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Walter Friedrich
© Psychiatrická nemocnice Kosmonosy, Archiv

Walter Friedrich * 1908

Vehrenkampstraße 15 (Eimsbüttel, Stellingen)

HIER WOHNTE
WALTER FRIEDRICH
JG. 1908
EINGEWIESEN 1915 IN
MEHRERE HEILANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 15.9.1942
HEILANSTALT KOSMANOS
ERMORDET 13.5.1943

Walter Erwin Friedrich, born 30.10.1908 in Hamburg, admitted to the Alsterdorf Institution (now the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 1.10.1915, transferred several times, admitted to the Kosmanos State Lunatic Asylum and Nursing Home (now Kosmonosy, Czech Republic) on 15.9.1942, died there on 13.5.1943

Vehrenkampstraße 15, Stellingen

Walter Erwin Friedrich was born on 30 October 1908 in his parents' home at Vehrenkampstraße 15 in Langenfelde, then a district of Stellingen. He was the son of Georg (Harry) Friedrich, a railway worker, born on 30 May 1868 in Zell in what was then the district of Erbach in the Odenwald, and his wife Sophie Marie Henriette, née Bentschneider, born on 23 April 1873 in Teschow (Mecklenburg). The couple had married in Stellingen in 1901. (The former rural community of Stellingen belonged to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein until 1927, then to Altona and became a district of Hamburg in 1938).

All we know about Walter Friedrich's fate are the main dates of his life and details on an index card (hereditary health card), which was created for the Hamburg Health Passport Archive, which was set up in 1934 for the purpose of ‘hereditary biology records’ of the population. His patient file from the Alsterdorf institutions is not preserved.

Walter Friedrich was the fifth of seven siblings. He was diagnosed with Down's syndrome (Trisomy 21) at birth. He lived with his parents until he was admitted to the Alsterdorf Instituion (now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 1 October 1915. According to the information on the file card for the Hamburg Health Passport Archive, he learnt to walk and talk at the age of four. He was perceived as quiet and affectionate and was able to dress and undress himself. He helped "with small housework, such as washing dishes, drying, dusting’” Walter looked after a blind fellow patient. He was said to have always been receptive to small jokes and tussles and friendly towards his fellow residents. He often received medical treatment for his eyes. No further details are recorded.

On 29 November 1935, 27-year-old Walter Friedrich was transferred to the Neustadt/Holstein state sanatorium. He lived there for almost six years. According to the entries in his patient file, covering only a few pages, he did not speak on his arrival. He was said to have willingly complied with all requests, but did not take part in games with other patients. It was emphasized that he did not cause any difficulties and was clean, quiet and undemanding.

Presumably because of these behavioral traits, the institution in Neustadt considered to give Walter Friedrich in family care as soon as a suitable place could be found. However, these considerations were not realized.

We do not know whether Walter Friedrich still had contact with his family when he lived in Neustadt. His mother died on 28 October 1938, his father on 16 April 1942.

As a result of the intensified air raids on large cities in northern Germany from 1941 onwards, the Neustadt institution was largely evacuated in autumn 1941 and used as a reserve hospital. In this context, more than 700 patients were prepared for evacuation within two weeks in September. They were transferred in four transports to the Brandenburg institutions in Sorau (Lower Lusatia) and Landsberg an der Warthe, the St. Marienstift nursing home in Branitz (Upper Silesia) and the Brandenburg sanatorium and nursing home in Neuruppin.

Walter Friedrich belonged to the 280 men and 70 women in the transport to Neuruppin. Early in the morning of 28 September 1941, these 350 patients were ‘loaded’ onto a passenger train of the Deutsche Reichsbahn with their medical documents and personal belongings and taken to the Neuruppin institution.

Only two entries were made in the patient file supplied from Neustadt: the patient does not speak, sits around dully and "takes care of himself”.

In August 1942, the Neuruppin institution was asked to free up 100 beds for an alternative hospital at short notice. On 15, 16 and 17 September, three transports with a total of 212 patients were sent to the Kosmanos (Kosmonosy in Czech) sanatorium and nursing home, around 70 km north-east of Prague. Walter Friedrich was in the transport on 15 September 1942. 161 of the 212 patients (76 percent) from these three September transports had died by the end of 1944.

Walter Friedrich died in Kosmanos on 13 May 1943.

We do not know the exact circumstances of his death. It can be assumed that, after the end of the first phase of the T4 ‘euthanasia in August 1941, when the sick had been murdered with gas, the patients in Kosmanos and other sanatoriums and nursing homes were also brought about death, by starvation, overdoses of medication and neglect. This can be concluded from the mortality rate, which was during the German occupation in Kosmanos twice as high as in the pre-war period.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: November 2024
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 113352 Geburtsregister Nr. 138/1908 (Walter Erwin Friedrich), 8877 Heiratsregister Nr. 15/1901 (Georg Friedrich/Sophie Marie Henriette Friedrich), 5414 Sterberegister Nr. 1468/1938 (Sophie Marie Henriette Friedrich), 9933 Sterberegister Nr. 319/1942 (Georg Friedrich); Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Aufnahmebuch 1915, Erbgesundheitskarteikarte Walter Friedrich; Psychiatric kánemocnice Kosmonosy, Lípy 15, 293 06 Kosmonosy, Archiv, Patientenakte Walter Friedrich; Auskunft von Marcus Grimm, PRO Klinik Holding GmbH, früher Landesanstalt Neuruppin, über Walter Erwin Friedrich per email am 30.4.2024. Heinrich Laehr, Die Heil- und Pflegeanstalten für Psychisch-Kranke in Deutschland, der Schweiz und den benachbarten deutschen Ländern, Berlin 1875, S. 166f.; Dietmar Schulze, Die Landesanstalt Neuruppin in der Provinz Brandenburg, Berlin 2004, S. 117 ff.; Struwe, Friedrich Ernst, Landesheilanstalt Neustadt in Holstein. Berichte aus den Jahren 1918–1945, Heiligenhafen 2013, S. 123 ff.; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilanstalt_Kosmonosy (Zugriff am 8.5.2024).