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Olaf Diercks (der Kopf wird gehalten)
© Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Olaf Diercks * 1936

Heußweg 102 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
OLAF DIERCKS
JG. 1936
EINGEWIESEN 1941
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
‚VERLEGT‘ 7.8.1943
‚HEILANSTALT‘
KALMENHOF / IDSTEIN
ERMORDET 7.9.1943

Olaf Diercks, born 1.12.1936 in Hamburg, admitted to the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum‘ (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten‘, now ‘Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf‘) on 22.4.1941, deported to the ‘Curative Education Centre Kalmenhof’ in Idstein in the Rheingau area on 7.8.1943, died there on 7.9.1943

Heußweg 102 (Eimsbüttel)

Olaf Diercks was born on 1 December 1936 at Eppendorf University Hospital (UKE). The birth went without a hitch.

His mother, saleswoman Anna Emma Bertha Diercks, born on 21 December 1908 in Hamburg, was not married. She lived at Hoisweg 102 (now Heußweg) in Eimsbüttel as a subtenant. Olaf Diercks' biological father, the master butcher Walter Ernst Christian Dobbertin, born on 29 July 1893 in Lübeck, acknowledged paternity on 12 January 1937. Nothing is known about further connections to his son.

When Olaf Diercks started teething, his mother noticed his first seizures. From autumn 1939 onwards, repeated convulsions of the body muscles occurred, some of which were combined with unconsciousness (tonic-clonic seizures). These seizures intensified from the beginning of 1940.

The mother then presented the boy to a paediatrician. Probably at his instigation, Olaf Diercks was admitted to the ‘Alsterdorf Asylum‘ (‘Alsterdorfer Anstalten‘, now ‘Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf‘) for a neurological examination for five days in April 1940. The x-rays of his skull showed no abnormalities.

Olaf Diercks was admitted to the children's clinic at Eppendorf University Hospital on 20 June 1940 due to scarlet fever. There he was labelled a mentally abnormal boy. Three epileptic seizures were observed during his hospitalisation. In addition to scarlet fever, he was diagnosed with chickenpox, epilepsy and idiocy. (Idiocy is an outdated term for a severe form of intellectual disability). On 31 July 1940, the boy was discharged as ‘improved’.

Three quarters of a year later, on 22 April 1941, Olaf Diercks was permanently admitted to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum. It was said that the child had to be cared for and fed. But the boy could eat bread on his own. He was very restless and therefore had to be strapped into bed.

The staff repeatedly observed epileptic seizures. At the end of 1941 and in 1942, it was noted that Olaf Diercks still had to be cared for and fed. He could not speak, showed no interest in his surroundings and did not react to anything. He walks around for a few hours during the day, but staggers easily and falls a lot. He also showed no interest in toys.

In July/August 1942, Olaf Diercks fell ill with intestinal inflammation. In a letter dated 27 July 1942, the Alsterdorf Asylum asked his mother to visit her seriously ill son. Whether she honoured the request is not documented.

An entry in Olaf Diercks' patient file is only found again on 7 August 1943: ’Transferred to Idstein due to severe damage to the institution caused by an air raid. Dr Kreyenberg’.

After the Alsterdorf Asylum suffered damage during the heavy Allied air raids on Hamburg at the end of July/beginning of August 1943 (‘Operation Gomorrah’), the director of the Alsterdorf Asylum, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, took advantage of this situation and asked the Hamburg health authorities for permission to evacuate around 750 residents of the institution, as they had been made homeless by the bombing raids. As a result, three transports with a total of 469 girls, boys, women and men left Alsterdorf in different directions between 7 and 16 August 1943. One of these transports, which left the Alsterdorf institutions on 7 August 1943, had the ‘‘Curative Education Centre Eichberg’ near Wiesbaden and the ‘Curative Education Centre Kalmenhof’ in Idstein in the Rheingau region as its destination. 128 people were assigned to this transport, 76 boys, girls, women and men for the ‘Eichberg Curative Education Centre’ and 52 boys for the ‘Curative Education Centre Kalmenhof’. Olaf Diercks was on the transport to the ‘‘Curative Education Centre Kalmenhof’ in Idstein.

Founded in 1888, the Kalmenhof institution was originally a progressive, educationally orientated facility for people with mental disabilities. In 1939, it was included in the ‘Euthanasia’ programme of ‘Aktion-T4’ (a cover name after the headquarters of the Berlin euthanasia centre at Tiergartenstraße 4). The patients were transferred from there to the neighbouring Hadamar killing centre and murdered with gas. After the official halt to the ‘Euthanasia’ murders at the end of August 1941, the front organisation ‘Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Conditions’ (Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schweren Leiden), which belonged to the Berlin ‘Euthanasia’ centre, set up a ‘children's ward’ (Kinderfachabteilung) in Kalmenhof, where children were killed with overdoses of drugs such as Luminal, scopolamine or morphine.

Olaf Diercks was not yet seven years old when he arrived at the Kalmenhof institution and was probably assigned to the ‘specialised children's ward’. His life there lasted only one month. Olaf Diercks died on 7 September 1943 and it is safe to assume that he was murdered.

His body is said to have been cremated in Idstein and his ashes buried in the Idstein cemetery.

We do not know whether and, if so, how Olaf Diercks' mother learnt of her son's death.

Stand: January 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 113435 Geburtsregister Nr. 1409/1908 (Anna Emma Diercks), Standesamt Idstein, Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 148/1943 (Olaf Diercks); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 45 (Olaf Diercks).