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Jean Ignatz Herr * 1874

Poolstraße links neben der Schule (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
JEAN IGNATZ HERR
JG. 1874
EINGEWIESEN 1943
HEILANSTALT MAINKOFEN
TOT AN DEN FOLGEN
9.7.1945

Jean Ignatz Herr, born on 11 July 1874 in Hamburg, died on 9 July 1945 in the Mainkofen "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Mainkofen) in Lower Bavaria

Poolstrasse 6, to the left in front of the entrance of Rudolf-Ross School (Poolstrasse 3)

Jean Ignatz Herr was born in Hamburg as the son of cigar worker Peter Christian Herr and his wife Johanna Christine Elisabeth, née Devrient. On 24 Aug. 1915, at the age of 41, he married Frieda Pauline Ella Cohen, née Woop (born on 27 Oct. 1889, died on 16 Aug. 1968), a widowed woman born in Hamburg. At the time of the wedding, both lived at what was then Schlachterstrasse 19. Their daughter Erna was born on 27 Nov. 1915. Around 1918, the couple moved to Poolstrasse 3, where Jean Herr opened an optician’s shop.

On Christmas Day 1937, Jean Herr was admitted unconscious to St. Georg Hospital. Later, he was responsive, but he remained disoriented. The doctors treating the 63-year-old man suspected that he was poisoned at first, but then learned from his wife that her husband had been "deteriorating mentally” for more than a year and had also been drinking as of late.

After an encephalography, an examination of the cerebral ventricles, Jean Herr was diagnosed with dementia in an already advanced stage. On 6 Jan. 1938, he was admitted as "fully dependent on care” to the "Psychiatric and Mental Hospital of the Hansische University” ("Psychiatrische und Nervenklinik der Hansischen Universität”), from where he was transferred on 31 Jan. 1938 to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Langenhorn). On 28 Aug. 1939, Jean Herr was admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]) on the grounds that he "often finds it difficult to find his way around the house.” There he spent the next four years of his life as an independent, good-natured, and content patient – as noted in his medical record – who, however, spent the day without any employment. He largely gave meaningful answers to any questions, but showed little interest in his surroundings.

When, after the heavy air raids on Hamburg, the prison administration took the opportunity to dispose of several residents, Jean Herr was transferred to the Mainkofen "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Mainkofen) in Lower Bavaria on 10 Aug. 1943. Among the 112 patients who were selected and transported away in the buses of the ‘charitable ambulance organization’ (Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH – ‘GekraT’) there were a striking number of older men.

When he was admitted to Mainkofen, Jean Herr was considered an inconspicuous patient as well. At the end of 1944, it was also noted there that he "does not work at all.” After a transfer within the institution (house no. 18), the last file entry read as follows: "Ever since being here, this patient has offered essentially the same picture of mental state throughout. He constantly sat in his place, dull and indifferent, without showing any interest in what was going on around him; but he remained calm and docile and never made trouble. He did not speak of himself, but he answered questions as far as matters of the present were concerned; he did not reveal anything about events of his earlier days. For some time now, his feet have been swollen quite often, which is why he had to be left in bed more frequently in house 9. Diarrhea for about ten days, no lung findings, heart sounds a little quiet. Died today at 6 p.m.”

Although Jean Herr experienced the end of the war, he died officially on 9 July 1945, two days before his seventy-first birthday, of paralytic marasmus (mental decline), which could be quite possible in his case. However, nursing cases like Jean Herr, affected by dementia in old age, were also victims of Nazi health policy. They were regarded as "ballast existences” ("Ballastexistenzen”), discriminated against as "unworthy [of living].” High mortality rates in the various institutions were deliberately accepted. Of the 112 Alsterdorf patients who were transported away together with him, only 39 survived the poor living conditions, such as "starvation diet” ("Hungerkost”) and neglect in care, at the Mainkofen "sanatorium and nursing home” in Lower Bavaria.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3267 u 495/1915; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Patientenakten der Alsterdorfer Anstalten, V 406 Jean Herr; Wunder: Exodus, S. 205–209.