Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Ilse Betty Maria Dahl * 1922

Sachsentor 48 (Bergedorf, Bergedorf)

HIER WOHNTE
ILSE BETTY MARIA
DAHL
JG. 1922
EINGEWIESEN 2.2.1930
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 16.8.1943
HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
STEINHOF WIEN
ERMORDET 24.6.1944

Ilse Betty Maria Dahl, born on 21 July 1922 in Sande, murdered on 24 June 1944 at the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt

Sachsentor 48 (formerly: Grossestrasse 48)

Ilse Betty Maria Dahl was born on 21 July 1922 as the illegitimate child of Eduard Jäger and Emma Wulff, née Dahl, in Sande / Storman District. A half-brother died already at birth. Due to a mental handicap – in contemporary usage called congenital feeble-mindedness – she was admitted to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten) on 2 Feb. 1930. She was often ill and underwent treatment at the local hospital. The patient’s medical record lists angina, tightness in the chest area, bronchitis, inflammation of the eyelid, scarlet fever, dermatitis, and pulmonary tuberculosis. The file also noted that Ilse Dahl needed help putting on her clothes and eating and that the wetted herself. She was underweight throughout, weighing only 32.5 kilograms (approx. 71.5 lbs) at the age of 14. Her condition improved temporarily, at which time she was able to dress herself, but this would change again.

Many details of her condition and behavior were kept from her mother, and the letters written by the senior physician only contained the passage "Your daughter is fine.” In some cases, she was also told that Ilse longed for her mother, but that the latter could not visit her because she was ill.

After the severe bombing and destruction of Hamburg in July/Aug. 1943, she was relocated together with 227 other patients to the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a sanatorium and nursing home, on 16 Aug. 1943. There she caught tuberculosis and died on 24 June 1944 due to insufficient nutrition (at the time of her death, Ilse Betty Maria Dahl weighed a mere 26 kilograms, i.e. approx. 57 lbs) and medical care; however, "tuberculosis” was indicated as the official cause of death. Ilse Betty Maria Dahl was one of many "euthanasia” victims of the Vienna Municipal Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt. She was buried in Vienna.


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

© Elisabeth Körs, Lena Falke

Quelle: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv V 365; Wunder, Michael, et.al. Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr