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Luise Schulze
© Landesarchiv Niedersachsen

Luise Schulze (née Hoenig) * 1906

Winsener Straße 37 (Harburg, Wilstorf)

HIER WOHNTE
LUISE SCHULZE
GEB. HOENIG
JG. 1906
EINGEWIESEN 22.7.1936
HEILANSTALT LÜNEBURG
"VERLEGT" 28.5.1941
HADAMAR
ERMORDET 28.5.1941
"AKTION T4"

Luise Schulze, née Hoenig, born on 18 Sept. 1906 in Harburg, committed to the Lüneburg "Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Home” ("Provinzial-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Lüneburg) on 22 July 1936, "transferred” to the Herborn "State Sanatorium and Nursing Home” ("Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt” Herborn) on 22 Apr. 1941, transferred further to the Hadamar "State Sanatorium and Nursing Home” on 28 May 1941, murdered on 28 May 1941

Wilstorf quarter, Winsener Strasse 37

Luise Hoenig bore the first name of her mother, who was married to the worker Josef Hoenig. After her school days, she first completed an apprenticeship as a tailor. Starting at the age of 16, she suffered from epileptic seizures, which initially occurred only occasionally but increased over time. Later they were also a strain on her marriage with the traveling salesman Heinrich Schulze, who soon separated from her again.

After having been treated several times since 1929 in the municipal hospital on Irrgarten for her epileptic seizures, she had to go there again in May 1936 after a severe seizure. Following a thorough examination, the attending doctor concluded that the patient "probably” suffered "from genuine epilepsy ... and at the same time from symptoms of mental disorder associated with the field of schizophrenia.” He described her as restless and quarrelsome and considered her committal in a closed facility to be necessary because she was endangering public safety on the streets. By direction of the Harburg-Wilhelmsburg local police, Luise Schulze was committed to the Lüneburg "Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Home” on 22 July 1936.

This order shows that after 1933 the state recorded more mentally ill people than before and sent them to institutional psychiatry. This increased the occupancy rate of the institutions, while at the same time the allocation of funds was reduced, which led to a considerable deterioration in the care and accommodation of the institutional occupants. This policy corresponded to the Nazis’ image of humanity, which consisted of a mixture of racial idealization, the destruction of any Christian and humanistic values, and unprecedented contempt for humanity. In addition, enough men and women were active in the medical field, too, who were willing to put these theoretical guidelines into practice.

One of them was Max Bräuner, the new director of the Lüneburg "Sanatorium and Nursing Home.” He was a member of the Nazi party (NSDAP) and from 1938 to 1944, he served as the district representative of the "Office of Racial Policy” ("Rassenpolitisches Amt”) of the city of Lüneburg as well as initially as an assessor and later chairman of the Lüneburg "hereditary health court” (Erbgesundheitsgericht). He ensured that soon things changed considerably in the individual departments of the Lüneburg "sanatorium and nursing home,” which had been founded in 1901 to help people who were ill and unable to work. In 1941, he was significantly involved in the establishment of a "children’s special ward” ("Kinderfachabteilung”) at this institution.

After 1933, the serious turning points in institutional life initially included so-called hereditary biological work and forced sterilizations. To record patients and their relatives comprehensively, genealogical or clan tables ("Sippentafeln”) were drawn up and a hereditary-biological inventory carried out. The explosive nature of this work lay in the fact that the results of the investigation were of decisive importance to the further fate of the persons affected. Initially, they formed the basis for the justification of applications for compulsory sterilization of many patients supposedly suffering from hereditary diseases. In the period from 1934 to 1943, 347 residents of the Lüneburg "sanatorium and nursing home” alone were forcibly sterilized. Whether Luise Schulze was among them is not clear from the files, but very likely.

The results of the hereditary-biological investigations also formed the basis for the selection of the Lüneburg patients who were "transferred” to other institutions in 1941 in the course of the T4 operation. This affected Luise Schulze, who, together with 129 other women, was transported from Lüneburg to the Herborn "sanatorium and nursing home” in Hessen on 22 Apr. 1941.

For Luise Schulz, this facility near the Hadamar "euthanasia” killing center was only a transit station on her journey to death. From there, she was transported to the nearby Hadamar gas killing facility on 28 May 1941.

Upon their arrival at this place, the sick persons were led into a large hall where they had to undress. They then went to a doctor who examined them briefly and, based on a list, decided on one of 61 false causes of death for the death certificate. Then they were led into the basement, where the gas chamber, camouflaged as a shower room, was located for about 60 people. After some time, the gastight doors were closed. The doctor, who had just carried out the "examination,” then went to his next workplace and opened the gas tap, so that the deadly carbon monoxide gas flowed into the locked room. Through a small window in the wall, he followed the death throes of the people until they were all dead, after which the gas supply was cut off and the room vented before the corpses, tangled up in each other, were carried outside.

On 28 May 1941, Luise Schulze was also murdered in this gas chamber.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Klaus Möller

Quellen: Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Hann. 155 Lüneburg Acc. 2004/066 Nr. 09504; Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie. Die Toten 1939–1945, Hamburg 2017; Raimond Reiter, Empirie und Methode in der Erforschung des `Dritten Reiches´, Fallstudien zur Inhaltsanalyse, Typusbildung, Statistik, zu Interviews und Selbstzeugnissen, Frankfurt M. 2000; 100 Jahre Niedersächsisches Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg. Niedersächsisches Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg (Hrsg.), Lüneburg 2001, Helmut Pless, Lüneburg 45, Nordost-Niedersachsen zwischen Krieg und Frieden, Lüneburg 1976; Raimond Reiter, Psychiatrie im Nationalsozialismus und die Bildungs- und Gedenkstätte `Opfer der NS-Psychiatrie´ in Lüneburg, Marburg 2005; Raimond Reiter, Psychiatrie im Dritten Reich in Niedersachsen, Hannover 1997; Heimat, Heide, Hakenkreuz. Lüneburgs Weg ins Dritte Reich, Geschichtswerkstatt Lüneburg (Hrsg.), Lüneburg 1995; Harburger Adressbücher.