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Stolperstein für Wilhelm Rimkus

Wilhelm Rimkus * 1914

Gannerbarg 20 (Harburg, Neugraben-Fischbek)

HIER WOHNTE
WILHELM RIMKUS
JG. 1914
EINGEWIESEN 1942
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 25.8.1942
HEILANSTALT ILTEN
ERMORDET 28.2.1943

Wilhelm Rimkus, born 5.9.1914 in Harburg, admitted to the Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home on 15.6.1942, "transferred" to the Wahrendorff Private, Sanatorium and Nursing Home in Ilten on 25.8.1942, died there on 28.2.1943

Gannerbarg 20 (formerly Scheideholz 200) Neugraben-Fischbek

Wilhelm Rimkus was born in Harburg on 5.9.1914 as the son of the bricklayer Karl Rimkus and his wife Sophie. He lived with his parents and two older brothers in Fischbek, Scheideholz 200.
Due to a congenital thyroid disease, Wilhelm Rimkus did not develop as other children did; the disease led to physical and mental developmental disorders.

Wilhelm Rimkus was cared for by his family. Even when his mother died in 1934 and his father remarried, the family took care of Wilhelm, who was now 20 years old. On July 14, 1941, the father died of a stroke. A year later, his widow no longer felt able to continue caring for her late husband's son and applied for placement in a nursing facility.

He was admitted to the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn on 15.6.1942. There the patient was described as calm, docile and friendly, his physical development and behavior as childlike.
On 25.8.1942 Wilhelm Rimkus was 'transferred' to the Wahrendorffsche Privat- Heil- und Pflegeanstalt in Ilten.

In this sanatorium and nursing home there was a conspicuously high mortality rate during the war years. It can be assumed that many patients died of intentional underuse.

Wilhelm Rimkus died on February 28, 1943, indicated cause of death: heart failure in connection with influenza.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Margrit Rüth

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg 352-8/7 Abl. 1/1995 Nr. 29925; Adressbuch Harburg-Wilhelmsburg 1937; Hamburger Gedenkbuch Euthanasie DIE TOTEN 1939-1945 (Jenner/Wunder) S. 454, http://www.hamburger-euthanasie-opfer.de/todesorte.html; Staatsarchiv Oldenburg, Best. 136 Nr. 5194, Broschüre.