Non-profit ambulance company

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One of the red omnibuses (around 1940) originally used by the " Kraftpost " ( Deutsche Reichspost ).

The Gemeinnützige Krankentransportgesellschaft mb H. (short: Gekrat or GeKraT ) was a code name for the subdivision of the Central Service T4 , which in the National Socialist German Reich was responsible for the transport of sick and disabled people who were murdered in the context of the murders under National Socialism ( Action T4 ). Any connection with the Fiihrer's office should be veiled.

Personnel and responsibilities

The head of the transport department was Reinhold Vorberg . His deputy was Gerhard (t) Siebert, who took over the management of the Gekrat from summer 1941 (from 1943 Main Department II d with official seat in Berlin). On November 18, 1939, Vorberg was entered together with Hermann Schwenninger as managing director of Gekrat in the commercial register of the Berlin-Charlottenburg district court. Vorberg had his headquarters in the Nazi killing center in Grafeneck , led several transport campaigns personally and inspected the transport departments in other killing centers.

The tasks of the transport department not only included the transfer of patients to the intermediate and killing centers. She also carried out the necessary correspondence with the relatives and the institutions and initially collected the costs until 1940, when the managing director of the T4 central office, Dietrich Allers , took on this task.

From 1941 onwards , sick and incapacitated concentration camp inmates were also transported to the institutions as part of the so-called Invaliden-Aktion , in order to kill them there in the gas chambers . For example, a transport with 575 prisoners in passenger cars from Auschwitz to Pirna is documented on July 28, 1941. After the so-called “stop” of “adult euthanasia”, Gekrat was still active in the transfer of patients from sanatoriums and nursing homes.

Fourteen people who were employed as drivers in Aktion T4 were later demonstrably used in the extermination camps of Aktion Reinhard .

Reichspost omnibuses as transport vehicles

Vorberg's Grafenecker vehicle fleet included three red buses from the Reichspost, two passenger cars that were used for courier trips, and a red mail delivery van. Richard von Hegener , who is otherwise responsible for material procurement, procured further buses from the Reichspost for the Gekrat: the “Hegener Special Relay” appeared as a contractual partner for the Reichspost, but not the Gekrat itself.

The Reichspost buses used to transport ambulances were, like the regular omnibuses, painted red and had the number plates of the Reichspost (RP). Von Hegener stated that “only about halfway through the action” were the buses - like the Reichspostbuses - given a gray air raid camouflage. It was not in their interest to make their own buses particularly recognizable for the public to see. In order to prevent the view from outside, the windows were covered with curtains or painted with paint. In a description of a transport to Grafeneck it is shown that the transport leader drove in a car in front of the column consisting of three buses. Two nurses were assigned to each bus. Violent sick people could be strapped to the seat. The nurses also had handcuffs with them.

confidentiality

In Hadamar, residents were able to watch the bus passengers getting out from a hill. In order to prevent outsiders from looking, a covered walkway was soon built on the side wing. Elsewhere, it was criticized that “the removal of the people” had taken place in the most conspicuous way possible in the middle of the market square and that the selected people were taken to buses individually and with the use of force.

The Bishop of Limburg, Antonius Hilfrich , mentions in his protest letter of August 13, 1941 addressed to the Reich Minister of Justice:

“More often during the week buses arrive in Hadamar with a large number of such victims. School children in the area know these wagons and say: "Here comes the murder box again." After the arrival of such wagons, the Hadamar citizens watch the smoke rising from the chimney ... "

Public prosecutors who asked questions about the whereabouts of people who had been admitted to sanatoriums by the judiciary were referred to the Gekrat. Anyone who wanted to contact the Gekrat by telephone had to discover that there was no such society in Berlin. Written inquiries to the post office box address were forwarded without interim notification and answered by one of the killing centers.

See also

literature

  • Ernst Klee : "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state . 11th edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2004 ISBN 3-596-24326-2 .
  • Thomas Vormbaum (Ed.): "Euthanasia" in court. The indictment of the public prosecutor at the Higher Regional Court Frankfurt / M. against Dr. Werner Heyde et al. From May 22, 1962 . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2005 ISBN 3-8305-1047-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich , updated. Edition Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 581 / Addition to brackets according to Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich , fully revised. New edition Frankfurt / M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 431.
  2. ↑ Ernst Klee : What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews. Frankfurt / Main 1986, ISBN 3-596-24364-5 , p. 66.
  3. ^ Henry Friedlander : The way to the Nazi genocide. Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 , p. 315f.
  4. ^ Henry Friedlander: The way to the Nazi genocide. Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 , p. 132.
  5. ↑ Thomas Schilter: Inhuman discretion. The Nazi killing center in Pirna-Sonnenstein 1940/41. Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-378-0-1033-9 , pp. 165–166 - It is not clear whether this transport was organized by the Gekrat.
  6. ↑ Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich , completely revised. New edition Frankfurt / M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 428 / Wunder, Michael: The euthanasia murders in the " Steinhof " using the example of Hamburg's girls and women. In: Gabriel, Eberhard / Neugebauer, Wolfgang (Hrsg.): Nazi euthanasia in Vienna. Vienna / Cologne / Weimar: Böhlau 2000, p. 98.
  7. ^ Sara Berger: Experts of the destruction. The T4 Reinhardt network in the Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka camps. Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86854-268-4 ; Short biography pp. 401-415.
  8. ↑ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi State - The "Destruction of Unworthy Life". Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 , p. 136.
  9. ↑ http://www.vitos-rheingau.de/fileadmin/user_upload/TG-Rheingau/Fotos/Tafeln_Krankenmord/TAFEL_6.pdf  ; HHStaWi Dept. 461 No. 32442 Bl. 60 f.
  10. ↑ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi State - The "Destruction of Unworthy Life". Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 , p. 124.
  11. ^ Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , p. 104.
  12. ↑ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi State - The "Destruction of Unworthy Life". Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 , p. 136.
  13. ^ Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , p. 115.
  14. ^ Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , p. 228.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 ; P. 231.
  16. ^ Henry Friedlander: The way to the Nazi genocide. Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 , p. 201.