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Emma Knoop * 1870

Lämmersieth 41 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
EMMA KNOOP
JG. 1870
EINGEWIESEN 1935
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 16.8.1943
´HEILANSTALT`
AM STEINHOF / WIEN
ERMORDET 25.2.1945

Emma Henriette Bertha Knoop, née Heithaus, born on 14.8.1870 in Hamburg, several stays in the Eppendorf General Hospital between 1927 and 1928, from September 1928 to August 1931 stay in the private "Sanatorium Schellhorner Berg near Preetz", then in the Friedrichsberg State Hospital, from April 1935 resident of the Alsterdorf Asylum (today Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf), on 16.8.1943 transported to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt" (also known as "Am Steinhof"), died there on 25.2.1945.

Lämmersieth 41 (Barmbek-North)

Emma Henriette Bertha Knoop, née Heithaus, was born on 14 Aug. 1870 at second Alsterstraße 28, now Ekhofstraße, in Hamburg-Hohenfelde. Her forename was Emma. She was the second youngest child of the grain broker Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Heithaus and his wife Henriette Auguste Margaretha, née Schildknecht. Emma had two older sisters, Frieda Maria Caroline Wilhelmine, born on 21 May 1865, and Martha Sophie Louise, born on 15 Oct. 1867, and a younger brother Carl Franz Henry, born on 29 Sept. 1876. The Heithaus family lived in the Hohenfelde district for many years, mostly in various houses in Angerstraße.

Nothing is known to us about Emma Heithaus' childhood and youth. On 9 May 1896, the young woman married Ernst Gustav Johannes Knoop, a doctor's son also from Hamburg, born on 11 Oct. 1872. His job title was noted as a dietician in the marriage register. This was a designation for civil servants who were only employed on a temporary basis and were paid outside the budget. He later held the rank of a higher civil servant at the Hamburg harbour hospital until his retirement.

The marriage produced two children, Emmily Henriette Clara, born on 11 Febr. 1897 at Conventstraße 28 in Eilbek, and Ernst Heinrich Wilhelm, born on 12 Aug. 1902 at Jungmannstraße 33, also in Eilbek (now Ruckteschellstraße).

Emma Knoop was admitted three times to the Eppendorf General Hospital in 1927 and 1928. The reason was "cramp-like complaints" and "a sudden feeling of heat with palpitations", which was tried to be treated with a rest cure. Her husband was temporarily denied access to the patient to prevent her from becoming agitated. In September 1928, her husband brought Emma Knoop to the private "Sanatorium Schellhorner Berg für nervenleidende und erholungsbedürftige Damen" near Preetz in Holstein, which no longer exists today. There, she was found to be "anxious, depressed and psychologically overlaid". Afterwards, on 19 Aug. 1931 she was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital Her need for institutionalisation was justified on the grounds of "restlessness, helplessness and danger of neglect".

At this time, the Knoop family lived at Lämmersieth 41 in Barmbek-Nord.

We do not know the reason for the transfer from the expensive private institution "Schellhorner Berg" to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital. It may be probably seen in connection with the divorce requested by Emma Knoop's husband, which became legally binding on 14 July 1932. Emma Knoop remained in Friedrichsberg, until she was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (now Alsterdorf Protestant Foundation) on 26 Apr. 1935.

According to a summarised patient report from the Friedrichsberg State Hospital for the Alsterdorf Asylum, Emma Knoop was said to have been a perfect wife in the first decades of her marriage, caring for her husband and children, neat, meticulous, very conscientious, punctual and hard-working. She had a lively nature, but in occasional conflicts she had often reacted violently, exaggeratedly and excessively. As a result of her easy irritability, there had also been violent clashes with people outside the family. She had aged prematurely towards the end of the [First World] War, had become more serious and more quiet, had trouble sleeping, complained of stomach problems, heart complaints and palpitations. In 1927 and 1928 she had been admitted to the Eppendorf General Hospital for rheumatic and heart complaints. On 6 May 1928, she tried to commit suicide with gas. After her husband revitalised her, she said, "Why did you bring me back, you should have left me alone".

In Alsterdorf, Emma Knoop's disease pattern was documented similar to the earlier cases in Eppendorf and Friedrichsberg. It was reported that she sat in bed all day, rocking in all directions, shaking her head and talking to herself incessantly. She would pick her fingernails and toenails until they bled. The diagnosis noted was "presenile depression".

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg at the end of July/beginning of August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrha"), the Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered bomb damages. With the approval of the health authorities, the director of the institution, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took the opportunity to get rid of some of the residents who were considered "weak in labour, in need of care or particularly difficult" by transporting them to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 Aug. 1943, 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home were "transferred" to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" (also known as the "Am Steinhof" institution) Among them was Emma Knoop.

Emma Knoop's husband was also required to pay board and lodging after the divorce and was informed in this context about her further condition. At the end of August 1943, the former administrative officer, who had remarried in the meantime, received a short message from the Vienna institution stating that Emma Knoop had survived the transport well. "She has already adapted well to the changed circumstances. As far as the food costs are concerned, they amount to RM 2.80 per day. Sincerely. Dr Podhajsky e.h."

In January 1944, the same doctor reported that Emma Knoop's condition had deteriorated recently. There had been an increasing mental and physical decline. Emma Knoop's weight, which had been around 50 kg in Hamburg, dropped to 30 kg in Vienna in 1944.

On 6 Feb. 1945, the following was noted in Emma Knoop's patient file: "in need of care, disorientated, unclean, cannot walk, deteriorating, weak." Shortly afterwards, on 25 Feb. 1945, Emma Knoop allegedly died of marasmus senilis and pneumonia. Marasmus senilis refers to the deterioration of physical functions with increasing age. Emma Knoop was 74 years old.

During the first phase of Nazi "euthanasia" from October 1939 to August 1941, the institution in Vienna was an intermediate institution for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the murders in the killing centers, mass murders continued in previous intermediate institutions, including the Vienna institution itself: through overdoses of medication and non-treatment of illness, but above all through food deprivation.
257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had died by the end of 1945, 196 of them from Alsterdorf.

Stand: April 2024
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg diverse Jahrgänge, StaH 332-5 Standesämter 13829 Geburtsregister Nr. 1408/1902 (Ernst Heinrich Wilhelm Knoop), 6405 Heiratsregister Nr. 241/1896 (Emma Henriette Bertha Heithaus/Ernst Gustav Johannes Knoop), 2436 Geburtsregister Nr. 284/1897 (Emmily Henriette Clara Knoop), 8917 Geburtsregister Nr. 2620/1876 (Carl Franz Henry Heithaus), 9826 Sterberegister Nr. 1574/1927 (Friedrich Rudolph Wilhelm Knoop); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Akte Nr. V 183 (Emma Knoop). Peter von Rönn, Der Transport nach Wien, in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 425 ff.. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 35, 283 ff., 331 ff.