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Werner Gross 1943
© Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Werner Gross * 1938

Marienthaler Straße Ecke Peterskampweg (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

HIER WOHNTE
WERNER GROSS
JG. 1938
EINGEWIESEN 19.1.1943
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 7.8.1943
LANDESHEILANSTALT EICHBERG
ERMORDET 6.10.1943

Werner Gross, born on 23 Dec. 1938 in Hamburg, transferred on 7 Aug. 1943 to the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Eichberg,” death there on 6 Oct. 1943

The Gross couple already had a healthy two-and-a-half-year old daughter when their son Werner was born in the Marienkrankenhaus in Hohenfelde, a Catholic hospital. The parents had him baptized there on the fourth day of his life, which suggests an emergency baptism, especially since it was administered by a Protestant pastor. During the first two years, Werner developed, like his sister, according to his age and experienced the usual childhood diseases, such as chickenpox, measles, and whooping cough, but also inflammation of the middle ear, and he fell ill with skin eczema. His father worked as a commercial clerk until he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht.

In Apr. 1941, Mrs. Gross and her children were staying with her parents near Lüneburg when Werner fell ill with meningitis. He was treated at Lüneburg Children’s Hospital for three months and subsequently transferred with substantial neurological problems to Eppendorf University Hospital in Hamburg, where the complications could not be remedied either though. When he was released to go home on 20 Oct., he was paralyzed on the right-hand side and unable to walk by himself. He could neither hear nor speak and constantly salivated. The father was on duty on the eastern front, which meant Mrs. Gross was on her own with both children. The fact that her previously healthy boy now required permanent care, without any hope of cure, depressed her very much, and she was ashamed when he destroyed toys while playing with a boy next door. Moreover, during every air-raid warning, she had to carry him from the fifth floor to the ground level to reach a public air-raid shelter or, in case she did not manage, had to hold out full of fear in the house, which had no shelter. On 3 Mar. 1942, she turned to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten) with the request to admit her son Werner, after she had already settled coverage of the costs by the statutory health insurance. Due to lack of space, Werner’s admission was denied.

The State Youth Welfare Office checked Werner’s need to be institutionalized, subjecting him to a psychiatric examination. In addition to the symptoms of paralysis, Werner’s abilities were listed: With his left hand, he was able to place building blocks next to and on top of each other, preferring the toy train and toy animals to other toys, he moved skillfully sliding on the floor, and he stood up on his own. The physicians concluded that Werner would be better off in an institution than at home "because the mother was not in a position to provide self-denying loving care,” recommending the "Ebenezer” institution in Lemgo/Lippe or "Bethel” near Bielefeld.

The welfare office attached to the Hamburg Social Administration for the Physically Disabled (Hamburger Sozialverwaltung für Körperbehinderte) searched in vain for a means to accommodate Werner in a place where he would be able to acquire the necessary independence until enrollment at an asylum for the deaf and dumb, not finding any place even in the greater Hamburg area over the following eight months. Due to this "special case of physical disability, connected with deaf-muteness,” in the late fall of 1942, the welfare office repeatedly turned to the management of the then Alsterdorf Asylum with the urgent request to admit Werner. After the Christmas leave [from the front] of Werner’s father, the boy was admitted in "Alsterdorf” on 19 Jan. 1943. The Social Administration acknowledged his need for care "until further notice,” classifying him with the group of "cripples” and agreeing to pay the costs.

At the time of admission, Werner was four years old and initially very shy. To the physician of the children’s ward, he gave the impression of being intelligent, despite his deaf-muteness, since he soon looked about with interest and immediately reached for the switch when given a flashlight. At the same time, he also quietly cried to himself.

Werner was transferred to the children’s ward. There, he took an active interest in his environment and occupied himself independently with toys and was able to walk by himself, albeit poorly. He received regular food, ate without any help, and was able to go to the bathroom on his own. The hereditary health expert’s report by Dr. Gerhard Kreyenberg confirmed that Werner’s disability was to be regarded as the consequence of the meningitis he had suffered, since he came from a healthy family of civil servants and white-collar workers. The report attested Werner normal intelligence despite his obvious deafness.

On the night of 27 to 28 July 1943, Mrs. Gross was bombed out and went to her native town near Dannenberg. In a letter dated 8 Aug., she inquired with the "Alsterdorf Asylum” whether her child was even alive anymore. The previous day, Werner had been transferred to the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Eichberg,” a sanatorium and nursing home in the Rheingau. Why he was chosen for this transport cannot be inferred from the documents. Whereas in the case of other patients the care requirements were obviously the decisive factor, this reason did not apply to him.

The then Alsterdorf Asylum suffered twofold during the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943: The institution had to accommodate and care for bombing victims while concurrently sustaining destruction of some buildings. In order to be prepared for unforeseeable future developments, the institutional administration, in agreement with the Hamburg public health authority and the "Euthanasia” Main Office, called T4 after the address at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin, transferred several hundred occupants to more remote asylums, which were considered "safe from bombing” ("luftsicher”) on top of that. The first transport, comprised of 128 children and men, left Hamburg on 7 Aug. 1943. It was carried out by the ‘charitable ambulance organization’ (Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH – ‘GekraT’), the transport company of T4; two nurses and one male caregiver accompanied the transferred patients. The first leg involved the bus transport to the Ochsenzoll freight station, the second the train journey initially to Limburg, where a specific train car was uncoupled with destiny "Kalmenhof sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kalmenhof”), and the transport ended in Hattenheim, where the patients, including 28 children, were loaded on trucks and taken to the institution.

"Eichberg” was a "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt,” a "sanatorium and nursing home” established in the mid-nineteenth century, which was integrated into the euthanasia program in 1939. When the Hamburg transport arrived, the institution was completely overcrowded. Twenty of the children were immediately committed to the so-called "children’s special ward” (see Stolperstein brochure on Hamburg-Rothenburgsort) and killed there soon after their arrival, mostly by injections of overdosed morphine or Phenobarbital (Luminal). Werner and seven other boys were initially placed in the women’s ward.

Without the procedure associated with the "Reich Committee” ["for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses”] ("Reichsausschuss” ["zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung von erb- und anlagebedingten schweren Leiden”]) being carried out, he was then transferred to the "children’s special ward” and murdered there. On 6 Oct. 1943 at 8 a.m., Werner died just under the age of five, allegedly of "pneumonia and cardiac insufficiency in combination with feeblemindedness.” That Werner was not "feebleminded” ("schwachsinnig”) emerged from his patient’s file, and he proved it every day by his behavior, even though not by using words.

His mother had been informed of his new whereabouts as late as September but was unable to visit him. Werner was buried in a mass grave on the institutional cemetery; his death was properly reported to the Erbach records office and registered under number 611/1943.

In July 1944, the Hamburg Chief of Police demanded in writing an explanation from the then Alsterdorf Asylum as to why Werner Gross’ vaccination had not been administered. The institutional administration replied with reference to his transfer to "Eichberg,” without mentioning his death.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 352-8/7 Abl. 2000/1, 13; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 33; Stadtarchiv Erbach/Rheingau, Standesämter; Wunder, Michael, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, 2. Aufl. Hamburg 1988.