Else von Löwis

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Adelheid Klementine Pauline Elisabeth von Löwis of Menar (born August 8, 1880 in Heidelberg ; † 1961 ), born Freiin von Dusch, was the leader of the National Socialist women's association in the Böblingen district , landlady of the Mauren estate near Ehningen and cultural advisor for the city of Stuttgart , who dealt with a personal Letter to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler and spoke out against child euthanasia in the Grafeneck killing center .

Life

Also known as Else von Löwis, Adelheid was the daughter of the Baden State Minister Alexander Freiherr von Dusch (1851–1923). She was married to the government assistant Karl Reinhold Max von Löwis of Menar (1877-1914) from the Scottish-Baltic noble family Löwis of Menar . Their three children were Adelheid (* 1907), Oskar (* 1909) and Alexander (* 1911) von Löwis of Menar.

Your letter

In the public was that the former known around 1940 hunting lodge Grafeneck to grafeneck had been transformed. The “gray ones” came every day, meaning the gray buses , and brought new “patients”. The findings about the procedure at Grafeneck Castle led to outraged reactions in the population, but also in parts of the NSDAP . One of them was the letter from the Württemberg landlady and National Socialist women's association leader Else von Löwis. The letter she wrote in November 1940 reached the Reichsführer SS and head of the security police Heinrich Himmler through the wife of the NSDAP Supreme Judge Walter Buch . In her opening remarks, she underlined her loyalty to National Socialism , described her personal motives and highlighted the outrage in the local population. She did not speak out against euthanasia as a matter of principle, but demanded that the right to decide about life and death "is strictly defined by law and exercised with the utmost conscientiousness if the door is not to be opened to the most dangerous passions and crime" . It has always been a popular method of getting rid of uncomfortable relatives by declaring them insane and placing them in a madhouse. She further wrote:

“You certainly know about the measures we are currently using to get rid of the terminally insane, but perhaps you have no real idea of ​​how and to what monstrous extent it happens and how terrible the impression is on the people! Here in Württemberg the tragedy takes place in Grafeneck on the Alb, which gives this place a very horrific sound. Initially, people instinctively resisted believing the matter, or at least thought the rumors were grossly exaggerated. At our last working conference at the Gauschule in Stuttgart in mid-October, I was assured by the "well-educated" side that it was only about absolute cretins and that "euthanasia" would only be used in very strictly examined cases. Now it is quite impossible to make this version credible to anyone, and the individual cases that have been absolutely certain are shooting up like mushrooms. What else can i believe Where will this path lead us and where will the line be drawn? It is by no means only the hopelessly stupid and dumbfounded who are affected, but, it seems, gradually all the incurably insane - as well as epileptics who are not mentally disturbed - are gradually being caught. Many of them include people who still take an interest in life, who do a modest part of work, who are in correspondence with their relatives, people who, when the gray SS car arrives, know where it is going and what is in store for them. And the farmers on the Alb, who work in the fields and see these cars drive by, also know where they are going and see the chimney of the crematorium smoking day and night. [...] Wasn't it enough that they were sterilized, and isn't it terrible to think that Grafeneck's sword of Damocles now hangs over them all? "

- Else von Löwis

effect

In a letter dated December 19, 1940, which was addressed to the responsible head of the department Viktor Brack, Heinrich Himmler stated that, in his opinion, “the only thing left is to stop using the institute at this point and, if need be, to provide a clever and sensible explanation by running films about hereditary and mentally ill people in the area ”. With his instruction, Himmler was mainly concerned with dampening public interest in the euthanasia measures. In another letter to Walter Buch on the same date, Himmler wrote that there were errors in the implementation when “the matter” had become so public. He advised Grafeneck to "let go to sleep".

Interpretations

Little is known about Else von Löwis in relation to her youth, and about her further career after the end of National Socialist rule until her death in 1961. She was integrated into the National Socialist structures, her husband had died in Flanders in 1914 , and she held a high social position.

Alexandra Krohmer, a granddaughter of Else v. Löwis, describes her grandmother as having a beautiful spirit who read classics in their original language. That Else von Löwis of Menar was a supporter of National Socialism was controversial within the family. "For me it is incomprehensible how an intelligent person was so politically misguided," says Alexandra Krohmer today. Else von Löwis was not of a "combative nature". She was aware of the risk and therefore the letter was rather unusual. But because of her value system, she had shown moral courage.

The historian Friedrich Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen , who interpreted the letter in 1964, notes that a Nazi who was loyal to the line had to take his breath away while reading these lines. It is true that some National Socialists approved of criticism from within their own ranks, so that on the basis of common convictions and goals one could eliminate grievances and avert harm. However, the letter was not safe. However, in his accompanying letter to Reich Minister Heinrich Himmler, Walter Buch assured that the letter writer was "glowing" with the movement "and that he was" utterly "vouching for her.

The assumption that the letter could have caused the closure of the Grafeneck euthanasia facility is an assumption and is rejected by Ernst Klee . Rather, the fact is that Grafeneck had finished his “work” as planned. The murder in Grafeneck was not ended prematurely by external events. Himmler's letter to Brack was only written six days after the last gassing in Grafeneck.

literature

  • “Euthanasia” in the Nazi state: Grafeneck in 1940. State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2000, 2.2 Euthanasia in Grafeneck, The end of “euthanasia” in Grafeneck.
  • Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich - The 'Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life' ' completely revised, new edition Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 .
  • Magdalena Ruoffner: Grafeneck as an example of euthanasia in the Nazi state. Verlag Diplomarbeit Agentur, 2013, ISBN 978-3-95549-053-9 , p. 48ff.
  • A protest letter against "euthanasia" in 1940. Commented by Friedrich Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen, In: From Schönbuch and Gäu. Supplement to the Böblinger Boten 11/1964.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mauren 1940: Else von Löwis of Menar protests against the National Socialist euthanasia program zeitreise-bb.de
  2. ↑ Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich. completely revised, new edition Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 234 / GEDENKSTÄTTE GRAFENECK-DOCUMENTATION CENTER (history, protest, E. v. Löwis) ( accessed February 10, 2016)
  3. ↑ Thomas Stöckle: Grafeneck 1940. 3., exp. Edition. Tübingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-87407-507-7 , p. 170 / Mauren 1940: Else von Löwis of Menar protests against the National Socialist euthanasia program
  4. ↑ Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich. completely revised, new edition Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 235.
  5. ↑ zeitreise-bb : Else von Löwis of Menar protests against the National Socialist euthanasia program
  6. ↑ zeitreise-bb : Else von Löwis of Menar protests against the National Socialist euthanasia program
  7. ↑ Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich. completely revised, new edition Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 235.
  8. ↑ Module “euthanasia” in the Nazi state: Grafeneck in 1940, Ed .: LpB, 2000, 2.2 Euthanasia in Grafeneck, The end of “euthanasia” in Grafeneck Module “euthanasia” in the Nazi state: Grafeneck in 1940 publisher. : LpB, 2000, 2.2 Euthanasia in Grafeneck: The end of "euthanasia" in Grafeneck
personal data
SURNAME Löwis, Else von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Löwis of Menar, Adelheid Klementine Pauline Elisabeth von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German landlady, National Socialist women leader
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidelberg
DATE OF DEATH 1961