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Erna Lackmann, 1939
© Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Erna Lackmann * 1911

Denickestraße 6 (Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 18) (Harburg, Harburg)

1943 eingewiesen
'Heilanstalt'
Am Steinhof / Wien
verhungert 10.03.1945

Erna Lackmann, born 6 Oct. 1911 in Harburg, admitted to the Alsterdorf Institution, transferred to the Steinhof State Institution in Vienna, murdered there 10 Mar. 1945

Harburg-Altstadt, Denickestraße 6 (Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 18)

Erna Lackmann was the eldest of three children. Her father was a housepainter, and her mother a housewife. After finishing her schooling, she got her first job as a sales clerk. She lived at Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 18 (present-day Denickestraße 6). She married in 1928, aged 17, and one year later a healthy daughter was born. This birth changed Erna’s life dramatically. Before the birth she had been lively and diligent, but afterwards, probably due to postpartum depression, she was withdrawn and apathetic.

After a six-week stay in the psychiatric ward at the Harburg-Wilhelmsburg City Hospital, she felt better for a while. She still suffered from bouts of depression, but was able to care for her child.

Her condition changed abrubtly, however, in 1933, when she and her husband divorced on grounds of adultery. The husband was given custody of the child. She continued to work as a sales clerk, but never kept a job for long. Her psychological problems grew more evident with every day. She became ever more withdrawn, and continually talked to herself or had imaginary conversations with her daughter Waltraud. She was once again admitted to a clinic, this time the Friedrichsberg Psychiatric and Neurological Clinic of the University of Hamburg, where she underwent insulin therapy from December 1937 until January 1938. The therapy did not have positive results, and the doctors diagnosed her as schizophrenic.

Erna Lackmann was then admitted to the Langenhorn Mental Institution, on 23 June 1938. Her condition did not improve. Three months later, at the age of 27, she was forcibly sterilized at the Finkenau Women’s Clinic in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst. This operation left deep scars on her psyche. Before the operation, Erna could not be convinced to speak at all, but afterwards she was often "loud” and "insolent.” In her hospital records it is stated that she "constantly sings, makes insolent comments, doesn’t recognize people, and has animated hallucinations.” A temporary release from the institution, at the request of her mother, led to no improvement. Erna returned to Langenhorn after a month at home. Her hospital record reads: "The patient lies in her bed in a stupor, eats so little that she must be fed, does not reply to questions.”

Because of her condition, she was transferred to the Alsterdorf Institution in August 1939. Her mother visited her there every week. Erna repeatedly expressed the wish to return home, and her mother was finally able to have her released. She left the institution in April 1941, and remained at home for 18 months. On 14 November 1942, the Harburg Public Health Administration again had her committed to the Alsterdorf Institution, on the grounds that she was a danger to herself and others. In her hospital records the doctors described her as "fully incapable of communication” and "stuporous.” She had to be fed, and often soiled her bed at night.

Erna Lackmann was among the 228 girls and women who were transferred from the Alsterdorf Institution to the Steinhof State Institution in Vienna on 16 August 1943, since the "Alsterdorf Institution was destroyed during air raids,” as is noted in her hospital records.

The Steinhof Institution was founded in 1904, and in 1939 had more than 4000 patients. Of these, more than 3200 were murdered at the Hartheim Euthanasia Center near Linz in 1940-41. After the "Action T4” was officially ended, the Steinhof, under the administration of Hans Bertha, a leading figure in the inner circle of the T4 program, had become one of the main centers for the decentralized murder of handicapped people. The patients’ deaths were induced through systematic over-dosage of medication, non-treatment of illnesses, or undernourishment.

In March 1944, the doctors at Steinhof retroactively completed her admittance form, designating Erna Lackmann as "unusable.” This was tantamount to a death sentence. By December 1944, Erna Lackmann had lost 10kg (22 lbs.) and weighed only 24kg (53 lbs.). Shortly thereafter her mother received notification that Erna was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, and that "her death was imminent, within the next months or even weeks.”

Ten weeks later, Erna Lackmann was dead. She died on 10 March 1945 at 3 a.m., aged 33. The cause of death was given as tuberculosis.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© Klaus Möller

Quellen: Gedenkbuch der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf; Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Krankenakte Erna Lackmanns (V167); Wunder u. a., Kein Halten, 2. Auflage; VVN-BdA Hamburg (Hrsg.), Spurensuche.