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Erika Hoffmann
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Erika Hoffmann * 1931

Geibelstraße 39 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ERIKA HOFFMANN
JG. 1931
EINGEWIESEN 1934
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 7.8.1943
HEILANSTALT EICHBERG
ERMORDET 6.9.1943

Erika Magda Hoffmann, born 21.5.1931, admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 14.6.1934, transported to the Eichberg State Hospital in Hattenheim (Landesheilanstalt Eichberg now Eltville, Rheingau) on 7.8.1943, died there on 6.9.1943

Geibelstraße 39 (Winterhude)

Erika Magda (known as Erika) Hoffmann was born on 21 May 1931 at the Hamburg Institute for Obstetrics on Finkenau Street. Her parents, building worker Hans Emil Gustav Hoffmann, born on 8 March 1898 in Hamburg, and Magdalene Amanda, née Bartsch, born on 17 January 1906 (place of birth unknown), lived at Geibelstraße 39 in the Winterhude district of Hamburg. Erika Hoffmann's brother Hans was born on 9 October 1929. Like his mother, he suffered from tuberculosis. We do not know what became of him.

Magdalene Amanda Hoffmann, who suffered from lung disease, had to be treated in a sanatorium shortly after Erika's birth. Erika therefore stayed at the Uhlenhorster Frauenverein's infant convalescent home at Höltystraße 10 in the Uhlenhorst district from 5 October to 4 November 1931. The little girl was in poor health from the beginning of her life. In April 1932, she was admitted to the Eppendorf General Hospital (now the University Medical Centre Eppendorf, UKE) with bone tuberculosis and whooping cough. Her hospital stay did not end until 9 February 1933.

Erika Hoffmann's mother never recovered from her lung disease. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 3 August 1933 at the Barmbek General Hospital. Two-year-old Erika was then entrusted to the care of an elderly woman who, according to reports from a social worker, looked after the child ‘in the most touching way’. In January 1934, the ‘foster mother’ reported to the welfare authority's counselling centre that Erika was showing increasing signs of mental weakness. Nevertheless, the doctor and social worker agreed that the proposed placement of the girl in the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) was not appropriate and that individual care would be best for Erika. The decisive factor seems to have been that Erika should not be brought together with other children who ‘could pick up everything from the mentally abnormal child’.

In May 1934, Erika Hoffmann was admitted to the General Hospital in Eppendorf with a diagnosis of "psychosis". She required treatment for vulvovaginitis (vaginal inflammation), bone tuberculosis (left forearm and right ankle), pulmonary tuberculosis and suspected kidney tuberculosis. Because Erika Hoffmann's development was assessed as "far behind her age", a psychiatric evaluation was conducted. The result was "idiocy". It was also stated that the child was unclean and had to be fed. Due to her constant animal noises and the constant care she required, she could cause such a disturbance in the household of her father, who had since remarried, that admission to the Alsterdorf Asylum was absolutely necessary.

And so it happened. Erika Hoffmann lived in the Alsterdorf Asylum from 14 June 1934 onwards. She is said to have squinted slightly, been unable to walk and had poor speech. Upon admission, she was said to have been agitated, laughing and crying a lot – allegedly for no reason. A little later, it was noted that Erika was unable to speak, but made a few sounds and responded to her name. Shortly afterwards: she was always calm and quiet, crying only when she woke up. With help, she could walk a little, did not engage in activities, threw away all toys. After a visit from her "foster mother", she did not turn her head away from the door for a long time.

By 1935, Erika was able to speak individual words and sing melodies. In July 1936, Erika Hoffmann's abilities had developed to such an extent that she was able to walk unaided. However, she suffered a seizure during which she fell forward with her eyes fixed. Erika was unconscious at the time. In 1937 and the years that followed, there were reports of further severe seizures.

The last entry in Erika Hoffmann's Alsterdorf medical file is dated 16 August 1943: "Transferred because the Alsterdorf institutions have been destroyed. Signed Dr. Kreyenberg".

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrha), the Alsterdorf Asylum at that time also suffered damage on the night of 29/30 July 1943 and then again on 3/4 August 1943. The director of the institution, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities for permission to relocate 750 patients, allegedly to make room for the wounded and those affected by the bombing. In three transports between 7 and 16 August, a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men were transferred to the Eichberg Institution ("Landesheilanstalt Eichberg"), Kalmenhof Institution (”Landesheilanstalt Kalmenhof") in Idstein in the Rheingau, the Mainkofen institution ("Landesheilanstalt Mainkofen") near Passau and the "Wagner von Jauregg - Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien", also known as the institution "Am Steinhof") in Vienna.

Erika Hoffmann was one of 76 children and men who were taken to the Eichberg institution on 7 August 1943.

The Eichberg institution in Hesse was one of the institutions closely involved in the Nazis' "Euthanasia" programme. The head physician of the institution, Friedrich Mennecke, was an expert at the T4 headquarters in Berlin and head of various medical commissions, and was one of the staunchest supporters and executors of this murder programme. In the first phase of the killing of the sick, the Eichberg institution served as one of the numerous stations where those selected were gathered before they had to make their way to the gas chambers of the nearby Hadamar killing centre.

After the official end of this phase of the Nazi "Euthanasia" programme, the killings continued in Eichberg. The patients were largely left to fend for themselves. In addition, they were given inadequate care. Often, the lives of the sick were ended by injections. This method was developed in the "children's ward" of the Eichberg institution, which was established in 1940/41, and was later introduced in other wards of this institution.

The Alsterdorf patients arrived in Hattenheim on 8 August 1943, crammed into a freight wagon, where they were loaded onto trucks "like cattle" and taken to the Eichberg institution.
Of the 28 children in this transport, 20 were immediately transferred to the "children's ward" with the remaining eight following a few days later after a detour via the ‘women's observation’ ward.

Erika Hoffmann died on 6 September 1943 in Eichberg, according to the entry in the death register, from "heart failure, mental retardation". She was only 12 years old.

Erika Hoffmann's short life was spent in foster care, hospitals and institutions; the only private address is the apartment at Geibelstraße 39. Even though she only lived there for a few months, the stumbling stone there commemorates her.

Stand: September 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7149 Sterberegister Nr. 887/1933 (Wilhelmine Magdalene Amanda Hoffmann); Standesamt Erbach (Rheingau), Sterberegister Nr. 486/1943 (Erika Hoffmann); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Sonderakte V 28 (Erika Hoffmann). Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 283 ff., 331 ff.