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Hertha Seiffer, 1939
© Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf

Hertha Seiffer * 1924

Triftstraße 100 (Harburg, Heimfeld)

1943 eingewiesen 'Heilanstalt'
Am Steinhof / Wien
ermordet 11.04.1944

Hertha Seiffer, born on 25 May 1924, committed to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten), transferred to the "State Asylum on Steinhof” ("Landesheilanstalt Am Steinhof”) in Vienna, murdered there on 11 Apr. 1944

Triftstrasse 100 (Heimfeld quarter)

Hertha Seiffer was born as the second of seven children of a working-class family in Meckelfeld. Later, the family moved to Harburg. Of her six brothers, three already died when they were still small children, two others attended a "special school” ("Hilfsschule”). It is not known where Hertha went to school and what type of school diploma she obtained. The insurance company Hertha’s father used to take out life insurance for her in 1941 listed the young woman as a maid. Her ordeal began at the age of 14.

On 15 June 1939, Harburg police picked up the girl on the street, "only scantily dressed” and totally exhausted, in the middle of the night and took her to the Harburg hospital located on Am Irrgarten.

After a thorough examination, the ward physician recommended that the young patient be transferred to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten). He explained his recommendation with the fact that she was "from an extremely bad social background,” "feebleminded to a great extent [hochgradig schwachsinnig],” and suffering from epileptic seizures on top of that. At the same time, he proposed that the girl be sterilized, since she had reached puberty.

Only five days later, Hertha Seiffer was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum with a diagnosis of "feeblemindedness” and "epilepsy.” Over the following weeks, she had numerous epileptic fits. Considered "disoriented,” she was strapped to her bed. After a visit from her mother, she appeared "highly agitated,” something frequently recurring in the ensuing weeks and months. For a few moments, she seemed to shed her usual apathy. The entries in her patient file suggest that she did not resign herself to being committed to the asylum. Repeatedly, the 15-year-old refused to cooperate during meals, several times she let herself be carried away in temper tantrums, and repeatedly she complained about being homesick.

On 19 Sept. 1939, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schäfer observed in a report to the social administration, department of health and special needs welfare (Sozialverwaltung, Abteilung Gesundheits- und Sonderfürsorge), "The patient suffers from epilepsy in combination with idiocy [Idiotie]. She has severe seizures connected with prolonged dazed states afterward. In addition, she is often afflicted by states of excitement, during which she occasionally attacks other patients. Mentally, the patient is completely apathetic, is incapable of occupying herself, sitting there all day long and staring into space. She cannot be used for any type of work.”

Her condition did not change over the next two and a half years. In Apr. 1942, Hertha Seiffer was subjected to compulsory sterilization in the Eppendorf University Hospital and then transferred back to the Alsterdorf Asylum. Her patient record reveals that she would go home for a few days at a time and that her parents often visited her in Alsterdorf.

On 16 Aug. 1943, the young woman, by then 19 years old, was transferred with 227 girls and women of what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum to the "State Asylum on Steinhof” ("Landesheilanstalt Am Steinhof”) in Vienna, "due to serious damage to the [Alsterdorf] asylum by an air raid.” The deciding factors in their selection were unfitness for work, the cost of care, and behavioral disorders.

After a short stopover at the Harburg railway station, where the transport was increased by 72 additional women from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn), the train arrived in the previous Austrian capital on 17 Aug. 1943. Afterward, all of the female patients were distributed to the wards of the Viennese institution, and over the following weeks, many of them were transferred again within the institution – some of them even several times. This had the effect that those affected repeatedly had to adjust to a new environment, making it impossible for any close relationships between the patients and the caregivers to develop.

Of the 228 women and girls from the Alsterdorf transport, 196 were no longer alive by the end of the war. To what extent starvation contributed to these deaths can be imagined based on Hertha Seiffer’s loss of weight. Whereas upon her arrival in Vienna, she still weighed 42 kilograms (close to 92 lb 10 oz), four months later, she had been reduced to 32 kilograms (about 70 lbs 9 oz). Since her parents were unable to visit her in Vienna, they were seriously concerned about not learning anything about their child from there for a long time, despite several requests. Eventually, they received news that in the meantime she had reasonably recovered from the flu and that she was calm and content.

In Mar. 1944, her state of health worsened dramatically, according to her medical file. The document then indicated that she was bedridden, in need of full care, and not clean.” In early April, staff measured increased temperatures. Hertha Seiffer died on 11 Apr. 1944 at the age of 19. The cause of death diagnosed was pneumonia.

It is unclear whether her father’s wish for transporting the corpse to Harburg was granted.


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

© Klaus Möller

Quellen: Gedenkbuch der Evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf; Archiv der evangelischen Stiftung Alsterdorf, Kran­kenakte Hertha Seiffers (V247); Wunder u. a., Kein Halten, 2. Auflage; VVN-BdA Hamburg (Hrsg.), Spurensuche.