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Klaus Holst * 1939

Ausschläger Allee 5 (Hamburg-Mitte, Rothenburgsort)

HIER WOHNTE
KLAUS HOLST
JG. 1939
EINGEWIESEN 1943
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 1943
HEILANSTALT KALMENHOF
TOT 7.9.1943

Klaus Holst, born on 18 Oct. 1939 in Hamburg, death in the "Kalmenhof sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”) near Idstein on 7 Sept. 1943

Ausschläger Allee 5 (Ausschläger Allee 15)

On 21 June 1943, the regional youth welfare office assigned Klaus Holst together with two other small children from the municipal small children’s home at Winterhuder Weg 11 to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten). From then on, Bruno Schleemann, born on 9 May 1940 in Altona, shared his fate. Klaus’ diagnosis upon admission was "imbecility,” a medium-degree defect of intelligence. The social administration covered the costs of their stay.

Klaus had an adverse start to his life: Both parents were completely overwhelmed by providing for and raising the child. When the youth welfare office discovered this circumstance, Klaus was admitted to the Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital. The aim was to clarify on location whether his delayed development could be traced back to neglect as an infant and toddler or whether he was disabled. Since Klaus was physically healthy, the observation period ended with his transfer to the small children’s hospital of the social administration. Otherwise, the director of the [Rothenburgsort] Children’s Hospital, Wilhelm Bayer, could have reported him to the "Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses” ("Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden”), and that would have meant his death.

Klaus was psychiatrically examined in the small children’s hospital on 23 Mar. 1943, at the age of three and a half years. He did not react timidly to the physician but in an uninhibited and friendly way but at the same time appeared completely helpless. He did not know what to do with toys, not even touching them. Only when a toy fell to the ground with a loud noise did he laugh out loud. He cried a lot without any discernible reason, did not eat on his own, and was not clean and potty-trained. The physicians reached the conclusion that Klaus could be discharged to the care of his mother, as he did not cause any particular trouble. However, since his mother was unable to provide this care, accommodation in a "custodial institution” ("Bewahranstalt”) was necessary, they argued.

At the time of his admission in "Alsterdorf” Klaus weighed 11.7 kilograms (approx. 26 lbs) and was 84 centimeters (approx. 2 ft 9 in) in height, a delicate, physically far underdeveloped boy. He was beginning to make his first attempts at walking. Considering his good appetite, progress was to be expected.

One month later, Hamburg was largely destroyed during heavy air raids, and Klaus’ family home in Rothenburgsort and parts of what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum lay in ruins as well. With agreement of the Hamburg public health authority, in order to make room, the institutional administration relocated 469 male and female occupants to institutions less threatened by air raids.

The first transport of 128 male persons went to the Rheingau region, departing Hamburg from the Langenhorn freight station on 7 Aug. 1943. It included Klaus Holst and Bruno Schleemann as well as 50 other boys under 12 years of age, who were destined for the "Kalmenhof sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”) near Idstein in the Taunus, where they arrived the following day. However, by that time, the formerly progressive pedagogic institution had transformed into a killing center, initially as an intermediate stop on the way to the Hadamar euthanasia killing center, and then equipped with a "children’s special ward.” In this way, Klaus, a child easy to care for, was murdered one month later, on 7 Sept. 1943, without having passed through the formal procedures associated with the "Reich Committee” ("Reichsausschuss-Verfahren”); the slightly younger Bruno Schleemann was killed eight days afterward.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 50, V 80; Jenner, Meldebögen; Wunder, Abtransporte; ders.: Exodus.