Hartheim killing center

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The Hartheim killing center in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz was the site of mass murders in a gas chamber from 1940 to 1944 . At first there were murders that were justified and played down as "euthanasia" in this institution of Aktion T4 , an abbreviation for the murders of the sick during the Nazi era . After the euthanasia program for psychiatric patients and the disabled, which killed more than 18,000 people in Hartheim alone, was canceled in 1941, 12,000 concentration camp prisoners were murdered in Hartheim Castle as part of NS campaign 14f13 until 1944 .

Hartheim statistics

In June 1945 the American investigating officer Charles Dameron had a steel compartment broken open during investigations in the former Hartheim gassing plant, in which the so-called "Hartheim statistics" were located. It was a 39-page brochure produced by Edmund Brandt for internal purposes of Aktion T4 with monthly statistical information on the killings of disabled or sick people by gases in the six T4 killing centers in what was then Reich territory (referred to there as "disinfections" ). An administrative employee confessed as a witness in 1968 and 1970 that he had to compile the figures at the end of 1942. The Hartheim statistics also include a sheet on which it was calculated that “with 70,273 people disinfected and a life expectancy of 10 years”, food to the value of 141,775,573.80 Reichsmarks had been saved.

Number of victims in the 1st killing phase in Hartheim

According to these statistics, a total of 18,269 people were murdered in a gas chamber at the Hartheim killing center in the 16 months between May 1940 and September 1, 1941 :

1940 1941 total
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan. February March April May June July Aug
633 982 1,449 1,740 1,123 1,400 1,396 947 943 1,178 974 1,123 1.106 1,364 735 1,176 18,269

These statistics only include the first phase of the murder of Operation T4 , which ended on August 24, 1941, following a Führer decree .

Overall, the number of those murdered in Hartheim Castle is estimated at over 30,000. Those murdered included people with disabilities or illnesses, prisoners from concentration camps and foreign civil workers . The killings were carried out with the colorless, odorless and tasteless poisonous gas carbon monoxide .

"Special treatment 14f13"

Just three days after the formal end of Operation T4, a transport from Mauthausen with 70 Jewish prisoners arrived in Hartheim, who were killed there. The Hartheim euthanasia center gained a special position, as not only the highest number of sick people were gassed there. As part of Aktion 14f13 , Hartheim also became the institution in which most of the concentration camp inmates were murdered. Their number is estimated at 12,000.

Especially from the stone quarries in Mauthausen, people who were no longer able to work, but also politically unpleasant ones, were brought to Hartheim to be murdered. In the papers, the transfer was disguised with terms such as vacation . The information on the illness included Germans , communists and Polish fanatics . From 1944 the prisoners were no longer selected by doctors from the T4; it was just a matter of creating space in the Mauthausen camp as quickly as possible. Other transports came from Gusen and probably also from Ravensbrück . Operation 14f13 ended with the last transport of inmates to Hartheim on December 11, 1944.

From December 1944 to January 1945, inmates of the Mauthausen concentration camp dismantled the facilities and largely restored them to the state of construction from 1939. From March 1945 a "Gauhilfsschule" was housed in the castle.

Killing doctors

The T4 organizers Viktor Brack and Karl Brandt ordered that the killing of the sick could only be carried out by the medical staff, since Hitler's letter of authorization of September 1, 1939 only referred to doctors. The operation of the gas tap was therefore the task of the gassing doctors in the killing centers. However, in the course of the action it also happened that, when the doctors were absent or for other reasons, the gas tap was also operated by non-medical staff. Some doctors did not appear under their real names in external correspondence, but used cover names. The killing doctors in Hartheim were:

In October 1940, a father reported the mysterious death of his son to the public prosecutor in Hartheim. He suspected that things might not have been right here. The authorities in Upper Danube asked the Attorney General Ferdinand Eypeltauer in Linz to drop the proceedings. Eypeltauer decided differently, he ordered the responsible doctor in the Georg Renno Castle to be investigated and questioned as a suspect. In September 1941, Eypeltauer was ordered to discontinue the proceedings. He discontinued the proceedings and resigned from office.

prehistory

From 1898 onwards, the Upper Austrian Provincial Welfare Association ran a modern facility for handicapped care in Hartheim Castle, in which around 200 handicapped people from Upper Austria lived and were cared for by Sisters of Charity . On December 10, 1938, the association was dissolved and the management of the institution was transferred to the welfare department of the Gau self-administration. The fosterlings were originally supposed to be moved to Schloss Haus , but in March 1940 the women and girls came to the Gau welfare home in Baumgartenberg Monastery , the men and boys to the Niedernhart sanatorium .

The structural redesign of Hartheim Castle into a killing center took place in the spring of 1940 in a few weeks. Together with other renovations, a gas chamber and a crematorium were installed in two rooms in the eastern part of the building .

Course of the killings and its current documentation

Niedernhart intermediate facility

The sites of the Nazi mass murder campaign (later called T4) had upstream intermediate facilities. Many of the victims' transports to the Hartheim terminus were carried out via the Niedernhart state insane asylum in Linz, where Rudolf Lonauer worked as a doctor, as in Hartheim, as director. Killings took place there too. They occurred mainly through systematic malnutrition and the administration of overdoses of drugs (characteristics of cruelty and insidiousness). New transport groups were selected and put together again and again. A bus that drove to Hartheim was then filled with the selected victims.

Approach and access area

At the beginning of the T4 campaign, the buses that were used for transports to Hartheim Castle were minibuses that could enter the inner courtyard through the castle gate on the south side. Subsequently, these were replaced by larger buses, which stopped on the west side of the castle. A wooden shed was therefore built in this area, which on the one hand should protect against prying eyes, but on the other hand also prevent people from being able to move freely after getting out. Instead, they had to enter a part of the inner courtyard of the castle through a narrow side entrance on the north-west corner, which was delimited by a wooden shed.

The woodshed was demolished at the end of 1944 as part of the demolition work. As part of an art project, a symbolic replica was made in the form of glass and metal plates. The starting points of the transports are noted on the glass plates.

Shed and undressing room

The arcade on the north side of the castle was largely separated in time from 1940 to 1944 with a wooden shed from the courtyard. This made it almost impossible for the victims of the killings to enter the actual courtyard of the palace. Instead, the wooden shed made it easier for the perpetrators to lead people into the functional rooms of the killing operation. The first stop was the changing room.

The wooden shed, which was removed in the course of the dismantling work in 1944, was symbolically reconstructed with steel panels as part of the artistic transformation of Hartheim Castle into a memorial. In the first arcade field, the number 1940, the year in which the killings began, was shown using a barcode by arranging appropriately designed panels . A documentation is now housed in the former undressing room, in which both individual victims and certain perpetrators are described.

Examination room

In the examination room, a doctor determined the identity of each person. In addition, an examination was carried out for the presence of gold teeth, which were removed from the corpses marked with a cross on their backs after the killing process by the “burners”, the operators of the crematorium oven. People who represented special medical cases from the point of view of the doctors were photographed in the recording room. After the murder, some organs were removed and dissected.

In today's memorial, the 30,000 victims are remembered in this room. Every name that could be determined was embossed on glass plates. The determination of the order of the names was deliberately left to a computer program in order to rule out any possible interpretations regarding the evaluation or meaning of a name sequence from the outset.

In this room, personal belongings are also on display, which were uncovered in the course of an archaeological emergency excavation on the east side of the castle. These items were buried by personnel at the killing center between 1940 and 1944. These pits also contained the ashes and bones from the crematorium. These pits were discovered in the course of work on a district heating pipe. Parts of the finds were recovered as a block and are now exhibited in this form in the former examination room. Remnants of bones and crematorium ashes were placed in a sarcophagus on the east side of the castle in 2002 and other finds in 2009 .

The examination room is also the starting point of a walkway on which one can walk into the next rooms. This is not an original replica, but rather, on the one hand, making the following rooms accessible to visitors to the memorial and, on the other hand, maintaining the condition of the rooms shown.

Gas chamber

The former gas chamber, which can be accessed via a footbridge
Technical room in which the gas bottles were stored
Morgue in which the bodies of the victims were temporarily stored
Crematorium: The place of the oven is indicated by the ceiling lighting

Immediately after the investigation, the people were gassed in the adjacent gas chamber. This chamber was separated from the examination room by a gas-tight steel door. To deceive the victims, three shower heads were placed on the ceiling. There was a peephole on the courtyard side through which the killing process could be observed. The gassing usually took place in groups of 30 to 60 people by introducing carbon monoxide through a perforated pipe close to the ground. The opening of the gas tap and thus the immediate act of murdering the people was usually carried out by the doctors, in exceptional cases also by the "Brenner". After ten to fifteen minutes, the people in the roughly 25 square meter room were dead. One hour after the gas had been released, the "burners" carried the corpses into the morgue.

Today the former gas chamber can be accessed via a footbridge that begins in the former examination room.

Technical room

In the small technical room that followed, the carbon monoxide was stored in gas bottles that were obtained from IG Farben in Ludwigshafen .

The former technical room can now also be accessed via the footbridge.

Morgue

After the killing process, the gas was diverted, after which the "burners" transported the bodies of the victims to the so-called morgue. They often stayed there for several days until they could be cremated in the crematorium. The "Brenner" Vinzenz Nohel , who was executed in Landsberg am Lech in 1947 for his deeds, described macabre details of this process in a testimony.

The footbridge that begins today in the examination room also leads through the tiled morgue and thus enables visitors to the memorial to walk through it.

crematorium

The crematorium furnace installed in Hartheim Castle had two combustion chambers in which up to eight dead people could be cremated at the same time. The furnace is fired with coke . Since not the entire body of a victim was burned, an electric bone grinder was also used to grind the bones of the dead. The ashes of the crematorium were put into sacks and initially brought to the Danube, about four kilometers away, by van . The ashes were then disposed of in the palace gardens, where they were found in 2001 during the archaeological excavations. Some of the ashes were also sent to relatives in urns , and these urns were filled with the remains of the crematorium at random.

Today the footbridge over which the individual functional rooms of the killing operation can be viewed ends in the former crematorium room. Since the crematorium oven also disappeared in the course of the dismantling at the end of 1944, its old position is precisely illuminated with light from the ceiling.

T4 headquarters from August 1943 in Hartheim and Weißenbach am Attersee

Due to the air war, the headquarters of Nazi euthanasia was relocated from Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin to Ostmark , Austria, which at the time was often referred to as the Reich's air raid shelter. The move ensured the continued implementation of the centrally planned and organized crimes. The statistics as well as the files of Paul Nitsche - correspondence, notes and reports - probably came as part of this relocation of the T4 headquarters to Hartheim (office department, cost accounting office) and the "Villa Schoberstein" recreation home near Weißenbach am Attersee (medical department).

Fatalities

Memorial plaques in Hartheim Castle

As part of the T4 campaign, Hartheim was the murder center for victims from the "Ostmark", Bavaria and Lower Styria :

Known fatalities

To the clergy

A total of 310 Polish, seven German, six Czech, four Luxembourg, three Dutch and two Belgian priests were murdered. Many of them had been removed from the pastors' block of the Dachau camp . The clergyman Hermann Scheipers had also been transferred to the invalid's block to be taken to Hartheim. Scheiper's sister - who was in correspondence with her brother - turned to a certain Dr. Bernsdorf, employee of the RSHA Berlin-Oranienburg, who was responsible for the priests in the pastors' block. Allegedly she confronted him that in Münsterland it was an open secret that imprisoned priests were being sent to the gas. Bernsdorf allegedly got nervous during the conversation and phoned the Dachau headquarters. Scheipers reports that there was a reaction on the same day, August 13, 1942: He and three other German clergy were transferred from the invalid's block (here the SS collected prisoners for removal) to the pastor's block.

Areas of responsibility of the Hartheim T4 staff and their legal prosecution

The group of people who, depending on their area of ​​responsibility, was more or less guilty at Hartheim Castle from 1940 to 1944 comprised around 60 to 70 people.

Perpetrators and their areas of responsibility

doctors

As already mentioned, the two killing doctors had the task of opening the gas tap and were therefore responsible for the immediate killing process. But they were also formally at the highest level within the hierarchy in the killing center. Another task of the doctors was to determine the cause of death and to keep medical records. They had to mark people with gold teeth as well as people whose organs were to be removed later. Representing the institution externally was also one of its tasks. The following doctors were employed in Hartheim:

  • Rudolf Lonauer was the leading Nazi euthanasia doctor in Hartheim, in the Niedernhart state insane asylum in Linz, and in the Gschwendt castle alternative in Neuhofen an der Krems. In both Niedernhart and Gschwendt Castle, he killed patients by administering poison. Together with his deputy Renno, he also made selections of prisoners in the Gusen concentration camp . After he had first killed his children, he then committed suicide along with his wife on 5 May 1945 in Neuhofen an der Krems suicide and escaped by a criminal prosecution.
  • Georg Renno was Rudolf Lonauer's deputy and also had the powers of a Nazi euthanasia doctor. After the end of the war, Renno managed to go into hiding, after he used his real name again from 1955, he was arrested in Germany in 1961. In the course of preparing for his trial, the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt am Main created the so-called "Renno file", which contained a wealth of information in the form of documents or witness statements. In 1967 the trial against Georg Renno began, who tried to delay it again and again in terms of negotiating tactics. After an appendicitis , the process was temporarily suspended in 1970. Due to other real or simulated illnesses, the judicial prosecution finally ceased in 1975. He died in 1997 without showing remorse in a detailed interview shortly before his death.

Nursing staff

One of the tasks of the nursing staff was to lead the people arriving on the bus to the changing room. There, the victims had to undress, the nursing staff helped and collected and registered items of clothing and belongings of the people. Then the now naked people were brought by the nursing staff to the reception room, where the doctor on duty was already waiting. Victims who were to be photographed often required the support of two carers. When all the procedures were through, the nurses led the people into the gas chamber.

Since there were too few nurses at the beginning of Action T4 in mid-May 1940, members of the office staff were also called in to carry out the individual tasks described above. The transport attendants, such as Karl Harrer and Kurt Steubl, who accompanied the transports from Niedernhart, also helped with these work processes in the first operating phase.

The first members of the nursing staff, head nurse Gertrude Blanke and Hermann Wentzel, came to Hartheim just a few weeks before the killing operation began. The personnel situation only eased when, in mid-October 1940, eleven nurses from the staff of the Ybbs sanatorium on the Danube were assigned to Hartheim. Among them was Franz Sitter, who asked for immediate release from his service ten days after he had become aware of the tasks that had to be performed at Hartheim Castle. As a reason, he stated that he wanted to move in. In fact, his wish was granted on February 6, 1941.

The following nurses were employed in the Hartheim, Niedernhart and Gschwend institutions:

  • Johann Baumgartner, b. on January 9th, 1896. As head nurse in Niedernhart, he was responsible for the division of staff and the transmission of the daily arrivals and departures of the nurses. There were preliminary investigations against him in 1948, but the complaint was dropped by the public prosecutor in May 1948.
  • Gertrude Blanke, born in Berlin, was the first member of the nursing staff to work in Hartheim from April 1940. She later became the head of the nursing staff and was still in Hartheim in 1944. The public prosecutor's office stopped its investigations on February 25, 1947 because the accused could not be found.
  • Karl Harrer, b. on December 14, 1893, worked as a nurse in Niedernhart and was commissioned by clinic director Rudolf Lonauer to transport the patients from Niedernhart to Hartheim. In his trial, Harrer described the processes in the early phase of Action T4 as well as his support for Lonauer with patient murders in Niederhart. He was found guilty on July 3, 1948 and sentenced to 66 months in prison.
  • Leopold Lang, b. on October 30, 1899, worked as a nurse in Niedernhart, and should never have been to Hartheim Castle himself. But since he assisted the head of the hospital in Niedernhart, Rudolf Lonauer, in the murders of patients, Lang was sentenced on July 3, 1948 to 36 months in prison.
  • Karl Steubel , b. on October 25, 1910, was a nurse in Niedernhart and was responsible for transports between his place of work and Hartheim from 1939 to 1942. In the course of Aktion Reinhardt he was deployed as a member of the SS guards in the Sobibor extermination camp, where he was considered sadistic and callous among the prisoners. In the course of the judicial processing of the crimes of Hartheim Castle, preliminary investigations were initiated against him. Since he had committed suicide on September 21, 1945, the prosecution closed the case against him on February 25, 1947.
  • Anton Schrottmayer, b. on March 11, 1899, worked as a nurse in Ybbs on the Danube and was one of the eleven nurses who were conscripted to Hartheim in October 1940. During the T4 campaign he worked as a transport attendant. In 1942 he was transferred to the Gschwendt branch, where he administered lethal injections himself on behalf of Lonauer. He confessed to these murders on August 3, 1946 before the district court of Ybbs an der Donau, and the next day he committed suicide in the prison of the district court. The public prosecutor's office thereupon stopped the proceedings against him on February 25, 1947.

Other members of the nursing staff were Anna Griessenberger, Franz Gindl, Hermine Gruber, Margarethe Haider, Maria Hammelsböck, Maria Lambert, Hermann Merta, Maria Raab, Maria Wittmann and Hermann Wentzl, who as a pathologist was responsible for the organ removal ordered by Lonauer and Renno. Some of these forces (Anna Griessenberger and Margarethe Haider) returned to their old job in Ybbs on the Danube after the T4 campaign was canceled.

Maria Hammelsböck and Maria Lambert reported for a medical operation on the Eastern Front . The precarious situation in the winter of 1941/42 was caused by Viktor Brack , one of the co-organizers of Aktion T4, with nursing staff from the killing centers and around 150 buses in Minsk and Smolensk in the area of Army Group Center and on Lake Peipus in the area of Army Group North when treating the to help many wounded. The action took place within the organizational framework of the Todt Organization , so Maria Hammelsböck and Maria Lambert were dressed as sisters of the Todt Organization in Berlin in December 1941. The two Hartheim chauffeurs Franz Mayrhuber and Johann Lothaller were also there with their buses during the subsequent medical intervention, which took place between January and March 1942.

Administrative staff

The tasks of the administrative staff in the course of Action T4 were varied. There was the function of the “office manager”, whose area of ​​responsibility was as extensive as that of the medical director. He was head of the special registry office, which was set up to cover up the numerous deaths. Further cover-up measures were that the relatives of a victim were informed of the departure or arrival both by the institution making the donation and by Hartheim Castle. However, this was always delayed by a few days, the respective person was already dead at this point. Another ten to twenty days later there was a second letter from Hartheim, in which one in the form of a "consolation letter" stating a fictitious cause of death Death of the relative informed. With this wrong time of death, social security agencies or welfare associations were cheated of millions of Reichsmarks. In addition to organizing this correspondence, the office manager was also responsible for dispatching urns and local police matters. Police officers were therefore often chosen for this function. In the case of Hartheim, this was Christian Wirth, a police officer who had already gained experience in other euthanasia centers.

Another important function was that of economic manager, who was responsible for the procurement of all material resources.

These main functions were supported by a number of office workers, the majority of whom were women. Some of these forces like Irmgard Ladwig, Christian Wirth's secretary, or Irmgard Schwab came directly from the T4 headquarters in Berlin to Hartheim Palace. Many others such as Karoline Burner, Gertraud Dirnberger, Annemarie Gruber, Helene Hintersteiner, Maria Hirsch, Marianne Kuttelwascher, Elisabeth Lego, Siegfriede Muckenhuber and Margit Troller were specifically recruited.

The two district inspectors Stefan Schachermayr (1912–2008) and Franz Peterseil (1907–1991) as well as Adolf Gustav Kaufmann (1902–1974), head of the inspection department of the central office of T4 in, were mainly responsible for this recruitment of the subordinate personnel , confirmed by later testimony Berlin. In the start-up phase of Action T4, some of these office workers had to take over their tasks due to the lack of nursing staff. H. help the victims to undress. Later, when there were enough nurses, these activities were dropped, but there was personal contact with the victims in the examination room. There some of the office workers had to compose different lists according to the instructions of Lonacher and Renno.

Franz Reichleitner, administration
Franz Stangl, deputy office manager

After the T4 campaign was canceled, the specialist knowledge of the administrative staff was required as part of the Reinhardt campaign . In the meantime, some of the Hartheim administrative officials rose to become camp commanders of extermination camps in the Generalgouvernement . After this activity had also come to an end, most of them found themselves in the special department Operation R , where they continued their murder trade in the Adriatic Coastal Operation Zone .

  • Franz Reichleitner : criminal policeman and Gestapo officer from Linz. In Hartheim he was Franz Stangl's deputy, after the termination of Operation T4 he was promoted to commandant of the Sobibor extermination camp as part of Operation Reinhardt . On January 3, 1944, he was shot by partisans in the course of his work in the "Special Department Operation R" near Rijeka .
  • Franz Stangl : criminal investigator and Gestapo officer. He was Christian Wirth's successor as office manager at Hartheim Castle. During the Reinhardt campaign, he became the commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps . After that he also worked in the "Special Department, Operation R". After the war he fled with Gustav Wagner because of the Hartheim trials in Linz, first to Syria in 1948 , and in 1951 he emigrated to Brazil . In 1967, at the instigation of Simon Wiesenthal, he was arrested and extradited to Germany. In 1970 the Düsseldorf Regional Court sentenced him to life imprisonment in the third Treblinka trial . He appealed the sentence and died of heart failure in the detention center in 1971.
  • Gustav Wagner : Administrative officer in Hartheim Castle. In the course of Aktion Reinhardt, he became deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp. After that he also worked in the "Special Department, Operation R". After the war, Wagner fled to Syria with Franz Stangl, after which he emigrated to Brazil like Stangl. Simon Wiesenthal was able to track him down too. He was arrested in 1978, and two years later, according to his lawyer, he is said to have committed suicide.
Christian Wirth, office manager
  • Christian Wirth : Detective superintendent and first office manager at Hartheim Castle. He was later appointed inspector of all euthanasia centers. As part of Aktion Reinhardt, he was first commandant of the Belzec extermination camp, and from August 1942 inspector of the extermination camps. Probably from September 1943 he headed the "Special Department Operation R". On May 26, 1944, he was shot by partisans.

The economic managers at Hartheim Castle were:

  • Friedrich Vollmann, first economic manager at Hartheim Castle (until December 1940)
  • Hans-Heinrich Lenz, Vollmann's successor as economic director, stayed in Hartheim Castle until the end of 1944
  • Arthur Walther, economic manager. He was likely to have worked in this function in Hartheim from the beginning of 1942 to the end of 1944. This activity was interrupted by a vacation replacement he had to do in September 1942 in one of the extermination camps.

After the T4 campaign was canceled, there were only a few office workers left in Hartheim Castle. Some returned to the headquarters in Berlin, others found jobs in the apparatus of the NSDAP or in government agencies such as the Gauleitung (Gertraud Dirnberger), the Gauschatzamt (Karoline Burner) or the Gaufürsorgeamt (Maria Hirsch). However, these employees still remained on the payroll of the T4 headquarters because the opinion there was that the termination of the T4 operation would only represent a temporary interruption. Therefore one wanted to keep the proven staff. Another reason was that these people were holding secrets.

When the T4 headquarters in Berlin was hit by a heavy bomb in 1943 and parts of the administration were relocated to Hartheim Castle, some of the former office workers such as Helene Hintersteiner returned to Hartheim Castle.

burner

The task of the so-called "burners" essentially comprised the removal of the corpses. To do this, they had to fetch the naked corpses of the victims from the gas chamber and transport them to the morgue for temporary storage. In the case of specially marked bodies, the burners had to break out the gold teeth. Up to eight people were burned at the same time in the crematorium furnace with its two combustion chambers.

Although it was clearly regulated in Action T4 that only one doctor had to open the gas tap, they often delegated this activity and thus the actual killing offense to the burners. In the case of Hartheim, these were primarily the two top producers Otto Schmidtgen and Josef Vallaster. After the T4 campaign was canceled, only Vinzenz Nohel and Otto Schmidtgen of the six distillers remained in Hartheim Castle. In the gassings of concentration camp prisoners, which began immediately after Action T4 and continued until 1944, there were no strict regulations regarding the execution of the gassing. So it is still not clear who opened the gas tap as part of action 14f13. Nohel and Schmidtgen come into question, but also members of the SS men who accompanied the transports, as well as Hans-Joachim Becker , who stayed in the castle after the T4 headquarters were moved from Berlin to Hartheim.

Vinzenz Nohel (during the Mauthausen Trial in 1946)
  • Vinzenz Nohel came to Hartheim on April 2, 1940 almost at the same time as Josef Vallaster. Since the castle was currently in the renovation phase, they initially had to remove the dirt from the renovation work. Since Nohel was involved as a burner in the murders of the concentration camp prisoners from Mauthausen and Gusen after 1941, he was indicted by the military court of the United States Army in the main Mauthausen trial in Dachau . Nohel, referred to in the American files as "Fireman at Castle Hartheim", was the only one of the 61 defendants who reported his actions relatively openly. On May 13, 1946, he was sentenced to death by hanging ; the sentence was carried out on May 27, 1947 in the Landsberg am Lech war crimes prison .
Memorial plaque in the community of Silbertal in which Josef Vallaster is mentioned
  • Josef Vallaster came to Hartheim in 1940 shortly before Vinzenz Nohel and helped to remove the consequences of the renovation work. During the T4 campaign he was one of the top burners together with Otto Schmidtgen. Because of this position, it is likely that he also operated the gas tap in the absence of the euthanasia doctors Lonacher and Renno. After Action T4 was broken off, Vallaster probably joined the SS and became an overseer in the Sobibor extermination camp. On October 14, 1943, during the uprising in the Sobibor extermination camp , he was lured into a trap on the pretext that he should try on his new boots in the shoemaker's workshop. During the fitting, he was killed with an ax by the Jewish camp inmates Itzhak Lichtman and the shoemaker Scholem Fleischacker . At the beginning of the 2000s, people in his home town of Silbertal dealt critically with the time of the Second World War. In the course of this research there was a public discussion about the person of Josef Vallaster, whose name was on the local war memorial among the fallen. In the course of this reprocessing process, the war memorial was removed and instead a memorial place was created where the deeds of Josef Vallaster are also remembered.
Kurt Bolender
  • Otto Schmidtgen came to Hartheim Castle at the beginning of June 1940. While Vallaster and Nohel were Austrians, Schmidtgen and all the other burners were sent to Hartheim from T4 headquarters in Berlin. Since Schmidtgen was one of the two top burners next to Vallaster and stayed in Hartheim Castle together with Vinzenz Nohel until 1944, it can be assumed that he also had to open the gas tap.
  • Kurt Bolender was a member of the SS Death's Head Associations . Bolender was transferred from the T4 headquarters to Hartheim. After the end of Operation T4, he took part in the Todt organization's medical service on the Eastern Front. As part of Aktion Reinhardt, he was sent to the Sobibor extermination camp, where he was in charge of part of the camp. He was guilty of hundreds of murders in this activity and was feared by the prisoners because of his sadism . Like many other members of Aktion Reinhardt, he became part of the "Special Department Operation R" after it ended. After the war Bolender lived in Hamburg under a false name. He was arrested in 1961 after his identity and whereabouts could be determined. In the Sobibor trial of the 1960s, he was charged with murder in at least 360 cases. On October 10, 1966, he committed his life by hanging while in custody before the sentence was pronounced.
  • Hubert Gomerski was also a member of the SS Totenkopfverband, and he too came to Hartheim via the T4 headquarters. After a temporary transfer back to the T4 headquarters, he worked again as a burner in the Hadamar killing center . In the course of Aktion Reinhardt, he was transferred to the Sobibor extermination camp, where he led the so-called forest command. He too committed countless murders during this time and was also feared for his sadism. After the war he was acquitted in 1947 in the Hadamar trial , which involved the crimes in the killing center of the same name. In 1950 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Sobibor trial before the Frankfurt am Main regional court . In 1972 the Federal Court of Justice overturned the judgment. New convictions also failed at the Federal Court of Justice and in the 1980s because of Gomerski's state of health. He died in Frankfurt am Main in 1999 at the age of 88.
  • Paul Groth : In some publications his family name is wrongly given as "Grath". There is also different information about his origin (born on January 21, 1918 in Sopot or 1913 in Hamburg ). It is certain that he also came to Hartheim via the T4 headquarters and was then first deployed to the Belzec extermination camp during the Reinhardt campaign. In 1942 Christian Wirth transferred him to Sobibor, where he initially supervised the sorting of clothes in camp II, after which he was also deployed in the immediate killing area (camp III). Among the inmates, he was considered one of the most brutal guards, who was accused of numerous murders. Groth also had a love affair with a Jewish woman who was later murdered. Because of his alcohol consumption, Christian Wirth transferred him back to Belzec, after the liquidation of this camp he returned to Sobibor. After the war he went into hiding, his wife applied to the court for a declaration of death in 1951 . Groth was still listed as missing in 1962.
Paul Bredow (far left) with three other SS members in the Treblinka Zoo
  • Paul Bredow was a trained waiter. Before he came to Hartheim, he worked in the canteen at T4 headquarters. As part of Aktion Reinhardt, he and Franz Stangl first went to the Treblinka extermination camp, then to Sobibor. Bredow was not only responsible for the kitchen and officers' mess there, but also carried out numerous shootings himself and commanded firing squads . After the Reinhardt campaign ended, he was transferred to the Risiera di San Sabba concentration camp in Trieste . After the war he worked as a carpenter in Gießen until he was killed in a car accident in Göttingen in December 1945 .

driver

The task of the chauffeurs, all of whom came from Upper Austria, was to bring the victims from Niedernhart, from the Linz main train station or from the institutions that sent them to Hartheim. At first, smaller buses were available for this, with which one could drive directly through the main gate into the castle. After that, the killing facility received three Mercedes omnibuses from the Reichspost , which were then used to access the west side of the castle. For camouflage, the buses continued to carry the Reichspost license plates.

At the beginning of the killing cation, the drivers also had the additional task of bringing the ashes from the crematorium , which were packed into sacks by the burners, to the Danube four kilometers away and emptying the sacks there. On the one hand, this task was very time-consuming and, on the other hand, there was a risk that the local population could become suspicious of the frequent journeys. Therefore, after a while, people started to bury the ashes in pits in the castle garden.

The following drivers were stationed in Hartheim Castle:

  • Franz Hödl : born August 1, 1905, member of the SS. Went to Odilo Globocnik's office in Lublin in November 1942 and later became Franz Stangl's driver. In the Sobibor extermination camp , he operated an engine that was used to kill people.
  • Johann Lothaller and Franz Mayrhuber. After Operation T4 was canceled in January 1942, both drove their buses to the Eastern Front to take part in a medical operation as part of the Todt Organization. Your testimony after the war was used in the trial against Georg Renno.
  • Anton Getzinger : born on November 24, 1910 in Öblarn , member of the SS. After his time as a driver in Hartheim, he was a member of the guards at the Sobibór extermination camp. He died in October 1943, shortly before the start of the Sobibór uprising, while handling a Russian hand grenade . In order to cover up the circumstances of his death, an official notice stated that he had died on December 9, 1944 while fighting partisans in Serbia .
  • Johann Anzinger

Other staff

  • Heinrich Barbl was a member of the SS and employed as a craftsman as a plumber in Hartheim Castle. His job included stamping names on the lids of urns. In 1964 he confessed that he had made up to 20 such signs a day and filled the corresponding urns with ashes from a "large heap". After Action T4 was canceled, he helped set up the extermination camps in the east as part of Aktion Reinhardt. During their operation he took on a supervisory function. Although he was questioned as a witness in the 1960s, he was not prosecuted.
  • As a master bricklayer, Erwin Lambert was responsible for the construction management of the renovation work in Hartheim and other euthanasia centers. After Hartheim, his knowledge was needed to set up the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps. For this reason, he was sentenced to several years in prison in the Treblinka and Sobibor trials of the 1960s for aiding and abetting community murder.
Kurt Franz
  • Kurt Franz was a trained cook and member of the SS-Totenkopfverband in Hartheim and other euthanasia institutions as a cook. In the course of Aktion Reinhardt, he was assigned to the guards of the Treblinka extermination camp. He was distinguished by a particular sadism and became a multiple murderer in Treblinka. After the recall of warehouse manager Franz Stangl, he took over his successor. At the Treblinka Trial in 1965 he was sentenced to life in prison.
  • As a craftsman, Matthias Buchberger from Scharten was one of the first and also one of the last employees at Hartheim Castle. Buchberger's area of ​​responsibility was general craft activities, and there was no criminal prosecution.
  • Friedrich Lorent was the head of the T4 main economic center, who had also been in Hartheim. Shortly before the end of the war, at Easter 1945, he returned to Hartheim Castle to burn films and files and have furniture removed. After remaining unmolested for years after the war, he was sentenced in 1970 by the Frankfurt am Main regional court to seven years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting the murder of over 4,300 concentration camp prisoners.

The photographer's job was to take pictures of the people the doctors found interesting for whatever reason. They took a photo from the front, a profile picture and a full body picture. The first photographer was called Franz Wagner, his successor Bruno Bruckner. While Bruckner stated that he photographed 30 to 35 victims a day, Wagner spoke of 60 to 80% of the people who would have been selected for photos by the doctors. In the course of the cover-up measures between October 1944 and December 1944, various office workers said that numerous medical files, which also contained photos, were destroyed. According to her statements, another part of the files had been transported to Bad Schönfließ .

From Hartheim itself, only Rosa Haas (as a gardener) and Aloisia Ehrengruber (as a kitchen assistant) worked during the killing operations in the castle.

Possibly more staff

The history of the Hartheim killing facility was established by the establishment of the "Verein Schloss Hartheim" association in 1995 and the foundation "Learning and Memorial Site Hartheim" in 2004, as well as the installation of the documentation center of Upper Austria. State archives in Hartheim Castle over the last 20 years processed and documented in detail. In particular, the association's long-time chairwoman, the historian Brigitte Kepplinger , has described the history of Hartheim in various publications. The following names cannot be found in these publications and are based on other sources:

  • Hans Girtzig: SS member. Girtzig was responsible for the canteen in Hartheim and in the Grafeneck killing center . As part of Aktion Reinhardt, he was first transferred to the Belzec extermination camp, where he was also responsible for the canteen. Later he also served in the Poniatowa camp and the Sobibor extermination camp.
  • Max Gringers: SS member. Gringers worked in the canteen at Hartheim Castle, and he was also employed in the Grafeneck and Hadamar killing centers. At the Belzec extermination camp, Gringers was responsible for sorting clothes. After the end of the Reinhardt campaign, like many others, he was transferred to Italy, where he died. Gringer's grave, like that of Christian Wirth and Franz Reichleitner, can be found in the Costermano sul Garda military cemetery .
  • Ferdinand Gromer: b. on April 7, 1903. He may have worked as a cook in Hartheim Castle. As part of the Reinhardt campaign, Gromer was first assigned to the kitchen in the Sobibor extermination camp. Later he was directly involved in the gassings and the cremation of the corpses. Due to alcohol problems, his removal was carried out by Franz Reichleitner.
  • Hermann Michel first worked in the Grafeneck euthanasia center before he was transferred to Hartheim as head nurse. In the winter of 1941/42 he took part in the medical service on the Eastern Front. As part of Aktion Reinhardt, Michel was first transferred to the Sobibor extermination camp, then to Treblinka in November 1942. His job was to talk to the arriving Jews into believing that they had arrived in a labor camp. He was therefore also called the "preacher" by the prisoners, although he was considered sadistic and unscrupulous. After the war he was arrested by the American army in Bad Aibling . Michel was released in 1946, and it is believed that he lived in Egypt afterwards .

Prosecution

In a total of three trials, two in Austria and one in Germany, attempts were made to deal with the euthanasia crimes in Hartheim Castle, in Niedernhart Linz and in the Gschwendt Castle alternative in Neuhofen an der Krems. But convictions as a result of these trials were the exception.

Since some of the perpetrators took on leading roles in the occupied territories in the east after the termination of Operation T4 in 1941 in the course of Aktion Reinhardt and the number of victims there exceeded those of Hartheim many times over, some were tried for these crimes during theirs Murder acts in Hartheim went unpunished.

Trials before the People's Court in Linz in 1947 and 1948

The people's courts established in Austria after the Second World War dealt with the mass crimes in the three institutions in two trials in Linz in 1947 and 1948.

The first trial ended on November 26, 1947, with convictions of two male nurses. They were sentenced to 3½ and 2½ years for involvement in murder and ill-treatment. In contrast, six nurses whose work was judged by the court to be "obligated to emergency service" received an acquittal.

In the course of the preparation of the main proceedings , investigations were conducted against a total of 61 suspects (43 men and 18 women). They worked in the following positions during the crimes in the Hartheim, Niedernhart and Gschwendt institutions:

  • Doctors: 3 men (including Rudolf Lonauer and Georg Renno)
  • Nursing staff: 15 men and 8 women
  • Administrative staff: 9 men and 7 women (including Franz Stangl)
  • Driver: 4 men
  • "Heizer" / "Brenner": 6 men (including Vinzenz Nohel)
  • Function unknown: 6 men and 3 women

The main hearing finally began in Linz in July 1948, but only three of the 61 suspects were charged. Two nurses received prison sentences (Karl Harrer 66 months, Leopold Lang 36 months), one was acquitted. The public prosecutor had previously:

  • in the case of 13 accused the indictment dismissed (§ 90 StPO)
  • In the case of 22 suspects, the proceedings were terminated because the perpetrator could not be found (Section 412 StPO)
  • in the case of 13 accused, the proceedings were ruled out in another proceeding
  • in the case of seven suspects, the proceedings were discontinued due to their death (Section 224 StG)

In the case of three other people, the outcome of the investigation is unknown, and no charges were brought.

Trial against Georg Renno in Frankfurt am Main

Between 1967 and 1970 the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt am Main tried to convict Georg Renno, the deputy Nazi euthanasia doctor in Hartheim, of the murder in a trial in Frankfurt am Main . Although this attempt ultimately failed because the accused was able to achieve that the trial against him was finally stopped in 1975 through real or simulated illnesses, this trial was a milestone in the processing of the events that had taken place in Austria as part of Action T4, The fact that this court process was made possible in this form was due to the establishment of the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the investigation of National Socialist crimes and the associated change in the attitude towards Nazi crimes in German judicial circles. The German public prosecutor's office spared no effort in the preparatory phase for the trial, which lasted from 1961 to 1967, and went to enormous lengths to reconstruct what was going on around Hartheim Castle. The so-called “Renno-Akt” that arose from this was therefore one of the most important sources of information for Austrian research projects on this topic, which were often only initiated decades later.

Processing and commemoration

In the castle there is the learning and memorial place Schloss Hartheim . The new concept for this was decided in 1997 by the state of Upper Austria and the state charity. The structural traces of the killing center were then exposed and secured. Immediately following the killing rooms, a room of silence has been created. In 2003 the place of learning and memorial and the exhibition “The Value of Life” was opened. In the former functional rooms of the perpetrators, comprehensive historical information is provided.

In 2001 a memorial stone was erected on the banks of the Danube between Brandstatt near Wörth (district of Pupping ) and Wilhering at the level of the village of Gstocket (municipality of Alkoven ), where the ashes of the euthanasia victims from Hartheim were poured into the Danube , on the initiative of the Hartheim Castle Association. The inscription on the very large Danube pebble comes from the Upper Austrian writer Franz Rieger : "The water erased the traces that memory preserves." An additional information board explains the historical context. The stone is at river kilometer 2,148.5 m, turning area, on the south bank. The point can be reached via the access to the Danube power plant Ottensheim / Wilhering .

See also

The other five T4 killing centers were:

literature

  • Henry Friedlander , Johanna Friedmann (translator): The way to the Nazi genocide. From euthanasia to the final solution . Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0265-6 . - Table of contents (PDF).
  • Heinz Eberhard Gabriel (Ed.), Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Pioneers of Destruction? From forced sterilization to murder . On the history of Nazi euthanasia in Vienna, Volume 2. Böhlau, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-205-99325-X . - Table of contents (PDF; 32 kB)
  • Christian Geissler : End of the inquiry. Rütten & Loenig, Munich 1967, also as a radio play SWR, 1965
  • Mireille Horsinga-Renno, Martin Bauer (translator): The doctor from Hartheim: How I found out the truth about my uncle's Nazi past . rororo paperback. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-62307-3 . - content text .
  • Brigitte Kepplinger: The Hartheim Euthanasia Center 1940-1945 . In: Brigitte Kepplinger, Gerhart Marckhgott , Hartmut Reese (eds.): Hartheim death center . 3. Edition. Linz 2013, p. 63–116 ( antifa-info.at [PDF; 197 kB ; accessed on February 21, 2020]).
  • Brigitte Kepplinger (Hrsg.), Gerhart Marckhgott (Hrsg.), Hartmut Reese (Hrsg.): Kötungsanstalt Hartheim . 2nd, expanded edition. Upper Austria in the time of National Socialism, Volume 3. Upper Austrian State Archives, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-900313-89-0 . - Table of contents (PDF).
  • Ernst Klee (Ed.): Documents on "Euthanasia" . (Original edition from 1985). Fischer pocket books, Volume 4327. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 .
  • Ernst Klee: German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945 . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 . (Chapter 10: Austria).
  • Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state: the "destruction of life unworthy of life" . Unabridged edition, 12th edition. Fischer pocket books, Volume 4326. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 3-596-24326-2 .
  • Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Third Reich. The "destruction of life unworthy of life" . Completely revised new edition. Fischer pocket books, Volume 18674, The time of National Socialism. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 . - content text. (Formerly under the title: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state ).
  • Walter Kohl: The pyramids of Hartheim. “Euthanasia” in Upper Austria 1940 to 1945 . Edition history of the homeland. Stein Maßl, Grünbach 1997, ISBN 3-900943-51-6 . - Table of contents (PDF; 17 kB)
  • Walter Kohl : "I don't feel guilty". Georg Renno, euthanasia doctor . Paul-Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-552-04973-8 .
  • Kurt Leininger : Ordinary death - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim Castle . Verlagshaus der Ärzte, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-901488-82-5 .
  • Tom Matzek : The Murder Castle. On the trail of Nazi crimes in Hartheim Castle . 1st edition. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-218-00710-0 . ( Description of contents ).
  • Johannes Neuhauser (Ed.): Hartheim - where unknown. Letters & Documents . Publication P No 1 - Provincial Library. Provincial Library, Weitra 1992, ISBN 3-900878-47-1 .
  • Markus Rachbauer: The Wels victims of the Nazi "euthanasia" crimes . In: Stadt Wels (Ed.): National Socialism in Wels , Volume 2, Wels 2012, pp. 129–202.
  • Markus Rachbauer, The murders of “unable to work” foreign civilian workers in the “Gau Oberdonau” . In: Working group for research into National Socialist "euthanasia" and forced sterilization (ed.): Nazi euthanasia in the "Ostmark" - specialist conference from April 17 to 19, 2009 in the learning and memorial site Hartheim Castle, alcove. Report of the working group, Volume 8, Ulm 2012, ISBN 978-3-86281-046-8 , pp. 89–113.
  • Franz Rieger : Shadow silence or Hartheim. Novel . (Time-critical novel). Styria, Graz (inter alia) 1985, ISBN 3-222-11641-5 . (2002 edition: ISBN 3-85252-496-2 ).
  • Florian Schwanninger : Hartheim 1940–1944 . In: Günter Morsch, Bertrand Perz (ed.): New studies on Nazi mass killings by poison gas . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-99-2 , pp. 118-130
  • Florian Schwanninger, Irene Zauner-Leitner: Traces of life. Biographical sketches of victims of the Nazi killing center Hartheim , Studien Verlag, Innsbruck a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-7065-5294-3

For further references, see the main article: The euthanasia murders in the Nazi era or Action T4

Audio, video

  • T4 - Hartheim 1 - Die und Leben im Schloss , documentation by Werner Kofler , 1988, published on DVD in 2011 in the Edition Der Standard series
  • Tom Matzek: The Murder Castle. A documentary about the atrocities in Hartheim Castle . TV recording ORF, 2001, focus. 1 video cassette (VHS, approx. 45 minutes). S. n. , S. l. 2001, OBV .

Web links

Commons : Aktion T4 in Hartheim  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Sheet from Hartheim Statistics ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf, 160kB)
  2. For the history of the find, see: Klee: “Euthanasia” in the Nazi state , p. 478 with note 23. For the whereabouts of the originals see also: Friedlander: Der Weg zum NS-Genozid , p. 518 f. in note 99.
  3. Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state , p. 24.
  4. ^ Klee: Documents on "Euthanasia" , p. 232 f.
  5. Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Third Reich , p. 266.
  6. Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Third Reich , p. 290.
  7. Klee: “Euthanasia” in the Third Reich , p. 292.
  8. a b Hartheim killing center 1940–1944 , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  9. unworthy of life - Schloss Hartheim , website www.lebensunwert.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  10. a b c d e f Josef Goldberger and Cornelia Sulzbacher: Hartheim. 2008. Website 2199 in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  11. a b c d e f Killing institute - artistic concept , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  12. a b c d Die Kötungsanstalt Hartheim , website www.bizeps.or.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  13. Salvage and restoration. In: www.archeonova.at. Archeonova, 2002, accessed on May 22, 2020 ( displayed in the memorial for the victims of Nazi euthanasia in the north-east tower of Hartheim Castle).
  14. Schloss Hartheim - Friedhof , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  15. ^ Elisabeth Bundschuh, Victim of the Euthanasia Program , website regiowiki.at, accessed on August 3, 2017
  16. See also: Friedlander: Der Weg zum NS-Genozid , p. 518 f. in note 99.
  17. ^ Organization diagram of Nazi euthanasia (PDF; 28 kB). Relocation of Operation T4 to Hartheim in August 1943. - Based on a template in: Klee: “Euthanasia” in the Nazi state , p. 168 f.
  18. Kepplinger 2013, p. 88f (section The balance sheet of the T4 campaign for the establishment “C” (Hartheim) in the PDF ).
  19. Andreas Hutter : No gentle death for a shy Frieda Roth. The wife of the poet Joseph Roth died in the Nazi gas chamber at Hartheim Castle. In: NZZ , March 7, 2011
  20. Aloisia Veit
  21. ^ Stanislav Zámečník, Comité International de Dachau (ed.): That was Dachau . Fischer pocket books, Volume 17228, The time of National Socialism. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-596-17228-4 , pp. 219-222.
  22. ^ Hermann Scheipers: Ridge walks. Priest under two dictatorships . 3. Edition. Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7462-1221-9 .
  23. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 70 (section The establishment of the killing center in PDF).
  24. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - excerpt from the report of the Linz criminal police of July 25, 1946 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  25. ^ A b Peter Schwarz: The Georg Renno court file as a source for the Hartheim project . In: Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance (Ed.): Yearbook . Vienna 1999, p. 80–92 ( nachkriegsjustiz.at [accessed on February 23, 2020]).
  26. Ernst Klee - book review: Walter Kohl: "I don't feel guilty". Georg Renno - Euthanasia doctor , website www.zeit.de, accessed on August 4, 2017
  27. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 83 (section The murder begins: T4 in Hartheim in the PDF ).
  28. a b c d Kepplinger 2013, p. 80 (section The murder begins: T4 in Hartheim in PDF ).
  29. Kepplinger 2013, p. 82 (section The murder begins: T4 in Hartheim in PDF).
  30. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 14 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  31. Kepplinger 2013, p. 77 (section The establishment of the killing center in PDF).
  32. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 11 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  33. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 5 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  34. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 4 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  35. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Sara Berger: Experts of Destruction. The T4 Reinhardt network in the Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka camps , publisher: Hamburger Edition, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86854-268-4
  36. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 6 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  37. Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report - note 21 , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  38. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 102 (section The end of the "action" and the further fate of the "Landesanstalt" in the PDF ).
  39. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 76 (section The establishment of the killing center in PDF).
  40. Barbara Tóth : The handshake - the affair Frischenschlager-Reder . Dissertation. University of Vienna, Vienna 2010, p. 43. - Full text (PDF; 1.5 MB)
  41. Josef Goldberger: "Euthanasia Institution" Hartheim and Reichsgau Upper Danube. Involvement of administrative and party offices of the Reichsgau Upper Danube in the euthanasia program . In: Mitteilungen des Oberösterreichisches Landesarchivs , Volume 19. Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Linz 2000, pp. 359–373. - Full text ( memento of the original from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.2 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ooegeschichte.at
  42. Kepplinger 2013, p. 81 (section The murder begins: T4 in Hartheim in the PDF).
  43. Kepplinger 2013, p. 95 (section mass murder as everyday life in PDF).
  44. a b c Kepplinger 2013, p. 103 (section The end of the "action" and the further fate of the "Landesanstalt" in the PDF ).
  45. a b c d Kepplinger 2013, p. 101 (section The end of the “action” and the further fate of the “state institution” in the PDF ).
  46. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 107 (section The last phase in PDF ).
  47. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 85 (section The murder begins: T4 in Hartheim in the PDF ).
  48. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 79 (section The establishment of the killing center in PDF ).
  49. Michael Bryant: Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, 1955-1966 , Publisher: Legacies of War, pp. 145f, ISBN 978-1-62190-262-1
  50. a b c d e f g h Aktion Reinhard: SS, Police, Railroad and Civilian Personnel , website www.holocaustresearchproject.org, accessed on August 9, 2017
  51. a b Sobiborinterviews.nl - Biographies of SS-men , website www.sobiborinterviews.nl, accessed on August 4, 2017
  52. ^ The Treblinka Perpetrators. An overview of the German and Austrian SS and Police Staff. In: deathcamps.org. September 23, 2006, accessed February 23, 2020 .
  53. ^ Henry Friedlander: The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution , p. 238
  54. Peter Schwarz: The Georg Renno court file as a source for the Hartheim project . In: Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance (Ed.): Yearbook . Vienna 1999, note 22 ( nachkriegsjustiz.at [accessed on February 23, 2020]).
  55. Landesgericht Linz, hearing Heinrich Barbl, October 6, 1964 , website www.erinnern.at, accessed on August 8, 2017
  56. a b Kepplinger 2013, p. 74 (section The establishment of the killing center in PDF ).
  57. Kepplinger 2013, p. 112 (section The End in PDF ).
  58. Kepplinger 2013, p. 111 (section The End in PDF ).
  59. Brigitte Kepplinger : The Hartheim Killing Center 1940–1945. (PDF; 197 kB) In: antifa-info.at. Retrieved on February 21, 2020 (section “Between adaptation and resistance: the village of Hartheim”).
  60. ^ Verein Schloss Hartheim , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 9, 2017
  61. ^ Foundation learning and memorial site Schloss Hartheim , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 9, 2017
  62. ^ Documentation center of Upper Austria. Landesarchivs , website www.schloss-hartheim.at, accessed on August 9, 2017
  63. Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 8: Riga, Warsaw, Vaivara, Kaunas, Płaszów, Kulmhof / Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57237-1 .
  64. a b Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: Niedernhart. June 1946. A report , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017
  65. a b Selected paragraphs of the old Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure that are important for the investigation of processes in the immediate post-war period (including people's court proceedings) , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017.
  66. Selected paragraphs of the Austrian Criminal Law (valid until December 31, 1974) , website www.nachkriegsjustiz.at, accessed on August 4, 2017.
  67. Description of contents ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / magazine.orf.at

Coordinates: 48 ° 16 ′ 52.2 "  N , 14 ° 6 ′ 49.5"  E