Gerhard Wischer

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Gerhard Hans Kurt Julius Wischer (born February 1, 1903 in Berlin ; † November 4, 1950 in Waldheim ) was a German psychiatrist who was involved in euthanasia crimes during the National Socialist era .

Life

The officer's son joined the Reichswehr in 1922 after finishing school and was a participant in the 1923 Hitler putsch . He left the Reichswehr in 1926 with the rank of senior ensign. He then completed a medical degree and did his doctorate at the University of Rostock with the dissertation published in 1933 : The problem of the destruction of life unworthy of life in the literature on Dr. med. He then worked for a year as a medical intern at the Rostock University Clinic and the Bernburg / Saale sanatorium. He was approved at the end of 1934 . From 1934 Wischer worked first as an assistant doctor and then as an assistant doctor at the Arnsdorf State Institute , where he assessed hereditary patients and completed their “family tables”. Wischer, who had already joined the SA when he was a student , became a member of the NSDAP in 1937 .

From 1938 until the end of World War II , Wischer was director of the Waldheim sanatorium and nursing home, which was housed in a separate building on the grounds of the Waldheim correctional facility . At the same time as he took over the directorate in Waldheim, he was appointed medical councilor in 1938 and, at the same time, coordinated the registration of hereditary diseases in Saxony as the "regional chairman for the genetic make-up" . At his own request and with the mediation of the head of the “People's Care” department in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior, Alfred Fernholz , Wischer was seconded to the T4 central office in July 1941 . From August 2, 1941, Wischer was T4 appraiser and in this function was involved in the “selections” of sick and handicapped people for Action T4 in the sanatoriums and nursing homes and until at least May 1943 in Action 14f13 in the concentration camps . Waldheim was an intermediate facility from which almost 1,500 people were transferred to the Brandenburg killing center and the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing center during Operation T4 , where they were murdered. After the official end of the T4 campaign, the " destruction of life unworthy of life " was continued in the Waldheim sanatorium, including through so-called "twilight sleep cures" using high luminal doses as part of the Brandt campaign . More than 800 inmates of the Waldheim institution died from the “twilight sleep cures” or of starvation.

After the war ended, Wischer was arrested by the Soviets in October 1945. Afterwards he was imprisoned in special camps No. 1 (Mühlberg an der Elbe) and No. 2 (Buchenwald) and worked there as a prisoner doctor. Due to the "participation in killings in the sanatorium and nursing home Waldheim", Wischer was sentenced to death as a "main criminal " on June 23, 1950, without being assigned a defense attorney, in a non-public express trial of the Waldheim trials . On November 4, 1950, Wischer was executed in Waldheim Prison .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Ritscher , Rikola-Gunnar Lüttgenau, Gabriele Hammermann, Wolfgang Röll, Christian Schölzel on behalf of the Buchenwald Memorial: The Soviet Special Camp No. 2 1945–1950. Catalog for the permanent exhibition in Buchenwald. Göttingen 1999, p. 254.
  2. ^ Sonja Schröter: Psychiatry in Waldheim, Saxony (1716-1946): A contribution to the history of forensic psychiatry in Germany. Mabuse, Frankfurt am Main 1994, p. 196f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, pp. 682f.
  4. ↑ Norbert Jachertz: 1989/2009 - 20 years of German unity: the Waldheim story. In: Ärzteblatt . 106 (39), 2009, pp. A-1882 / B-1614 / C-1582
  5. ^ Boris Böhm: 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, here p. 157.
  6. ^ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state. Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 228, 345.
  7. ↑ a b Norbert Jachertz: 1989/2009 - 20 years of German unity: the Waldheim story. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . 106 (39), 2009, pp. A-1882 / B-1614 / C-1582.
  8. ^ Henry Leide: Nazi Criminals and State Security: The Secret Past Policy of the GDR. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006, ISBN 3-525-35018-X , p. 42.
personal data
SURNAME Wiper, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wischer, Gerhard Hans Kurt Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist and euthanasia offender
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 4th 1950
Place of death Waldheim