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Vera Krebs * 1932

August-Bebel-Straße 47 (Bergedorf, Bergedorf)

HIER WOHNTE
VERA KREBS
JG. 1932
EINGEWIESEN 1934
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 9.4.1943
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
9.4.1943 ‚HEILANSTALT‘
MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE
ERMORDET 12.4.1943

Vera Krebs, born 21.10.1932 in Hamburg-Bergedorf, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten", now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 6.12.1934, transferred to the Nursing and Care Home Langenhorn on 9.3.1943, transported to the State sanatorium Meseritz-Obrawalde on 9.4.1943, murdered there on 12.4.1943

August-Bebel-Strasse 47 (Bergedorf)

Vera Krebs was born in the Hamburg suburb of Bergedorf on 21 Oct. 1932. Her parents, the car mechanic Franz Krebs, born on 8 Sept. 1899 and Clara, nee Christensen, born on 9 Dec. 1903 in Jerne near Esbjerg, Denmark, lived at Bergstraße 47 (which was renamed Börnsener Weg in 1938 and is now called August-Bebel-Straße. Bergedorf already belonged to Hamburg as a municipality at that time and officially became a district of Hamburg in 1938 as part of the Greater Hamburg Act).
In addition to Vera, there were also two other sisters, Norma (born on 8 July 1927) and Gerda (born on 1 Oct. 1937).

The little we know about Vera Krebs is taken from an index card which was created in what was then the Alsterdorfer Asylum (today Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) for the Hamburg Health Passport Archives which had been built up from 1934 for the purpose of the "biological hereditary stocktaking” of the population. According to this, Vera was a very fragile child who was backward in her development, could not sit and was very prone to illnesses.

During the course of her stay in the Alsterdorf Asylum, she was said to have grown stronger and to have learned to walk. It was further noted that "She could not occupy herself with toys, only destroyed everything and became a great tomboy. She screamed shrilly when she didn`t get her way, liked to make off with keys and cutlery and destroyed everything she laid her hands on. She annoyed other children and kicked them with her feet. She ripped up many things including shoes”.

On 9 March 1943, Vera Krebs was transferred to the Langenhorn Nursing and Care Home together with three other female residents of the Alsterdorf Asylum. The Langenhorn Patients Record, which consists of only two pages, contains a diagnosis of "imbecillity” and "idiocy”. ("imbecility” and "idiocy” are expressions no longer used today to describe a moderate mental handicap or a serious form of mental retardedness).

Ten year old Vera Krebs only lived in the Langenhorn home for one month. On 9 Apr. 1943, she was transported to the State sanatorium Meseritz-Obrawalde in what was then the province of Brandenburg (today Miedzyrzecz, Poland) together with 49 other women including the three who had been transferred with her from Alsterdorf to Langenhorn. This institution had become part of the decentralized Euthanasia in 1942.

Immediately after the arrival of the patients of both sexes, the medical personnel decided on the basis of the patients physical condition, whether somebody was marked for immediate killing or initially still had to work e.g. in the nursery garden or in the sewing workshop. Those incapable of work received medication which led to their deaths.

Vera Krebs was murdered in Meseritz-Obrawalde on 12 Apr. 1943 only three days after she arrived.

Postscript: On the stumbling stone in memory of Vera Krebs, the date of the transfer from what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum to the Nursing and Care Institution Langenhorn is given as 9.4.1943. The correct date is 9.3.1943

Translation: Steve Robinson

Stand: March 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Bergedorf 1934, StaH 352-8/7 Staatliche Krankenanstalten Abl 1/1995 Nr. 31306 (Patientenakte Vera Krebs); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Erbgesundheitskarteikarte (Sippschaftstafel) Vera Krebs, Aufnahmebuch Eintrag Nr. 6590; Michael Wunder, Die Transporte in die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Meseritz-Obrawalde, in: Peter von Rönn u.a., Wege in den Tod, Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 377 ff., S. 492f.