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Hertha Peters * 1901

Lobuschstraße 32 (Altona, Ottensen)

HIER WOHNTE
HERTHA PETERS
JG. 1901
EINGEWIESEN 1928
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
AM STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 2.11.1943

Hertha Peters, born 31.5.1901 in Altona, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 18.9.1928, "transferred" on 16.8.1943 to Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg – Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien"), died there on 2.11.1943

Lobuschstraße 32, Ottensen

Hertha Katharina Wilhelmine Peters was born on 31 May 1901 at Winterstraße 5 in Ottensen, a district of the then still independent city of Altona. She was the only child of Hinrich Peters, a grease merchant, born 13 March 1875 in Mittelnkirchen, nowadays a district of Stade, and his wife, Hermine Mathilde Martha, a seamstress, née Ohlendorff, born 6 May 1880 in Hamburg. The couple of Protestant denomination had married on 15 Febr. 1901.

Hertha Peters was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum on 25 July 1928 by a doctor in private practice. He gave the following reasons: "Hertha Peters must be admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum because of idiocy with epilepsy. Further details: Patient is obstinate, restless, unclean. Suffers from convulsions at times, cannot walk, cannot sit up, speaks poorly, but hears and sees well. Physically underdeveloped, with no organic defects except the brain condition."

At her admission, the parents reported that Hertha had been very ill for weeks when she was three-quarters of a year old. The attending physician had stated at that time that the death of the child was more desirable than surviving the illness, since the child would surely become feeble-minded. Following the illness, however, convulsions had occurred only once, and then only again during puberty. (The term "feeble-mindedness", is no longer used today and refers to a reduction in intelligence or congenital intelligence weakness).

Hertha Peters lived with her parents until she was admitted to Alsterdorf. It is not known whether she attended school or an outpatient care facility.

When Hertha Peters was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum her parent’s address was noted as Lobuschstraße 32 in Ottensen. Therefore, a stumbling stone commemorates Hertha Peters at this location. This address was listed in the Hamburg address book as Hinrich Peters' business place, and the residential address as Winterstraße 5, just a few steps away. Later the Peters couple lived, among other places, at Lobuschstraße 55, where Hertha Peters' father died of cardiac insufficiency on 11 June 1940.

In Hertha Peters' patient file, the staff repeatedly noted seizures during her stay in the Alsterdorf Asylum. Shortly after her admission, continuous head movements were observed. All of the "flexors" (skeletal muscles that perform flexion of the joints) were described as stiffened. She could not extend her knee joints. She was said to be a complete care case. The nursing staff described her as loud, restless, and jumpy.

In September 1933, her weight was given as 45.5 kg. Several times until mid-1936, file notes indicate that her appetite was poor and that she would spit out food again. By September 1935, she had lost 17.3 kg. In the following years, reports of restlessness, agitation, and very loud utterances recurred. Hertha had continued to be fed and to be completely concerned in personal hygiene.

The heaviest air raids between 24 July and 3 Aug 1943 caused the most disastrous damages, especially in the eastern districts of Hamburg. There was also massive destruction in other areas of the city, including the Alsterdorf Asylum and Altona. Hertha Peters' mother's apartment in Altona was also affected. She found a new place to stay at Lobuschstraße 26 as a subtenant.

On 30 July 1943, Hermine Peters sent a postcard requesting information about her daughter. The Alsterdorf Asylum answered on 6 Aug. 1943, "... we inform you that your daughter Hertha is doing well. Although the institutions have been affected by the air raid, everything is going on as usual." In fact, the management of the institution took advantage of the bomb damage. After consultation with the health authorities, Alsterdorf transported those residents who were considered to be "weak in work, requiring a lot of care, or particularly difficult" to other sanatoriums and nursing homes. On 16 Aug. 1943 a transport with 228 women and girls from Alsterdorf and 72 girls and women from the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing home left for Vienna to the "Wagner von Jauregg Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna" (also known as the "Am Steinhof" institution). Among them was Hertha Peters. Dr. Kreyenberg, the institution's physician, noted in Hertha Peters' patient file: "transferred to Vienna due to severe damage to the institutions caused by air raids".

At the admission interview in the Vienna asylum - as noted - Hertha Peters was disoriented, unclean, in need of care. The weight of the now 42-year-old woman was noted as 25 kg.

We do not know how Hertha Peters' mother had been informed about her daughter's removal. On 9 Sept. 1943, the worried Hermine Peters wrote to the management of the "Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien" and asked for information about her daughter's condition. She wrote to the directorate of the institution: "I, the undersigned, kindly request you to inform me how my daughter Hertha Peters is doing. As long as she was here in Hamburg, I was able to visit her every Sunday, but unfortunately this is no longer possible. And you can imagine that my child, who was our only child, has grown especially close to my heart. We had her at home for the first 27 years and then she spent 14 years in the institution. If something should happen to the child, she is to be transferred here. I have a grave for her in Ohlsdorf. I also kindly ask you to inform me whether it is possible to visit Hertha. In the hope that you will listen to my request, Mrs. H. Peters, widow."

She received the following answer about two weeks later:
"In response to your inquiry of the 9th of this month, you are informed that your daughter has been in the institution here since 17 Aug. 43, and has already settled in well to the changed conditions. Her mental and physical condition is unchanged. A transfer to another institution is not possible at present. There is nothing against to visit your daughter. Attn. Dr. Podhaysky h.c." (= honorary).

The weight loss had continued in the meantime. On 1 Oct. 1943, Hertha Peters weighed only 23 kg. Three weeks later, on 10 Oct. the patient's file reads, "Very weak, deteriorating badly, slight diarrhea for several days."

Hertha Peters died on 2 Nov. 1943, according to the entry in the death certificate, of enterocolitis acuta, marasmus, and heart failure. (Enterocolitis acuta is the medical term for an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the small intestine, marasmus for a severe disease resulting from chronic quantitative malnutrition).

It is not clear from the available records when and by what means Hermine Peters learned of her daughter's death. She telegraphed again to the Viennese institution, "Daughter Hertha Peters is to be transferred to Hamburg." However, there is no evidence that this wish was fulfilled. Therefore, it can be assumed that Hertha Peters was buried in Vienna.

The "Wagner von Jauregg - Curative and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” was an intermediate facility for the Hartheim killing center near Linz during "Aktion-T4" (the name for the Nazis' "Euthanasia" program, so named after the location of the Berlin Euthanasia headquarters at Tiergartenstraße 4). After the official end of the Euthanasia murders in the killing centers in August 1941, murders continued on a huge scale in previous intermediate institutions, including the Vienna institution itself: through overdoses of medication and non-treatment of diseases, but above all through deprivation of food.

By the end of 1945, 257 of the 300 girls and women from Hamburg had died, 196 of them had come from Alsterdorf.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: March 2023
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; StaHH 332-5_1978 Nr. 2251/1880 Geburtsregisterauszug Hermine Mathilde Martha Ohlendorff, 5798 Nr. 33/1901 Heiratsregisterauszug Hinrich Peters/ Hermine Mathilde Martha Ohlendorff, 13681 Nr. 577/1901 Geburtsregisterauszug Hertha Katharina Wilhelmine Peters, 5102 Nr. 733/1940 Sterberegisterauszug Hinrich Peters; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 134 (Patientenaktie Hertha Katharina Wilhelmine Peters). Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 35, 283 ff., 331 ff.
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