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Ella Hermina Lüders * 1902

Venusberg ggü. Nr. 14 (vormals Nr. 42) (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ELLA HERMINA LÜDERS
JG. 1902
EINGEWIESEN 1924
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 1941
GAU-HEILANSTALT
TIEGENHOF
ERMORDET 10.4.1942

Ella Hermina Lüders, born on 19 Jan. 1902 in Hamburg, admitted on 19 July 1924 to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten), relocated in Nov. 1941 from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) to the Tiegenhof "Gau Sanatorium” (Gauheilanstalt Tiegenhof) near Gnesen (today Gniezno in Poland), died on 10 Apr. 1942

Venusberg opposite number 14 (Venusberg 42)

Ella Lüders was born as the fourth of seven children of the married couple Heinrich Dietrich Lüders (born on 28 July 1847) and Mette Margarethe, née Meyer (born on 31 Dec. 1864), at Norderelbstrasse 29 on Steinwärder (today Steinwerder). Her father worked as a ship carpenter, her mother had been "in service” as a domestic help before they had married on 16 June 1894. In 1908, Heinrich Lüders and his family moved to Jägerstrasse 37 on the other side of the Elbe, in the St. Pauli quarter. Since 1920, they resided at Venusberg 42.

When Ella was 18 years old, she gave birth to a son on 7 June 1920, whom she called Walter Bruno. Who his father was has not been handed down. Walter fell ill with rickets due to a lack of nourishment as an infant. With this disease and the diagnosis of "idiocy” ("Idiotie”), he was admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]) on 11 May 1922 at the age of just under two. His mother Ella was admitted as well almost two years later, on 19 July 1924. Mette Lüders, Ella’s mother, passed away on 5 August of the same year in St. Georg General Hospital. On a hereditary chart drawn up later, Ella’s admission was justified with epilepsy. Her son Walter was less than six years old when he died of pneumonia in Alsterdorf on 19 May 1926. His grandfather Heinrich Lüders died on 11 Feb. 1929.

In Alsterdorf, Ella Lüders was initially occupied with household chores. The hereditary health expert’s report reveals that her work performance had been declining since 1936, with entries reading, "dreams a lot, makes a confused impression, often talks to herself in a nonsensical manner.” And finally: "Now she has to be taken care of completely in terms of grooming, she no longer occupies herself, tears up a lot of clothes and stockings.”

The negative entries about the care effort for her and her work performance probably provided the reasons to record Ella Lüders in the first phase of "euthanasia” designated as "T4.” A so-called registration form was filled out for her and sent to the central office in Berlin at Tiergartenstrasse 4. "Experts” there decided who was transported to one of the killing centers as "unworthy of life” ("lebensunwert”). On 1 Aug. 1941, Ella Lüders and 20 other women were transferred to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home,” initially to "relieve” the Alsterdorf Asylum. They were to be transported from this collection site in northern Germany onward to a killing center.

Although the "Operation T4” ("Aktion -T4”) was officially stopped in Aug. 1941 after protests, mainly from church circles, in November Ella Lüders arrived on one of three transports in the Tiegenhof "Gau Sanatorium” near Gnesen (today Gniezno in Poland). This site, originally founded as Dziekanka Psychiatric Hospital in 1894, was located in the part of Poland occupied by the German Wehrmacht. The killing of the patients was carried out by starvation rations and medication, by overdosed injection, or administered with food, then called "yellow soup” by the nursing staff. Of the former residents of the Alsterdorf Asylum who were transferred to Tiegenhof, all but one died (see Heinz Patjens and Karl Jonny Westphal). Ella Lüders perished on 10 Apr. 1942.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2831 u 744/1894; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 13820 u 229/1902; 322-5 Standesämter 880 u 1208/1924; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9819 u 1079/1926; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9839 u 424/1929; Archiv Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Erbgesundheitskartei Ella Lüders; Wunder: Abtransporte, S. 181–187; Rönn: Langenhorn, S. 70f.