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Anna Karberg * 1913

Josephstraße 10 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA KARBERG
JG. 1913
EINGEWIESEN 1919
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 12.12.1944

Anna Karberg, born on 11.6.1913 in Wandsbek, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten", now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 6.12.1919, deported to the "Wagner von Jauregg - Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", also known as the institution "Am Steinhof") in Vienna on 16.8.1943, died there on 12.12.1944.

Josephstraße 10 (formerly Josephstraße 3b), Wandsbek

Anna Karberg was born as one of five siblings on 11 June 1913 in the then still independent town of Wandsbek. Her parents came from Mecklenburg. Her father Fritz Johann Theodor Karberg, who was Protestant, was born on 10 Nov. 1871 in the village of Losten (today a district of the municipality of Bad Kleinen), her mother Anna Christine Sophia, née Dünnfründ, was born on 17 Oct. 1876 in the village of Neu Lübsdorf (today a district of the municipality of Lübstorf). They had married on 7 May 1897 in the nearby village of Alt Meteln.

The couple initially settled in Anna Karberg's previous domicile, the community of Dambeck south of Schwerin. In 1898 or 1899, the family moved to Hamburg, Heidenkampsweg 40, at this time including the daughters Ida Sophie Christine Karberg, born 6. Apr. 1897 in Dambeck, Martha Elise Auguste Sophia Karberg, born 8 Aug. 1898 in Drispeth, a neighboring village to Dambeck and Martha Elise Auguste Sophia Karberg. She lived only about 1 ¼ years and died of pneumonia on 29 Dec. 1899 in the apartment Heidenkampsweg.

In Hamburg, daughter Gretchen Anna Emma was born on 19 Oct. 1904, son Willi Heinrich around October 1911, and finally daughter Anna on 11 June 1913. Willi Heinrich lived only five months, he died on 1 Febr. 1912 of "physical weakness". Gretchen Anna Emma seems to have developed without problems and attended school.

We do not know when the family found an apartment in Wandsbek. When Willi Heinrich died, the death certificate gave the address as Litzowstraße 18 in what is now the core area of Wandsbek.

It was here in Litzowstraße that Anna Karberg was born on 11 June 1913. According to the patient's file, her parents noticed "mild epileptic seizures" already at the age of one. She was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten", now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 6 Dec. 1919. Until then she had lived with her parents, who in the meantime had moved to Josephstraße 3 b (today Josephstraße 10) in Wandsbek.

It was noted in her patient's file that Anna Karberg’s admission was necessary because of feeble-mindedness (former term for reduced intelligence or congenital intelligence weakness). The six-year-old girl could not speak and was classified as unfit for school. In the following years, the staff recorded that Anna spoke some words, but only when she thought to be unobserved. In 1926, they said she had made good progress and participated in games. She had often been very agitated, and in her agitation had become violent towards herself.

From 1936 on, the entries about seizures increased, and Anna also had to be cared for in personal hygiene. In 1937 she was apparently able to speak intelligibly. At the beginning of 1943 it was summarized that Anna Karberg still had to be cared for in personal hygiene, but that she could eat alone and was clean. In character, she was affectionate, quiet and tolerable and caused no difficulties. The entries end on 16 Aug. 1943 with the note "Due to severe damage to the institutions by air raid, transferred to Vienna. Dr. Kreyenberg".

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg at the end of July/beginning of August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrha"), the Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered bomb damage. With the consent of the health authorities, Pastor Friedrich Lensch, director of the institution and SA-member, took the opportunity to get rid of some of the residents who were considered to be "weak in labor, in need of care, or particularly difficult" by transferring them to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 Aug. 1943, 228 women and girls from the Alsterdorf Asylum and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home were "transferred" to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", also known as the institution "Am Steinhof"). Among them was Anna Karberg, now almost 30 years old.

When she was admitted to the Viennese asylum, Anna Karberg weighed 44 kg. In the months following, she was described as unclean, in need of care and disoriented.

Under the date 14 March 1944, the Viennese asylum filled in a report form on Anna Karberg for the "Euthanasia" headquarters in Berlin, Tiergartenstraße 4, stating that Anna Karberg was not receiving any visitors, was bedridden and "unusable" in terms of employment. From 1939 to August 1941, such report forms were the basis for making a decision on life or death of psychiatric patients and nursing home residents by the "Euthanasia" headquarters in Berlin, Tiergartenstraße 4.

Inability to work was usually decisive for the decision to kill. We do not know whether the report sheet on Anna Karberg was really sent to Berlin or whether it was only taken to prepare the decision on her further fate in Vienna.

Anna Karberg was transferred to the nursing area of the asylum on 11 Sept. 1944; no reason is given in the file. Her weight was 38 kg in September 1944, in October 1944 it had decreased to 35 kg. On 12 Nov. her medical record stated "weak" and "decaying." The temperature was given as 36.5 degrees. A little later, on 6 Dec., suspected TB was noted.

Anna Karberg died on 12 Dec. 1944, reportedly of pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis.

During the first phase of NS-"Euthanasia" from October 1939 to August 1941, the asylum in Vienna had been an intermediate facility for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the murders in the killing centers, mass murder continued in the previous intermediate institutions, i.e. also in the Viennese institution itself: by overdosing with medication and non-treatment of illness, but above all by deprivation of food.

By the end of 1945, 257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had died in Vienna, 196 of them from Alsterdorf, including Anna Karberg.

There is no indication in Anna Karberg's file whether her father was informed about her death. Anna’s mother had died of pulmonary tuberculosis and a heart condition on 23 March 1943.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: April 2023
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg, StaH 332-5_447 Nr. 2418/1899 Sterberegisterauszug Martha Elise Auguste Sophia Karberg, 14226 Nr. 1916/1904 Geburtsregisterauszug Gretchen Anna Emma Karberg, Standesamt Wandsbek Nr. 31/1912 Sterberegisterauszug Willi Heinrich Karberg, 332-5_4598 Nr. 291/1943 Sterberegisterauszug Anna Christine Sophia Karberg; Standesamt Amt Lützow-Lübstorf, Heiratsregisterauszug Alt-Meteln Nr. 7/1897 Fritz Johann Theodor Karberg/ Anna Christine Sophia Dünnfründ; Landesarchiv Greifswald, Taufregister Alt-Meteln, Mecklenburg-Schwerin 1897/1898, Martha Elise Auguste Sophia Karberg, Taufregister Dambeck bei Schwerin 1897/1897 Ida Sophie Christine Karberg, kirchliches Heiratsregister Meteln 1896/1897 Fritz Johann Theodor Karberg/ Anna Christine Sophia Dünnfründ; Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Nr. V 185 (Anna Karberg).