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Rosa Krause * 1929

Hellkamp 63 (vor dem Spielplatz) (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
ROSA KRAUSE
JG. 1929
EINGEWIESEN 1940
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 29.3.1945

Rosa Krause, born 6.1.1929 in Hamburg, admitted to the then Alsterdorfer Anstalten (now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 16.3.1940, transferred to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" on 16.8.1943, died there on 29.3.1945

Hellkamp 63 (Eimsbüttel)

Rosa Krause was born on 6.1.1929 in Hamburg. She was the youngest of the nine children of the blacksmith William Thies Krause, born on Oct. 7, 1881 in Hohenfelde, district of Steinburg, and Mathilde Louise, née Martens, born on March 15, 1888 in Nütschau, district of Stormarn.

Rosa Krause's four brothers and four sisters were born between 1910 and 1924. Several siblings attended the "Hilfsschule" (Auxiliary school) in Eichenstraße in Eimsbüttel. ("Hilfsschule" was a name no longer used today for independent special education or remedial schools for children who, for various reasons, were not considered capable of attending elementary school.)

The school in Eichenstraße had already drawn the attention of the Youth Welfare Office to "unfavorable conditions" in the Krause family at the beginning of 1923. This referred to the children's state of care, domestic cleanliness, and lack of care and encouragement of the children by their parents. In May 1923, the six oldest children had been taken into state education. For two of the children, "school supervision" was ordered.

A welfare report from June 1929 states that Rosa's mother, who had been classified from the beginning of state supervision as "feeble-minded, weak-willed, uneconomical and unsociable," was "slackening more and more."

Like her siblings, Rosa Krause was cared for by the Hamburg Youth Welfare Office from early childhood. In 1934, when Rosa was five years old, the Jugendamt had her psychiatrically examined - presumably because she was to start school the following year. She was judged to be physically developed according to her age, but impaired in her visual perception (strabismus) due to misalignment of the eyes. Rosa had learned to walk at the age of two and had begun to speak at two and a half. Her mental developmental delays were attributed to "feeble-mindedness." The lack of support from parents unable to do so was only marginally considered in this assessment. Measures did not seem necessary because "the child is well taken care of at home". Thus, nothing stood in the way of the child's imminent enrollment in school.

After Rosa Krause had attended the "auxiliary school" Schwenckestraße for several years, she was excluded from further attendance by an order of the school authorities because she was "incapable of any school work".

In November 1939, Rosa Krause was "presented" to the Youth Welfare Office. It was to be examined whether she was "in need of an institution". She was diagnosed with "considerable feeble-mindedness". "Since the conditions at home with the feeble-minded mother are impossible and quite insufficient even for a primitive upbringing, I consider it necessary to transfer her to the Alsterdorf institutions. Gez. Dr. Bosse."

After her father agreed, Rosa Krause was admitted to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on March 16, 1940. It took her a long time to settle in, it was noted in Rosa Krause's patient file at the beginning of 1941. At first she was shy and suffered from homesickness. Gradually, however, she made contact with other children. In 1942, it was reported that she quarreled a lot with smaller patients and kept scratching her wounds. At the beginning of July 1943 it was reported that she could dress and wash herself alone, was a quiet and tolerable girl who caused no difficulties, but could neither read nor write.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg at the end of July/beginning of August 1943 ("Operation Gomorrah"), the Alsterdorf institutions also suffered bomb damage. The management of the institution took the opportunity, after consultation with the health authorities, to transfer some of the residents who were considered to be "weak in labor, in need of care or particularly difficult" to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On August 16, 1943, a transport with 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home left for the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" in Vienna" (also known as the institution "Am Steinhof"). Among them was Rosa Krause.

During the "Aktion-T4" (camouflage designation for the National Socialists' "euthanasia" program, so named after the headquarters of the Berlin euthanasia center at Tiergartenstraße 4), the institution in Vienna had been an intermediate institution for the Hartheim killing center near Linz. After the official end of the gas murders in the killing centers, the murders continued in the previous intermediate institution.

When she was admitted to Vienna, fourteen-year-old Rosa Krause was considered to be completely disoriented. This assessment continued in the months that followed.

Rosa Krause's parents tried several times in vain to find out how their daughter was doing. Finally, on May 26, 1944, they sent a telegram to Vienna: "What is our daughter Rosa Krause doing - no answer to three letters - why not? Parents in worry - Heil Hitler - the parents."

On January 12, 1945, they finally received a reply from the doctor Karl Wunderer: "Your daughter's mental condition is unchanged, her physical condition has greatly worsened as a result of pulmonary tuberculosis. As long as her condition does not improve, a discharge must be advised against."

Rosa Krause died on March 29, 1945, at the age of 16. The cause of death was given as "pulmonary tuberculosis."

In the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" (Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna), patients were systematically murdered by overdosing on medication, by not treating illnesses, and above all by depriving them of food. By the end of 1945, 196 of the 228 girls and women from Alsterdorf had died there.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 10005 Geburtsregister 537/1888 Mathilde Louise Martens, 3193 Heiratsregister 247/1912 William Thies Krause/ Mathilde Louise Martens; Gemeinsames Archiv des Kreises Steinburg und der Stadt Itzehoe Geburtsregisterauszug Hohenfeld Nr. 17/1881 William Thies Krause; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv Sonderakte V 177 Rosa Krause; 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.; Waltraud Häupl, Der organisierte Massenmord an Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Ostmark 1940-1945, Wien 2008, S. 66f.; Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie – Die Toten 1939-1945, Hamburg 2017, S. 317. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 331 ff.