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Hans-Peter Harder
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Hans-Peter Harder * 1939

Winterhuder Weg 11 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
HANS-PETER HARDER
JG.1939
"EINGEWIESEN" 1942
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 7.8.1943
IDSTEIN / KALMENHOF
"KINDERFACHABTEILUNG"
ERMORDET 9.9.1943

further stumbling stones in Winterhuder Weg 11:
Johanna Führt, Horst Langeloh

Hans-Peter Harder, born on 23.12.1939 in Hamburg, admitted to the Wilhelm Stift infant home, 9.8.1941 Winterhuder Weg infant home, 22.4.1942 "Alsterdorfer Anstalten", "transferred" on 7.8.1943 to Idstein in the Kalmenhof, murdered on 9.9.1943 in the Kalmenhof "children's ward".

Winterhuder Weg 11 (Uhlenhorst)

Hans-Peter Harder was born out of wedlock on 23.12.1939 in the Finkenau Women's Clinic as the son of the worker Wilma Harder (born 1915) and the sailor Bruno Mielke (born 1919). His mother lived with her mother in Langenhorn, Mitteltwiete West 28, and already had several illegitimate children. From the age of 13, she had been classified by the youth welfare office as psychopathic and difficult to bring up. She had spent some time in the "Birkenhof" reformatory in Hanover. Hans-Peter's father had been drafted into the Wehrmacht.

Burdened by this background, Hans-Peter was placed in the care of the Wilhelm Stift Rahlstedt infant home immediately after his release from hospital.

Dr. Bosse's psychiatric examination on July 15, 1941 revealed that he was in good physical and neurological condition and could stand and sit on his own. He had already overcome the measles. However, the doctor noted the following about his mental development: "It is difficult to get in touch with him as he is not interested in anything. When spoken to, he usually reacts by crying. He doesn't speak a word yet, doesn't babble like other children his age, plays by himself, but without any real interest. His assessment: "As far as one can tell at this age, H.P. appears to be mentally retarded. Nursing care cannot be recommended." He did not make a recommendation for support, instead he prevented and belittled the child with "Measures to be suggested: I recommend transfer to a home for inferior children."

On August 9, 1941, he was transferred; he was not accepted at the Johann Petersen Home in Volksdorf due to overcrowding and the age limit and was sent to the Youth Welfare Office; on the same day, he was finally admitted to the Winterhuderweg 11 infant home in Uhlenhorst. The diagnosis there was that Hans-Peter was not developing in line with his age and was mentally retarded.

In February 1942, he was examined by Dr. Gräfe, the senior physician in charge of psychiatry, neurology and hereditary biology at the Hamburg State Youth Welfare Office. His findings can be seen in the referral form dated March 3, 1942 for the "Alsterdorfer Anstalten": "The admission of the patient to the Alsterdorfer Anstalten is necessary due to idiocy and developmental arrest. Further details: Family burdened with feeblemindedness. Strong motor restlessness, cannot be left alone for a moment. Makes no attempt to speak. Uninterested, lethargic, dull."

The doctor's follow-up examination resulted in the following statement: "...He still speaks nothing, although his hearing and vision are not severely impaired ... Assessment: The child has a very considerable intellectual backwardness. Since he is making so little mental progress, even when the physical illnesses are taken into account, his placement in the Alsterdorf institutions is recommended...".

On April 22, 1942, Hans-Peter was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum with the medical certificate from Dr. Schäfer: "Imbecility feeblemindedness". Dr. Kreyenberg's report of 6 January 1943 still shows a hopeful development in Hans-Peter: "...is very lively in nature, he takes a lively interest in his surroundings. He tries to speak, repeats words, he now walks well on his own. He likes to play with toys, eats alone under supervision, and is fed a full diet. During the day he can be kept dry, at night he is wet." Nevertheless, his fate was sealed by him eight months later in the minutes: "6.8. transferred, as the Alsterdorf institutions have been destroyed. Dr. Kreyenberg"

This harmless-sounding sentence meant the death sentence for Hans-Peter Harder. On August 7, 1943, he was transported from the Ochsenzoll freight depot to Limburg together with 127 patients, children and men from the "Alsterdorfer Anstalten" and 82 patients, men and some women from the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn". There, on the night of August 8, the wagons with the 51 boys from the "Alsterdorfer Anstalten", including Hans-Peter Harder, were unhooked and taken to the "Heilanstalt Kalmenhof" in Idstein.

One month and two days later, Hans-Peter Harder was dead. In the death certificate, his death is recorded on the basis of the written notification from the director of the Kalmenhof sanatorium in Idstein: "The institutional inmate Hans-Peter Harder - religion unknown - resident in Idstein, Kalmenhof died on September 9, 1943 at 3:15 p.m. in Idstein in this apartment". The cause of death is given as: "Imbezillität" (mental retardation), "Chron. Gastritis and nutritional disorder, marasmus". His parents were listed as "unknown".

Hans-Peter was 3 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 3 days old.

Most of the children who came to the "Kalmenhof sanatorium" with Hans-Peter died there after a short time. As part of the Nazi regime's "euthanasia" mass murder campaign, "Aktion T4" (named after the headquarters at Tiergartenstraße 4 / Berlin), children and adolescents were murdered there in the so-called children's ward by drug poisoning, mostly by injections of an overdose of the sleeping pill Luminal. An 11-year-old boy who survived was later able to give evidence and testify in the main trial against the head of the institution, Grossmann.

Stand: August 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Dr. Michael Wunder; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakte V53, Aufnahmeakte 8406; Auskünfte: Claudia Niemann, Stadtarchiv Idstein Sterbeurkunde Sta Idstein, Nr. 162 / 1943 Hans-Peter Harder; Auskünfte: Dr. Dominik Motz, Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen, Fachbereich Archiv, Gedenkstätten, Historische Sammlungen, Kassel, Hans-Peter-Harder, Aufnahmebuch der Heilanstalt Kalmenhof, Bestand 81.