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Helga Jutta Heidelmann * 1926

Timmermannstraße 16 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
HELGA
HEIDELMANN
ERMORDET 3.11.1943
'HEILANSTALT'
WIEN

Helga Jutta Heidelmann, born on 13 Feb. 1926 in Hamburg, perished due to neglect on 3 Nov. 1943 in the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt

Helga Heidelmann was the only child of bread producer Walter Heidelmann and his wife Erna, née Schmidt. The family’s plant and apartment were located at Timmermannstrasse 16.

Helga Heidelmann was mentally and physically disabled, learning to walk to some extent only by the age of seven, not speaking at all, and suffering from epileptic seizures. She was able to eat food only with great difficulty and had to be fed most of the time.

On 13 Apr. 1935, her parents took her to what was then the "Alsterdorf Asylum” ("Alsterdorfer Anstalten”), where, according to the patient’s medical file, she was "admitted to the observation room [Wachsaal – a room in which patients were immobilized and underwent continuous therapy], clean in terms of her body and clothing.” The diagnosis was "idiocy, epileptic seizures.”

In the following years, she lived through phases of improvement as well as regression due to epileptic seizures. She received drugs, and from some entries in the patient record, one can certainly detect a hint of benevolence: "Helga must be dressed and undressed. … She eats pears and oranges by herself. She does not speak. … H. recognizes her parents, shouting joyfully when they come to visit. … She likes to listen to music. … When held, she manages to walk quite well by now.” (12 Feb. 1937) In Nov. 1937, she got over pneumonia. Starting in 1940, the tone of the entries, as in many other files in the Alsterdorf Asylum, became tougher and derogatory, also more impatient – on 21 Nov. 1940, an entry reads, "Pat.[ient] must be taken care of completely in terms of personal hygiene. She has no idea what to do with toys, and she is wholly uninterested and apathetic. She constantly has her fingers in her mouth, throws up a lot, retching out the food after meals.”

The head of the Alsterdorf Asylum at the time, Pastor Lensch, belonged to the SA and shared most of the Nazis’ conceptions of "race hygiene.” After initial reservations and weak attempts at protest, not only did he not put up any resistance against euthanasia policy of the regime but also in fact actively participated in it: On his initiative, all Jewish institutional patients were excluded and transferred to state-operated nursing homes as early as 1938. In 1941, under his direction and with his help 70 disabled persons were sorted out from the Alsterdorf Asylum and murdered in connection with the "T4 operation” ("Aktion T4”). In the summer of 1943, on his initiative some 500 additional disabled adults and children were transported to external killing centers. One of these transports was comprised of 228 women and girls who on 16 Aug. 1943 were taken in special busses featuring covered windows to the central train station and from there to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a "sanatorium and nursing home.” The transport arrived there on 17 Aug. The new arrivals also included Helga Heidelmann. The chief physician, Dr. Kreyenberg, closed the patient’s medical file at Alsterdorf saying, "Transferred to Vienna because the Alsterdorf Asylum has been destroyed.” That was a lie, as the Alsterdorf Asylum was fully functional during the entire war.

In Vienna, the disabled persons were abandoned to die due to neglect, malnutrition, and inadequate care. For 1 Sept. 1943, Helga Heidelmann’s patient file reads, "[D]uring the briefing: Can neither walk nor speak. Completely moronic. In need of permanent care, unhygienic.” From then on, there was no improvement anymore, on the contrary. The sparse entries point to rapid decline; on 27 Oct. 1943, tuberculosis was diagnosed, with the corresponding notification issued to the authorities. On 3 Nov., Helga Heidelmann died. The autopsy report confirmed the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Walter Heidelmann was informed immediately of his daughter’s death by telegram. At his request, he received the urn with her ashes on 17 Dec. 1943 for burial in Ohlsdorf. On 10 June 1944, the father, by then a widower, sent his daughter’s clothes rationing card to Alsterdorf with the request to return it to the authority in charge.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Ulrike Sparr

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Bewohner Sonderakte 319; Antje Kosemund, Spurensuche Irma, Berichte und Dokumente zur Geschichte der "Euthanasie-Morde" an Pfleglingen aus den Alsterdorfer Anstalten, 2. erg. Aufl., Hamburg 2005; Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr, Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1987.