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Sonnenstein Euthanasia Centre
Located at Pirna near Dresden, above the river Elbe, Schloss Sonnenstein was built on the site of a former medieval castle and had been used as a mental home since 1811. It was the first major state institution in Germany to be explicitly dedicated to treating, rather than just interning, mentally ill patients. In the 19th century, the reform-oriented hospital was one of the most renowned institutions of its kind in Europe. In 1922 as a Heil und Pflegeananstalt (care and cure institution) it had housed 672 psychiatric patients. In 1939, the respected long time director Hermann Paul Nitsche was at the head of the Sonnenstein state hospital.
In October 1939 the mental home was officially closed. A portion of the institution, located behind the main buildings and not included as part of the killing centre, was used first as a military hospital, and then to house ethnic German refugees from Bessarabia. Another portion of the institution, also in the rear of the property, was retained as a regular mental hospital after confiscation and assumed the name Mariaheim. Between early 1940 and June of that year, the part of the castle located in buildings 1-3 at the front of the property was converted into a euthanasia killing centre.
Building 3 served as a reception area for the arriving victims and buildings 1-2 provided office space and staff quarters. Building 2 (numbered C 16) contained the actual killing facility, including the gas chamber and a crematorium with two stationary coke-fired ovens located in the basement.
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A high brick-wall on two sides of the complex shielded it from outside observation, while a tall hoarding was erected to serve a similar purpose on the other two sides. Sleeping quarters for the stokers (brenners) were provided in the attic of building C 16. The physician-in-charge, Horst Schumann, who transferred from Grafeneck, arrived in late April to supervise the final remodelling, and the killing began in June 1940. Sonnenstein was to differ from most of the other killing centres because it did not occupy the entire hospital, which made complete secrecy impossible.
From the end of June 1940 until September 1942, at least 15,000 persons were killed within the scope of the euthanasia programme and Sonderbehandlung 14f13; a minimum of 13,720 had fallen victim to T4. One nurse testified that during his three week stay in July 1940 about 1,000 people had been gassed, including youngsters aged fifteen and sixteen.
Well before gassing experiments had started at Auschwitz in late summer 1941, 575 prisoners from that camp were transferred to Sonnenstein on 28 July 1941. Other prisoners also arrived in 1941 and 1942 from Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps. A prisoner working as a physician’s secretary was witness to the fate of 190 Buchenwald prisoners gassed at Sonnenstein in July 1941:
Read the full article here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/sonnenstein.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
