Forced sterilizations and patient murders – Mainkofen during the Nazi regime.
During the Nazi regime, people were primarily evaluated based on their economic utility to the „national community.“ Individuals with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, or those labeled as „asocial“ were classified by Nazi eugenicists as „hereditarily ill,“ forcibly sterilized, gassed in extermination centers, lethally injected in so-called healing and nursing homes, or starved to death. In an interview, the former commercial director of the Mainkofen District Hospital in Deggendorf, Lower Bavaria, answers questions about how the Nazi murder program was implemented in the clinic he managed.
Table of content
Gerhard Schneider was not honored.
Once a flagship project of reform psychiatry.
The illnesses were traced back up to the fifth generation.
Alcoholics were also forcibly sterilized.
He made a fortune from sterilizations.
Hitler’s „Mercy Killing“ decree
The last report sheet was sent in July 1944.
„BRINGING JOY TO ALL, HARMING NO ONE“
Child transports to Mainkofen
The Bavarian Starvation Diet Decree
The deciding factor was always the economic benefit.
Due to malnutrition leading to somatic diseases that were deliberately untreated.
How do you define a starvation diet victim?
We wanted the victims to be named.
No one must know that there is someone „genetically ill“ in the family.
Sterilize, yes, but no one must find out!
Not a single person was held accountable.
„Mentally ill Eastern workers“ were transferred to disguised institutions.
Jewish transports from Bavarian institutions
Stop, don’t concern yourself with those things…!
The personnel files of the perpetrators were doctored.
„What is this nonsense?“
Then the work would have been in vain.
10 years after the inauguration of the memorial
Some crossed to the other side of the street.
Endnotes
Endnote 1: Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases (Figure 9)
Endnote 2: „Initiation of the Sterilization Procedure“ (Figure 10)
Endnote 3: Sterilization of a Saleswoman (Figure 12)
Endnote 4: Medical Report Dr. Brettner, Surgeon (Figure 15)
Endnote 5: Invoice for a Forced Sterilization (Figure 16)
Endnote 6: Hitler’s decree – Codename „Mercy Killing“ (Figure 18)
Endnote 7: Alfred Hoche, Karl Binding (Figure 19)
Endnote 8: Report Sheet 1 – Registration of Patients (Figure 22)
Endnote 9: Transcription of „Secret Diary“ (Figure 23)
Endnote 10: Nazi killing center Hartheim, pick-up bus with driver (Figure 29)
Endnote 11: Correspondence with relatives and Mainkofen’s response (Figure 30)
Endnote 12: Transfer notice Dr. Schapfl (Figure 31)
Endnote 13: Collective transports to Mainkofen (Figure 33)
Endnote 14: Portrait of Dr. med. Karl Brandt (Figure 34)
Endnote 15: Starvation of children (Figure 35)
Endnote 16: Bavarian Starvation Diet Decree, (Figure 37)
Endnote 17: Letter from the District Administrator’s Food Office (Figure 39)
Endnote 18: German Bundestag Printed Matter 7/4200 (Figure 50)
Endnote 19: „Prosection of the German Institute for Psychiatric Research (Figure 54)
Endnote 20: Memorial to commemorate the Sinti and Roma in the Maxglan forced labor camp, Salzburg
Read an excerpt from my interview with Gerhard Schneider here:
HMV: Now, there is one more question I would like to ask you. – The inauguration of the memorial made quite a splash back then, in 2014. At that time, for example, there was still a street in Plattling named after Dr. Brettner, the sterilization doctor here in Mainkofen. Due to the establishment of the memorial and the ensuing discussion, the street was renamed. – How did you experience that at the time, and how do the people living on that street feel about it today? – I remember that there was a lot of discontent.
GERHARD SCHNEIDER: Yes! – The situation calmed down over time. It took four years for the street to finally be renamed from Dr. Brettner Street to Sonnenstraße (Sun Street). – There was considerable resistance from the residents, arguing that now they would have to change all their addresses, no navigation system would find them anymore, etc. – It took four years because my initial publications were doubted. – Sure, they said, Schneider from Mainkofen is not a historian, he can claim anything…
And then the city of Plattling commissioned an expert report from Mr. Skribeleit, whom I know personally; he is the director of the Flossenbürg concentration camp memorial. His scientific staff prepared this report, and it revealed that it was indeed the case. – However, the report also stated that Dr. Brettner was only responsible for about 30 cases. – In contrast, I have documented well over 300 cases!
Interestingly, after consulting with a scientific employee in Flossenbürg, it turned out that the authors of the study had only evaluated the figures from the Hereditary Health Court in Landshut! – But that accounted for only about one-tenth of the affected individuals! Decisions from the Hereditary Health Courts in Passau, Deggendorf, and other areas were not considered, which led to the large discrepancy. – Nevertheless, the over 30 sterilization victims were enough to warrant renaming the street.
Read the full interview with Gerhard Schneider here as an E-book.
