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Dorothea Zieger
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Dorothea Zieger * 1907

Berner Heerweg 36 (Wandsbek, Farmsen-Berne)

HIER WOHNTE
DOROTHEA ZIEGER
JG. 1907
EINGEWIESEN 1939
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
TRANSPORTIERT 16.08.1943
HEILANSTALT
STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 5.11.1944

Dorothea Zieger, born on 2 Nov. 1907 in Volksdorf, "transferred” on 16 Aug. 1943 from the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten) to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a "sanatorium and nursing home,” died on 5 Nov. 1944

Berner Heerweg 36

We know almost nothing about Dorothea Zieger: Born in Volksdorf on 2 Nov. 1907, she lived with her parents, the gardener Carl Zieger and her mother Elisabeth, née König, at Berner Heerweg 46. Dorothea Zieger was committed to the then Alsterdorf Asylum in Jan. 1939. We do not know the reason.

Allegedly due to the damage to the building as a result of the Allied bombing raids on Hamburg in July 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah”), the Alsterdorf institutional director and SA member Pastor Lensch urged the transfer of most of the institution’s residents. From 7 Aug. 1943 onward, three transports made up of 469 people left Alsterdorf within a few days of each other.

One of these transports, to which Dorothea Zieger was also assigned, included 228 girls and women of all ages. It set out from Alsterdorf on 16 Aug. 1943 and arrived the next day at the Wagner von Jauregg Institution in Vienna. There almost all patients were subsequently killed, by excessive doses of medication, by lethal injections, and by starvation.

Dorothea Zieger died on 5 Nov. 1944 in Vienna under unknown circumstances.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: September 2020
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patienten-Karteikarten (Akte V 209 nicht auffindbar); Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, 3. Aufl. Stuttgart 2016.