Josef August Senge

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Josef August Senge (1906-1941)

Josef August Senge (born May 30, 1906 in Meschede , Westphalia ; † July 17, 1941 in Hadamar near Limburg an der Lahn , Hesse ) was a German factory worker who was murdered in the Hadamar killing center as part of " Aktion T4 ".

Life

Senge was the son of the factory worker August Senge (* November 20, 1874 - February 10, 1953) and the maid Josephine Senge, née Wegener (* May 14, 1875 - November 17, 1947). He had two older sisters (Maria: * May 2, 1902; † March 13, 1989; Josefa: * January 29, 1904, † January 21, 1995), a younger brother (Johann Anton: * January 28, 1910; † 3 April 1984) and a younger sister (Theresia: * December 8, 1912; † November 4, 1998). The family of seven lived in modest circumstances without suffering material hardship. After completing his compulsory schooling ( elementary school ), Josef August worked in a factory just like his father .

On July 25, 1928, at the age of 22, he was admitted to the Warstein Provincial Hospital. The Westphalian State Welfare Association was the sponsor. Josef August Senge was transferred from this institution on June 27, 1941 to the state psychiatric hospital in Herborn and on July 17, 1941, at the age of 35, from Herborn to Hadamar , where he, like other patients who were transferred there that day, was murdered immediately after his arrival has been.

In view of the violent end of his life, Josef August Senge lost 36.14 years of life according to gender and year of birth, year of death and statistical life expectancy (life table ), the statistical comparison with his siblings showed 48.62 lost years of life.

Institutional Psychiatry

"August Senge" is recorded with the registration number 4532 in the "Admission Book of the Men from 1915 to 1930 of the Warstein Institution". May 30, 1906 is given as the date of birth, factory worker as occupation, single as marital status, ES ("simple soul disorder") as the disease form. The recording day was July 25, 1928.

In addition, the admission book finally contains the note that Josef August Senge was transferred to Herborn on June 27, 1941 "unhealed", accompanied by his patient file. On this day, this applies to a total of 235 patients (112 men, 123 women) at the Warstein state hospital. The “relocation list” of the Warstein state hospital shows the Westphalian “state welfare association” as the cost bearer for Josef August Senge (2.25 RM / day).

In an “overview of the transfers from Warstein to other institutions in the period 1941 - 1943”, the address of Josef August Senge's next of kin is his father “August Senge, Meschede Überhennestr.” (Überhenne 14) and thus the residence of Josef August Senge before his admission to the clinic 16 kilometers away by road.

The state psychiatric hospital in Herborn was only a stopover on the way to the Hadamar killing center. Josef August Senge was relocated to Hadamar on Thursday, July 17, 1941, as “No. 93 “together with other patients. This year, 1,630 patients (755 men, 875 women) were brought from Herborn to Hadamar, 773 of them from Herborn Hospital alone. All medical files had to be given with the transport.

The day of the transfer was also the day of arrival in Hadamar. According to the state of research, the day of arrival is considered the day of death because no accommodation was planned in Hadamar. The murder took place within hours of arriving in the gas chamber there . The corpses were disposed of by the "burners" in the two crematorium ovens. The staff consisted of around 100 people. Hadamar was only one of six killing centers in Operation T4.

After the death of Josef August Senge, the family received a "consolation letter" and a death certificate stating that Josef August had died of "flu with sepsis" (blood poisoning). The burial of the urn with the "ashes of the deceased", actually filled with some kind of ashes, took place according to the Meschede city administration on Friday, August 22, 1941, in the south cemetery (field 7, grave sites No. 150 to 152), according to the death register of the Catholic parish of Sankt Walburga on Monday, August 25, 1941. There is no reference to Josef August Senge either on the specified grave or anywhere else.

Further information can be found in the patient file, which is more or less extensive, depending on the length of stay in the clinics, with the “medical part (medical file)” and the “personal part (personal file)”. The Federal Archives have holdings R 179 ( Chancellery of the Führer, Hauptamt II b ) about 30,000 of the original 70,000 patient files from the central phase of the "euthanasia" campaigns in the Third Reich , which ended in August 1941.

So far (as of January 16, 2017) Josef August Senge has not identified any patient files in the R 179 holdings of the Federal Archives in Berlin because they were probably deliberately destroyed.

Prosecution

Two doctors were involved in the "euthanasia crimes" in Hadamar in July 1941 and had unlimited responsibility: Friedrich Berner (code name "Dr. Barth") and Hans Bodo Gorgaß ("Dr. Kramer"). The remaining staff at this time consisted of up to 100 people in the departments “Transport, Admission, Killing, Administration, Economy”.

Beginning on February 24, 1947 (1st day of the hearing), 25 employees of the "Hadamar State Hospitals" had to answer before the 4th criminal chamber of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court (file number: 4a Js 3/46). On March 26, 1947 (14th day of the trial), the doctor Hans Bodo Gorgaß was sentenced to death “for murder in at least 1,000 cases”, and his civil rights were deprived of his life.

With the entry into force of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949 and the death penalty abolished as a result, the death sentence was converted into a life sentence, then a 15-year prison sentence. Gorgaß began imprisonment on October 20, 1948 in the Hessian "Ziegenhain Prison". On September 4, 1952, Gorgaß was transferred to the "Butzbach Prison", on January 7, 1958, pardoned by the Hessian Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Georg-August Zinn by "decision", and released on January 23, 1958. He was then employed by a pharmaceutical company ( Knoll AG, Ludwigshafen ) as a research assistant and died on October 10, 1993 at the age of 84.

For Gorgass, who was finally convicted of "murder in at least 1,000 cases", this meant imprisonment for around nine years (3.4 days imprisonment per murder). The doctor Berner, who was missing in the dock during the Hadamar trial, was initially considered missing. It later emerged that he had died on March 2, 1945 near Warthestadt (now Wronki, Poland).

literature

  • Götz Aly (ed.): Action T4: 1939-1945. The "euthanasia" headquarters at Tiergartenstrasse 4 . Edition Hentrich, Berlin, 2nd ext. Edition 1989, ISBN 978-3926175663 .
  • Henry Friedlander : The Road to Nazi Genocide. From euthanasia to the final solution . Berlin Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3827002655 .
  • Uta George, Georg Lilienthal , Volker Roelcke , Peter Sandner, Christina Vanja (eds.): Hadamar: Heilstätte - Kötungsanstalt - Therapy Center . Jonas Verlag, Marburg 2006, ISBN 978-3894453787 .
  • Franz-Josef Hücker: Relocated to an unknown location. Euthanasia crimes under the swastika . In: Nassauische Annalen 127 2016, pp. 259–276.
  • Franz-Werner Kersting : Institution doctors between the German Empire and the Federal Republic. The example of Westphalia . Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 978-3506795892 .
  • Christina Vanja (ed.): 100 Years of Psychiatry in Herborn: Review, Insight, Outlook . Jonas Verlag, Marburg 2011, ISBN 978-3894454609 .
  • Bernd Walter : Psychiatry and Society in the Modern Age. Mental health care in the province of Westphalia between the German Empire and the Nazi regime . Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 978-3506795885 .
  • Stefanie Westermann, Richard Kühl, Tim Ohnhäuser (eds.): Nazi “euthanasia” and remembrance: coming to terms with the past, forms of remembrance, perspectives of those affected. Medicine and National Socialism 3 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3643106087 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz-Josef Hücker: Gassed and cremated. Approved murderers in doctor's clothing, 70,273 "euthanasia victims" accuse . In: Sozial Extra 5 2014, 38th year (VS Verlag, Springer Fachmedien DE, Wiesbaden), pp. 6-11.
  2. ↑ Cf. LWL Münster , archive holdings 660 No. 383 (“Entry book for men from 1915 to 1930 of the Warstein institution”).
  3. ↑ Cf. Dirk Blasius : Simple soul disorder. History of German Psychiatry 1800-1945 . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-11738-0 .
  4. ↑ Cf. Provincial Hospitals Warstein, without signature (handwritten note): "Relocation from Warstein to Herborn on June 27, 1941, 112 men."
  5. ↑ Cf. LWL Münster , archive holdings 660 No. 141 (“Relocation list of the State Hospital Warstein”).
  6. ↑ See LWL Münster , archive holdings 660 no. 374 (“Address of the next of kin”).
  7. ↑ The building "About Henne 14" is a " half-timbered house ," which on June 8, 1983 in accordance with § 3 I Denkmalschutzgesetz of North Rhine-Westphalia with the number "A-57" in the list of monuments of the city Meschede as Group A monument was registered.
  8. ↑ See HHStA Dept. 461 No. 32061 (“Public Prosecutor's Office at the Frankfurt / Main Regional Court”).
  9. ↑ Cf. HHStA Section 461 No. 32061 ("Investigation matter against Dr. Gorgass, Bodo").
personal data
SURNAME Senge, Josef August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Senge, Josef; Senge, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German factory worker who was murdered as part of "Aktion T4"
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Meschede , Germany
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1941
Place of death Hadamar , Germany