August 19

Back At Am Spiegelgrund.....

Back in Hell...

Since this site will be an important one in my video project, I decided to revisit Am Spiegelgrund to find out things that I migth've missed the first time I was there. Turns out there was quite a lot of things that I missed the first time I was there on August 8. Since almost all of the Spiegelgrund exhibition was in German, it was hard for me to understand a good portion of the exhibition. However, then I found the website for the Spiegelgrund museum, and everything was in German, which allowed me to fill in all missing gaps of necessary information.

Instead of working on any vlogs/blogs, I decided to work on my video project for class. My video project will center on the role of Hans Asperger in the Nazi """"""euthanasia"""""" project that sought to eradicate disabled people. Given that I'll talk about this in my video project, I'll focus this blog entry on my reaction to revisiting Am Spiegelgrund, the site where 789 disabled people lost their lives.

Layout of the Steinhof institution in 1907. Pavilions 1 to 24 belonged to the psychiatric institution, pavilions 25 to 34 in the western part served as a sanatorium for consumptives. In 1940, pavilions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, and 17 became a separate entity under the name of Wiener städtische Jugendförsorgeanstalt "Am Spiegelgrund" (Viennese Municipal Youth Welfare Institution). From 1942 on, pavilions 15 and 17 formed the Wiener städtische Nervenklinik für Kinder "Am Spiegelgrund" (Viennese Municipal Neurological Clinic for Children). Pavilion 15 was the scene of the euthanasia killings from 1941 through 1945. Pavilion 23 housed a "Workhouse for Antisocial Women and Girls" that was founded in 1941. The so-called V-building, today's exhibition lcoation, was originally built as a storehouse.

In the prison-like Narrenturm, inmates were partly put in chains and flogged up until 1840.

Opening of the Steinhof institution on October 8, 1907, by the heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the governor of Lower Austria Count Kielmannsegg (right), and Vienna's antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger (left).

The Lower Austrian Provincial Lunatic Asylum on the Brünnlfeld in Vienna, established in 1853, was not able to cover the increasing demand in beds.

Aerial view of the Steinhof institution dating from the 1930s.

The Steinhof institution was renamed several times in the course of its history.

1907: Niederösterreichische Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalten für Geistes- und Nervenkranke "Am Steinhof" in Wien

1922: Wiener Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien

1941: Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien

1945: Wiener Landesheil- und Pflgeanstalt "Am Steinhof"

1962: Psychiatrisches Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien Baumgartner Höhe

2000: Sozialmedizinisches Zentrum Baumgartner Höhe – Otto Wagner-Spital mit Pflegezentrum

Increase in patient occupancy and deaths from the clinic's foundation until the 1960s. Notice that the fatal consequences of the psychiatric patients of BOTH World Wars are clearly recognizable.

Ward at the Steinhof Institution in 1938.

Already in 1938 many children were among the Steinhof patients.

Economic arguments had a central role in the propaganda for racial hygiene. (From: Deutsches Gold. Frohes Leben - Gesundes Schaffen, Munich 1942)

"Choosing the Right Spouse." The biologization of human character traits was a basic component of eugenics/racial hygiene. Diagrams like this one were meant to influence the contract of marriages according to racial-hygienic requirements.

"The Threat of the Subhuman." The supposedly higher number of children in "inferior" families and the deterioration of the genetic makeup that was associated with it were meant to justify interventions into reproduction by the state.

Professor Dr. Otto Reche, head of the Antrhopological Institute of the University of Vienna, was the 1st president of the Viennese Society for Racial Care (Racial Hygiene).

The "Nuremburg Laws," issued in 1935, defined who was considered "Jewish" by the regime. They provided the foundations for the systematic disfranchisement and persecution of the Jews and finally their murder in the Holocaust.

"Race and Heimat." Fritz Lehmann's publishing house in Munich had close ties to the Nazi movement since the founding of the NSDAP.

Economic arguments had a central role in the propaganda for racial hygiene.

"This is your burden too." Eugenic propaganda made extensive use of the argument that individuals with a "pathological disposition" allegedly incurred prohibitive costs.

The Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Sick Progeny of 14 July 1933 initiated the state-controlled sterilzation of the "hereditary sick."

Jewish doctors were a popular target for the Nazis antisemitic propaganda.

The film "Ich Klaga An" ("I Accuse"), produced in cooperation with the "T4" headquarters in 1941 and directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, made the """mercy killing""" of severely ill persons seem desirable.

Ideas of racial huygiene were introduced into all subjects of education. This is an example from a math textbook.

Clemens August Graf von Galen (1878-1946), bishop of Münster, whose resistance to Nazi """euthanasia""" was instrumental in bringing about the """official""" halt to Aktion T4 in August 1941.

As early as 1940, a flier of the illegal Communist Party of Graz disseminated details of the deportation and murder of Steinhof patients.

Anna Bertha von Königsegg, mother superior of the Barmherzige Schwestern of St. Vincent de Paul in Salzburg, tried to prevent the deportation of patients in her care from Schernberg Castle to Hartheim. She was repeatedly arrested by the Gestapo and had to leave the Gau of Salzburg.

The Lufpost issue of 23 June 1941 estimates the number of Nazi euthanasia victims in the Third Reich at 200,000 up to that date. As a matter of fact, approximately 70,000 were killed in Operation T4 until August 1941. By the war's end, the total number of """euthanasia""" victims would exceed 200,000

Anna Wödl with Alfred, her handicapped son, for whose life she fought for unsuccessfully. The 6-year-old was killed at Spiegelgrund on 22 February 1941.

A postwar article reported in detail about Anna Wödl's courageous act of defiance (Neues Österreich, 24 July 1946).

Raimund H. was transferred to Spiegelgrund at age 16 to determine his fate through various tests and examinations.

Dr. Igor Caruso, after the war one of Austria's best-known psychologists, was employed as an educator at Spiegelgrund between February and October 1942. During this time he wrote over 100 expert opinions on inmates.

If somebody did not conform to the Nazi "Volksgemeinschaft," he or she was committed to the Spiegelgrund institution.

Surviving contemporary witnesses have made and still make an invaluable contribution to the investigation of the Nazi past. Alois Kaufmann and Johann Gros have published their memories of Spiegelgrund.

An expert's opinion by Ernst Illing, medical director of Spiegelgrund, on Raimund H. The document shows the flagrantly inhuman nature of Nazi youth psychiatry. Raimund H. managed to escape and could thus avoid being sent to a youth concentration camp as Illing had recommended.

Dr. Hans Krenek, initially the pedagogical director of the youth welfare institution, from 1942 director of Spiegelgrund reformatory.

The Department of Hereditary and Racial Hygiene in Vienna's Main Public Health Office as well as the District Public Health Offices played an important role in the registration process of the child """euthanasia""" victims.

Dr. Ernst Illing, successor of Dr. Erwin Jekelius and director of Nervenklinik für Kinder "Am Spiegelgrund" between 1942-1945, one of the main architects of children's """euthanasia""" in Vienna.

Dr. Heinrich Gross, senior doctor in Pavilion 15, the killing pavilion of Spiegelgrund. He kept the kids' brains as specimens and was allowed to continue his work on them after the war ended. He was never punished for anything that he did. In many ways, he's like the Josef Mengele of Austria.

Dr. Erwin Jekelius, until the end of 1941, was director of Spiegelgrund and coordinator of Operation T4 in Vienna.

Correspondence between the "children's ward" and a victim's parents.

A mentally handicapped child is reported to the Public Health Office. The girl in question died in October 1942 in Pavilion 15.

Excerpt from the Spiegelgrund death registry listing 789 names.

4-year-old Annemarie Danner died at Am Spiegelgrund in 1942. These pictures were found in her medical records.

Franz Stangl (1908-1971), Christian Wirth's deputy and successor in Hartheim Castle's Killing Centre. From 1942, he was the commander of Sobibor and Treblinka death camps. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1970.

Relatives of murdered Jewish patients received distorted notifications of death from the "Mental Asylum Chelm". The "Mental Asylum Chelm" did not actually existed, and in reality, the patients had been gassed in Hartheim.

Christian Wirth (1885-1944), director of Hartheim euthanasia institution from 1940-1941. From 1942, Wirth became commander of the Belzec and Sobibor death camps.

In 1941, Franziska Löw, welfare worker of the Jewish Community Vienna, tried in vain to prevent the deportation of instituttionalized Jewish children from Steinhof.

Margarethe Neumann, born in 1893, daughter of the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, was transferred from Steinhof to the Central Office for Jewish Emigration on 31 August 1942 and deported to Terezín on 10 September 1942 together with her husband Richard. She died there on 17 March 1943.

Dr. Margarethe Hilferding (2nd from the left) and Dr. Viktor Frankl (center) with other physicians in the Rothschild Hospital. Hilferding was one of Vienna's first female physicians adn the first female member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. She was deported to the Terezín ghetto in June 1942 and murdered at Treblinka in September 1942. Until his deportation, Dr. Viktor Frankl was the head of the neurological ward of the Rothschild Hospital and consultant of the Jewish senior citizens' home.

Transport list containing names of Jewish patients who were deported from Steinhof to Hartheim on 1 August 1940.

The bureaucratically organized extermination process started with registry forms like this one. All psychiatric institutions had to report their patients to the Ministry of the Interior, which forwarded the forms to the secret """euthanasia""" organization. In the bottom left corner are the annotations of the psychiatric experts, who endorsed the killing of a patient with a "+" sign.

Transport list no. 10 of patients transferred from Steinhof to Hartheim, among them Alfred Tauber and other Jewish patients; undated (before August 1941).

Relatives of Nazi """euthanasia""" victims received letters of condolence like the one shown here, in which the cause and place of death were systematically falsified to conceal the murders.

recording at Am Spiegelgrund

When I went to Am Spiegelgrund the first time, there was practically nobody present other than me (and I think one other person was there). The great thing about visiting Spiegeglrund's exhibition is that it is completely free of charge to get in (though, you can pay for a guided group tour, which I regretably didn't do). Given Spiegelgrund's dark history of being the site where children were tormented in the worst ways possible, I was worried someone might catch me recording and then they'll be like "How dare you? You're being disrespectful." Luckily that didn't happen the first time I was at the exhibition. This time, staff member noticed me recording. I told the staff member I was making a documentary (both for the video project and also for my own, personal and separate documentary series that will detail the forgotten aspects of the Holocaust). To my surprise, the staff member was perfectly okay with me recording and making a documentary. In fact, they gave me some helpful sources for my documentary, namely, the link to their website, which is incredibly helpful. All of the old pictures you see above are from the website. The person even gave me card with the number in case if I had any questions or needed assistance with my documentary project.

I'm glad that the staff member was okay with me recording. After all, I was documenting what is essentially seldomly talked about topic. Given that Spiegelgrund is a site of remembrance, I think that by documenting my travels, I am actually doing the Spiegelgrund victims and survivors a service and a favor. I think documenting this stuff is probably the most respectful thing you can do at a site of mass murder (provided you don't be a disrespectful, insensitive, piece of garbage).

The story of Spiegelgrund, actually, the story of the entirety of T4, needs to be told. Despite being the first victims of Nazism, disabled people were the last group to receive their own memorials from the Nazis. For example, in Tiergartenstraße 4, Berlin, the street where "T4" comes from, the disabled people were never given a memorial dedicated to their suffering until September 2012. They're both the first victims of Nazism, and the last of those who are commemorated.

The Ruth Klüger within me.....

Just as Ruth Klüger had her gripes with "Holocaust tourism", I too had my own gripes with the ways in which Spiegelgrund was being commemorated.

The society responsible for documenting the atrocities at Steinhof/Spiegelgrund is known as the Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW), and while they're doing an incredible job at preserving and honoring the memories of those who died and those who lived in hell, I do think there's a lot to improve on.

My biggest gripe has to do with the fact that the only part of the Steinhof complex that houses the Spiegelgrund memorial is the V-Building. The actual pavilions where the killings occured are not part of the museum/memorial, which makes me salty and unhappy. The Spiegelgrund complex where people were suffering and being tormented were Pavilions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17. Pavilions 15 and 17 were expecially important to the murders of Spiegelgrund, as they were the "killing pavilions", where the children were killed. Additionally, Pavilion 15 was where Dr. Heinrich Gross worked and experimented on the childrens' brains.

The V-Building, which is where the current exhibition is located, was originally a storehouse when these murders were taking place. I found myself asking myself, "Where's the rooms where the kids were murdered? Where's the basement where the kids brains were kept before they finally received proper burials? Where were the beds in which the kids slept? Why can't I see the places where this all had happened?"

Well, first of all, this topic is insanely new. The current museum at Am Spiegelgrund was founded recently, in my own lifetime. I think it was 2012 when it was established. Thus, it may take some time before we can see the memorial and exhibition expand.

I'm sure the Documentation Center for the Austrian Resistance also wants that too. However, there are some barriers that the DÖW needs to overcome. First of all, many of these former pavilions where murders had taken place are still in use for other purposes as active hospitals and schools. Pavillion 11, which is where I believe the brains used to be kept, is still used as an active hospital. Pavilion 15, the former killing pavilion that was ran by Dr. Gross, is currently assigned to the Otto Wagner Nursing Home and houses the 2nd Geriatric Department. Pavilion 17, the other former killing Pavilion, is currently operating as the Center for Special Education.

I can understand that because these pavilions are still in use, there are some challenges that stand in the way of fully commemorating this place. That said, it is important to note that Hartheim Castle, where even more euthanasia killings took place, was initially kept as an apartment complex after WWII ended. It wasn't until 1969 that the first memorial rooms were opened in the location of Hartheim's former gas chambers and adminissions office. Even then, those were the only rooms that commemorated the evils that occurred at Hartheim. The remainder of Hartheim remained as an apartment complex until 2003, when it was fully converted into a site of remembrance for tens of thousands of disabled victims. The fact that Hartheim, a complex bigger than Spiegelgrund, was able to transition from killing centre to apartment complex to memorial/museum means that it is definitely possible for the same to happen for Spiegelgrund, but why this isn't baffles me. Even if you can't convert all of the former Spiegelgrund pavilions into museums, you could still at least convert Pavilions 15 and 17 into such, given that those where the killing Pavilions.

If this were the case, and I could actually walk around in the site where the murders took place, and maybe even see the basement of the Otto Wagner Hospital at Pavilion 11 where the brains used to be kept.....that would leave a big impression on me. That would be a really impactful experience, and it would be a nice way to honor victims and survivors who to this day are still not recognized as such.

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