Victor Ratka

Victor Ratka (born November 27, 1895 in Ober Lazisk ; † April 5, 1966 in Heitersheim ) was a German-Polish psychiatrist who was deeply involved in Nazi euthanasia crimes as the director of the Tiegenhof Gauheilanstalt and T4 expert .

Life

Ratka, one of Silesia originating national German psychiatrist was in 1928 as a senior physician at the Polish Institute Lublinitz busy. From 1934 he was director of the Polish institution Dziekanka near Gnesen , which was renamed Gauheilanstalt Tiegenhof after the German invasion of Poland on September 11, 1939 . Ratka could remain in office after the German occupation of Poland, he with the German occupiers collaborated .

Initially, over 1000 Polish prison inmates were murdered in gas vans by the Lange special command . After the end of the first phase of the murder, from the end of 1941 prison inmates were transferred from the Altreich to Tiegenhof and murdered there by being deprived of food and giving lethal drug cocktails.

From September 10, 1941, Ratka worked for some time at the T4 central office as a T4 expert for “selections” of sick and disabled people. He also participated as part of the action 14f13 to selections Incapacitated concentration camp prisoners some who were murdered after their separation. Ratka belonged to the NSDAP from 1943 .

Shortly before the Tiegenhof Gauheilanstalt was taken by the Red Army , Ratka settled in the Altreich in January 1945 and at the end of the war was in the Pfafferode Regional Healing and Nursing Institution in Pfafferode near Mühlhausen / Thuringia . In March 1949 he fled the Soviet zone of occupation to Wabern in northern Hesse. Ratka was classified as a "follower" in the context of denazification in Kassel . After all, he lived as a pensioner in Baden. On August 8, 1961, an arrest warrant was issued against Ratka for his involvement in Operation 14f13. He was considered incapable of detention. The investigation of the public prosecutor's office in Freiburg against Ratka, who denied murders in Tiegenhof, was closed after his death.

literature

Ernst Klee : What they did - what they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews . 12th edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-24364-5 .
Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Ernst Klee : " Euthanasia " in the Nazi state. The "destruction of life unworthy of life" . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1983; ISBN 3-10-039303-1 .
Enno Schwanke: The Tiegenhof psychiatric institution. The National Socialist “euthanasia” from a regional perspective. Berlin 2013 (Master's thesis at the FU Berlin ).

Web links

Information about Victor Ratka on a private website

Individual evidence

^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 480 f.
↑ Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 336.
↑ Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 222.

personal data
SURNAME	Ratka, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ratka, Viktor (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German psychiatrist and T4 reviewer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 27, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Upper Lazisk
DATE OF DEATH	April 5th 1966
Place of death	Heitersheim

[Klee480f-1] Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 480 f.

[2] Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 336.

[3] Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 222.