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Margarete Bubik * 1921

Reinholdstraße 28 (Harburg, Harburg)

HIER WOHNTE
MARGARETE BUBIK
JG. 1921
EINGEWIESEN 1942
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 25.8.1942
HEILANSTALT ILTEN
ERMORDET 7.1.1943

Margarete Bubik, born on 7 Aug. 1921 in Harburg, temporarily in the Oberaltenallee care home (Versorgungsheim Oberaltenallee), on 23 Mar. 1942 admitted to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn), on 25 Aug. 1942 ‘transferred’ to the Wahrendorff private "sanatorium and nursing home” in Ilten, where she died on 7 Jan. 1943.

Harburg District, Reinholdstrasse 28 (formerly Marxstrasse 28)

Margarete Bubik was born in Harburg on 7 Aug. 1921; she lived with her parents, the laborer Alfons Bubik and his wife Albina, at Reinholdstrasse 28. Nothing is known about her childhood and youth.

Because of mental problems, she lived temporarily in the Oberaltenallee care home. From there she was transferred to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” on 23 Mar. 1942. In one of these institutions, she was forcibly sterilized.

The only thing that emerges from the medical records is that "she allegedly behaved in a very deviant way there” and made "a euphoric impression.” On 25 Aug. 1942, she was taken to the "sanatorium and nursing home” in Ilten on a collective transport. The parents, who had divorced in the meantime, were not informed of their daughter’s transfer until much later.

In a letter dated 30 Nov. 1942, to the management of the Ilten "sanatorium and nursing home,” the father inquired about his daughter’s condition, saying that she had been "admitted there some time ago without asking me and I am still without any news.” He further wrote, "I regret that such a course of action is permissible at all, especially since we are, after all, in the Third Reich.” The reply to the father reads, "Your Fräulein daughter is in good hands with us. The transfer took place at the time because of a lack of space in Langenhorn and air-raid hazards.”

The mother also wrote to inquire about her daughter’s wellbeing. She was informed in a letter dated 24 Dec. 1942 that her daughter’s condition had not changed significantly and that a visit was possible at any time.

In Oct. 1942, incapacitation proceedings had been initiated against Margarete Bubik at the Hamburg-Harburg District Court (Amtsgericht). On 23 Oct. 1942, an interrogation of the patient took place in the Ilten institution by the responsible district judge from Burgdorf. He determined that the patient "is not capable of looking after her own property matters.” Senate Councilor Dr. Käthe Petersen, Social Administration Hamburg, was appointed as guardian (Käthe Petersen’s calamitous role as (collective) guardian of young women during and after the Nazi era was critically reviewed in the 1990s).

During the war years, the mortality rate among patients at the Ilten private institution was conspicuously high. It is suspected that many of them died from intentional lack of nourishment.

Margarete Bubik died on 7 Jan. 1943; the official cause of death provided was "intestinal influenza.”

Dated Friday, 8 Jan. 1943, both parents received identical telegrams, "Daughter deceased, funeral Monday 2 p.m. Ilten.”

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2021
© Margrit und Helmut Rüth

Quellen: StaH 352-8/7 Sign. Abl. 1/1995 Nr. 29643; Adressbuch Harburg-Wilhelmsburg 1930 / 1937; Hamburger Adressbuch 1940; Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie. Die Toten 1939-1945 (Jenner/Wunder), Hamburg 2019, S. 128; Staatsarchiv Oldenburg, Best. 136 Nr. 5194. Broschüre; https://www.hamburg.de/clp/dabeigewesene-suche/clp1/ns-dabeigewesene/onepage.php?BIOID=800&qN=Petersen.