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Emma Sievert
© StaH

Emma Sievert (née Kraus) * 1890

Bökenkamp 34 (Altona, Bahrenfeld)

HIER WOHNTE
EMMA SIEVERT
GEB. KRAUS
JG. 1890
EINGEWIESEN 1942
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 21.7.1943
HEILANSTALT HADAMAR
ERMORDET 18.2.1944

Emma Amanda Carola Sievert, née Kraus, born 8.8.1890, admitted to the Langenhorn sanatorium on 19.2.1942, "transferred” to the Hadamar sanatorium on 21.7.1943 and murdered in Hadamar on 18.2.1944

Bökenkamp 34 (formerly Sandkamp), Bahrenfeld

"To the Hadamar institution management!
To complete the documents for my wife, I am enclosing her birth and marriage certificates. At the same time, I have transferred my wife's pocket money of 50 RM by post and ask you to keep this in safekeeping and to fulfill my wife's smaller wishes as far as possible. I would be very grateful for a brief report on my wife's condition. Yours, Friedrich Sievert”.

Friedrich Sievert sent this letter to the institution management in Hadamar on November 23, 1943.

His wife, Emma Amanda Carola Kraus, was born in Altona on August 8, 1890. Her parents were the grocer Carl Adolf Kraus, born on March 7, 1855, and Amanda Margaretha Dorothea Kraus, née Maschmann, born on December 3, 1865. Emma's sister Marianna Martha Kraus was born on October 13, 1891. Both girls were baptized and brought up as Lutherans. We have no information about Emma Kraus' childhood. She did not learn a profession.

On August 1, 1914, Emma Kraus married the engineer Friedrich Christian Sievert, born on December 25, 1887 at Carolinenstraße 29 (now Olbersweg) in Altona, at the Altona registry office.

Emma Sievert and her husband had two children, Herbert Karl Sievert, born on July 22, 1915, and Gerda Dorothea Sievert, born on March 6, 1918, both of whom were born at Nettelbeckstraße 13 in Bahrenfeld. In 1921, the family moved to Sandkamp 34 (now Bökenkamp) in Bahrenfeld. Emma Sievert was not gainfully employed, she brought up the children and organized the household.

Daughter Gerda Sievert trained as a baby nurse in Katowice, Silesia. When Gerda Sievert came to Hamburg in the following years, she lived with her family. Karl Sievert, drafted as a soldier in the Second World War, was taken prisoner of war in Russia, from which he did not return until April 5, 1949.

On February 11, 1942, Emma Sievert was admitted to the Friedrichsberg Hospital, which belonged to the Eppendorf University Psychiatric Clinic, at her husband's instigation. During the admission interview, he complained that Emma Sievert was hearing voices. She ranted about the voices of politicians that only she could hear. Friedrich Sievert stated that he could no longer leave his wife alone in the apartment in this state.

On February 19, 1942, Emma Sievert was transferred to the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home. According to the file, she behaved quietly and inconspicuously. She ate well, observed her surroundings, took care of her hygiene, slept well and asked for fresh bed linen in the morning. The report also states that she would read a lot and behave in a friendly and pleasing manner.

In Langenhorn, Emma Sievert was treated with the drugs liver extract, bovine heart extract and human heart extract from March 13, 1942. However, the treatment with the extracts did not bring about any change in her condition.

During the anamnesis on February 17, 1942, the doctor determined that the paranoid process had probably already begun at the beginning of 1941 and diagnosed "paranoid schizophrenia”, which was accompanied by delusions, persecution mania and hallucinations.

Friedrich Sievert was very keen to bring his wife home healthy as soon as possible. He repeatedly expressed this in his letters to the asylum management. However, the sanatorium and nursing home decided to "transfer” her and 49 other people from Langenhorn to the Hadamar state sanatorium instead on July 21, 1943.

In June, July and August 1943, a total of 347 exclusively female people were transported from Langenhorn to the Hadamar State Sanatorium in six transports. This institution was used as a killing centre as part of the "decentralized Nazi euthanasia”. The doctors murdered the people admitted there with mental illnesses and physical impairments by overdosing them with drugs such as Luminal or Veronal, as well as by injecting them with air or morphine-scopolamine.

On August 17, 1943, Friedrich Sievert wrote a letter to Hadamar asking for information about his wife's condition and asked the institution management what he could do to please his wife. The institution management did not reply. On November 23, 1943, he sent the letter quoted above. The Hadamar sanatorium then replied to this letter as follows:

"Dear Mr. Sievert, November 29, 1943
Your wife's mental state has remained unchanged since my message in August of that year. Unfortunately, given the nature of the psychosis, no further improvement is to be expected. Physically she has declined. We thank you very much for the birth and marriage certificate you kindly sent us. We will use the pocket money you sent us for your wife in accordance with your wishes.
The Chief Physician”

A letter to Friedrich Sievert followed on February 16, 1944:
"Your wife's physical deterioration has progressed remarkably in the last few days. She has had cardiac insufficiency with swelling for several days. Emma Sievert had suffered a collapse.
The chief physician”

A few weeks later, on February 18, 1944, Emma Sievert died in the Hadamar killing center. It can be assumed that she did not die of natural causes. Exhaustion, mental illness and cardiac insufficiency were noted in the documents.

Emma Sievert's body was cremated and the urn with the alleged ashes was sent to the main cemetery in Altona.

Emma Sievert was buried on April 5, 1944 in the family grave 14.IV.9-10 at the Altona State Cemetery at Stadionstraße 5 in Hamburg.

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: December 2024
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 352-8/7 Gesundheitsfürsorge – Krankenhäuser Abl 1/1995_29537 Emma Amanda Carola Sievert; 332-5 Geburtsregister 6250 Nr. 3886/1887 Friedrich Christian Sievert, 6265 Nr. 2584/1890 Emma Amanda Carola Kraus, 6272 Nr. 3392/1891 Marianna Martha Kraus; 332-5 Heiratsregister 6020 Nr. 834/1914 Sievert/Kraus; 14374 Nr. 233/1934 Mertes/Diedecke, 332-5 Sterberegister 4691 Nr. 1649/1976 Marianna Martha Witt; Sterberegister 5342 Nr. 214/1926 Karl Adolf Sievert; 741-4 Fotoarchiv K 2579, K 7325; Beisetzungsunterlagen Hauptfriedhof Altona; Wege in den Tod, Klaus Böhme, Uwe Lohalm, Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg 1993, Seite 337; www.wikipedea.de (Einsicht am 01.01.2021).