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Marie Jeworek
© Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf

Marie Jeworek (née Groth) * 1885

Wetternstraße 6 (Harburg, Harburg)

HIER WOHNTE
MARIE JEWOREK
GEB. GROTH
JG. 1885
EINGEIWESEN 1937
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
HEILANSTALT AM STEINHOF
ERMORDET 24.1.1945

Marie Jeworek, née Groth, born on 9 May 1885 in Harburg, committed to the Rotenburg Institute of the Inner Mission (Rotenburger Anstalten der Inneren Mission) on 2 May 1918, admitted to the Lüneburg "Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Home” ("Provinzial-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Lüneburg) on 4 May 1926, transferred to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten) on 29 Apr. 1937, "transferred” to the "State Sanatorium and Nursing Home on Steinhof” ("Landes- und Pflegeanstalt am Steinhof”) in Vienna on 14 Aug. 1943, murdered on 24 Jan. 1945

Wetternstrasse 6, Harburg-Altstadt quarter

Marie Groth was born as the daughter of the worker Heinrich Groth (18 Apr. 1859–3 Nov. 1932) and his wife Anna Groth, née Rosenbrok (9 Dec. 1857–13 Aug. 1936). Since the age of four, she suffered from seizures, which increased from year to year. Besides, she was easily irritated. It is not known if and how Heinrich and Anna Groth tried to solve these health problems of their daughter.

These were apparently no longer as burdensome when Marie Groth met the worker Hermann Jeworek and started a family with him. With the birth of the three brothers Hermann (on 2 July 1906), Friedrich (on 9 Feb. 1908), and Kurt Jeworek, soon a new phase of life for the young parents began.

So far, it had been impossible to clarify why this ended abruptly in May 1917 at the latest. On 19 May 1917, according to the Harburg police department, Marie Jeworek moved into the city’s poorhouse at Wetternstrasse 6 as a new resident. What lies behind this brief re-registration with the police authorities can only be guessed. For Marie Jeworek, her world obviously collapsed at the age of 32. We do not know where her husband and children were when, in a hopeless personal situation, she turned to the poor relief services of the city of Harburg and found a new home in the shelter on Wetternstrasse.

On 2 May 1918, Marie Jeworek was committed to the Rotenburg Institute of the Inner Mission. After a thorough examination, the doctors diagnosed epilepsy with mental disorder. In addition, the nursing staff soon discovered that she was "freaking out” more and more often for completely trivial reasons, tearing her clothes in such occasions. Some spontaneous escape attempts were quickly stopped. In the institution, she was largely preoccupied with herself and hardly established any contact with others. She was regarded as unfriendly and was therefore not particularly popular with her fellow patients or caregivers.

On 4 May 1926, it was transferred to the Lüneburg "Provincial Sanatorium and Nursing Home” for unknown reasons. At first, she made a good impression during the admission procedure. However, just a few hours later, she provided a different picture when clashing with a nurse and then tearing her bedding.

In the following weeks and months, the staff experienced her as very contradictory: Sometimes she appeared as a hard-working person, sometimes as a quarrelsome patient who liked to fight with her peers and the nursing staff. The epileptic seizures now occurred more often and with stronger effect. Sometimes she injured herself, so that she had to be treated by a doctor afterward. Her environment was also affected. Many fellow patients avoided her. Every now and then, she surprised everyone who was close to her with enacted suicide scenes and thoughts of suicide expressed aloud. No one could say exactly how seriously she was preoccupied with these considerations.

On 29 Apr. 1937, she changed her place of residence again. At this point, the physicians and the nursing staff of the Alsterdorf Asylum had to face the challenge. The background to this relocation remains unclear. Did the Hamburg welfare authority intend to reduce maintenance costs with this move? Alternatively, had the relatives, who had hardly been seen at all in Lüneburg, expressed a wish to shorten their journey? Or did all participants expect a better therapeutic perspective from this relocation? We do not know the answer.

If the relatives had hoped for an improvement of the situation, they were disappointed. Even the Alsterdorf doctors could not cure Marie Jeworek. Her condition continued to fluctuate. There were days when she worked diligently in the vegetable parlor, and others when she did not know what was happening to her during a seizure, thrashing about wildly in the process. After such bouts, too, she was often unresponsive for a long time.

When in the summer of 1943, under the flimsy pretext that the Alsterdorf Asylum was only partially functional due to severe air-raid damage, the exodus of a large part of the "charges” began, Marie Jeworek was one of the 228 patients transported to the "State Sanatorium and Nursing Home on Steinhof” in Vienna on 16 Aug. 1943. For Pastor Friedrich Lensch and Senior Physician Gerhard Kreyenberg, the decisive factor in the selection of those affected was primarily the negative assessments of these patients, which they came across in the corresponding patient files.

Of the 228 women and girls on this Alsterdorf transport, only 32 were still alive by the end of 1945. Death reigned supreme at Steinhof. The mass deaths in this institution were systematically caused by overdosing of medication, lack of attention and non-treatment of diseases, but above all by hunger. This absolutely inadequate food supply also had fatal consequences for Marie Jeworek. When she arrived at Steinhof, she weighed 42 kilograms (slightly less than 93 lbs), by the end of 1944, her body mass was only 28 kilograms (close to 62 lbs).

On 24 Jan. 1945, she – like so many before her and so many after her – she closed her eyes forever at this place of horror.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Klaus Möller

Quellen: Harald Jenner, Michael Wunder, Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie. Die Toten 1939–1945, Hamburg 2017; Archiv der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf; 100 Jahre Niedersächsisches Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg. Niedersächsisches Landeskrankenhaus Lüneburg (Hrsg.), Lüneburg 2001; Zuflucht unter dem Schatten deiner Flügel? Die Rotenburger Anstalten der Inneren Mission in den Jahren 1933–1945, Rotenburger Anstalten d. I. M. (Hrsg.), Rotenburg 1992; Harburger Adressbücher.