young people in the coercive context of the time.
  • In 2013, the German artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block in front of Alfred Wödl and his mother's last house at Corvinusring 16 in Wiener Neustadt. The stone was organized and financed by the Stolpersteine project for Wiener Neustadt .

literature

  • Götz Aly (ed.): Aktion T4 1939–1945. The "euthanasia" center at Tiergartenstrasse 4 (1987) - statement by the mother in the Illing trial,
  • Waltraud Häupl: The Murdered Children from Spiegelgrund (2006)
  • Peter Malina: Leave to be forgotten . with a historical review by Peter Malina. In: Alois Kaufmann (ed.): Totenwagen - Childhood on Spiegelgrund . Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85476-235-5 .
  • Peter Malina: In the safety net of Nazi “education”. Child and youth “welfare” on the “Spiegelgrund” 1940–1945 . In: Eberhard Gabriel, Wolfgang Neubauer (ed.): On the history of Nazi euthanasia in Vienna: From forced sterilization to murder . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-205-99325-X ( Google preview ).

swell

  1. ↑ Reinhard Sieder, Andrea Smioski: Violence against children in educational homes of the city of Vienna. Final report . Vienna 2012, p. Winkelmayer: 35 + 47 ( online [PDF]).
  2. ^ Wolfgang Neugebauer: Living and dying on the Spiegelgrund . In: Johann Gross (Ed.): Spiegelgrund. Life in Nazi educational institutions . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8000-3769-6 , p. 148–149 ( Google preview ).
  3. ↑ In some cases the mother's first name is also given as Anna .
  4. ^ A b Anton Blaha: Alfred Wödl: In vain petition to Berlin . Wiener Neustadt 2013 ( source ).
  5. ↑ Herwig Czech: Nazi medical crimes in the sanatorium Gugging Background and historical context. (PDF) (No longer available online.) DÖW , p. 11 , archived from the original on July 14, 2015 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 .
  6. ^ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state . The "destruction of life unworthy of life". Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1983.
  7. ↑ Gerhard Fürstler, Peter Malina: Austrian carers from the time of National Socialism. Part I: The Viennese nurse Anny Wödl. Historical nursing research . In: Austrian care magazine . Vienna March 2003.
  8. ↑ Steinhof Memorial. Chronology. DÖW , accessed on January 31, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Brigitte Bailer: Murder as an instrument of Nazi youth welfare. (PDF) In: DÖW-Mitteilungen, episode 207. DÖW , July 2012, p. 6 , accessed on February 7, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Lukas Vörös: Child and youth euthanasia at the time of National Socialism at Spiegelgrund in Vienna. (PDF) Diploma thesis. March 2010, p. 97 , accessed February 9, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Susanne Mende: The Viennese sanatorium and nursing home "Am Steinhof" during the Nazi regime in Austria. (PDF) Manuscript of a lecture given on January 30th 1998 in Vienna on the occasion of the scientific symposium "On the history of Nazi euthanasia in Vienna" was held. In: gedenkstaettesteinhof.at. DÖW , pp. 5–11 , accessed on February 4, 2014 .
  12. ^ Susanne Mende: The Viennese sanatorium and nursing home Am Steinhof in the time of the Nazi regime in Austria . In: Eberhard Gabriel, Wolfgang Neubauer (eds.): Nazi euthanasia in Vienna . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-98951-1 , p. 64–70 ( Google preview ).
  13. ^ Johann Gross: Spiegelgrund. Life in Nazi educational institutions . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-8000-3769-6 , p. 67–70, 101, citations: pp. 69, 75 ( Google preview ).
  14. ↑ Memorial for the victims from Spiegelgrund ; City hall correspondence of November 27, 2003 (accessed July 24, 2015).
personal data
SURNAME Wödl, ​​Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian victim of the child euthanasia program of the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1941
Place of death Vienna