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Camilla Voigt * 1912

Erlenkamp 21 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
CAMILLA VOIGT
JG. 1912
EINGEWIESEN 1935
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 2.11.1943
HEILANSTALT
MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 28.12.1943

Camilla Voigt, born on 27.11.1912 in Hamburg, on 24.7.1935 admitted to the state hospital Langenhorn, on 2.11.1943 transported to the state sanatorium Meseritz-Obrawalde (province Brandenburg, today Poland), murdered on 28.12.1943

Erlenkamp 21 (Uhlenhorst)

Camilla Voigt was born in Hamburg on 27 Nov. 1912. She lived with her parents in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst, Erlenkamp 21.

Physically always healthy, she attended the renowned Klosterschule and then the secondary Lyceum, at times also the commercial school. Afterwards she studied music. Her suffering started on 10 May 1935, with a medical examination at the Friedrichsberg State Hospital. She showed behavioral abnormalities, and the doctors diagnosed her with graft schizophrenia, that is, acute schizophrenia with mental retardation. The background of this investigation is not known.

Camilla Voigt was admitted as a patient in Friedrichsberg and transferred to the Langenhorn State Hospital in July 1935. The medical officer immediately applied for her sterilization on the basis of the National Socialist "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases". Neither Camilla Voigt nor her parents agreed with this, but they were powerless.

Camilla Voigt fought against her deprivation of liberty – as noted in the Langenhorn medical file. According to the records, she was restless, kept pounding on the locked door, demanded her things and wanted to go home.

In the meantime, she had been denied capacity and her father had been appointed guardian by the Inheritance Health Court. The parents were told that release was not possible before sterilization. However, the father was able to prevent the clinical procedure, which was to be performed in October 1936 in the Finkenau hospital, by means of an objection. The daughter's permanent stay in the hospital was thus fixed.

The mother in particular became involved, repeatedly appearing at the Langenhorn institution and standing up for her daughter. For example, a doctor's entry in Camilla Voigt's medical file from 30 June 1936, reads: "The patient's mother, a Frenchwoman who hardly speaks German, repeatedly appears in the doctor's office and asks for the immediate release of her daughter. Such entries intensified in the course of time. On 10 March 1939 it says: "The mother, who seems schizophrenic herself, a Frenchwoman, who hardly speaks German and apparently does not want to speak it, appears and again demands in a completely undiscerning manner the release of her daughter [...]. The mother seems to have the intention to bring her daughter to France and to marry her there(!)" On 2 Febr. 1940 it says: "The schizophrenic mother of the patient appears 3 times a week lately and demands the release of her daughter [...]." However, her demands were not successful.

On 2 Nov. 1943 Camilla Voigt and other patients were transported to the Meseritz-Obrawalde state sanatorium in what was then the province of Brandenburg (now Poland). This institution had become part of the "decentralized euthanasia" in 1942. Immediately after the patients' arrival, the medical staff decided on the basis of their physical condition whether someone was to be put to death immediately or had to work first, e.g. in the gardening or sewing workshop. Those who were no longer able to work were given drugs that led to death.

Camilla Voigt died on 28 Dec. 1943 at the age of 31.

Camilla Voigt had been a member of the Hamburg-Harvestehuder Turnverein von 1872 e. V. (HHT) since March 1933. She was a music student during that time. The HHT took over the sponsorship for the stumbling stone set in March 2023 in memory of their former member.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: August 2023
© Herbert Diercks

Quellen: StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Nr. 22131 Camilla Voigt, 352-11 Gesundheitsämter Nr. 4607 (Camilla Voigt). Herbert Diercks, Alois Walter: Vom Turnen zum Sport – und noch viel mehr. 150 Jahre Hamburg-Harvestehuder Turnverein von 1872, hrsg. vom Hamburg-Harvestehuder Turnverein von 1872 e. V,, Hamburg 2023, S. 91.