Schloss Hartheim
Schloss Hartheim, also known as Hartheim Castle, is a castle at Alkoven in Upper Austria, some 14 kilometres (9 mi) from Linz, Austria. It was built by Jakob von Aspen in 1600, and it is a prominent Renaissance castle in the country.
The building became notorious as one of the centers for the
History before 1940
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Hartheim lies in the middle of the so-called
After changing hands several times the castle ended up in the possession of the Aspen family, who probably built the castle into its present shape. At the beginning of the 1690s they had a completely new castle built conforming to perceptions of the ideal Renaissance style with a regular four-winged building with four polygonal corner towers and a higher central tower.
In 1799, Georg Adam, Prince of Starhemberg, purchased the castle. However, by 1862 the castle was in a rather poor condition, as a contemporary report describes: "Doors, windows and ovens are entirely missing, ... and several ceilings must be replaced."
In 1898, Camillo Henry, Prince of Starhemberg, donated the castle building, the outbuildings and some land to the Upper Austrian State Welfare Society (Oberösterreichischen Landeswohltätigkeitsverein or OÖ. LWV). It was intended to use further donation to convert the building into an "Idiot's Institute" as it was described at the time. In addition between 1900 and 1910 major renovation and conversion work was carried out to enable the building to be used as a care home for mentally handicapped people. In 1926, a staircase was dismantled and replaced by a bed lift.
Nazi era and aftermath
Beginning in 1939, the
During the first phase of Aktion T4 at Schloss Hartheim, about 18,000 people with physical and mental disabilities were murdered
In 1946,
After World War II, the building was converted into apartments. 1969, the first memorial rooms were opened in the former gas chamber and admission room. Since 2003, Hartheim Castle has been a memorial site dedicated to the ten thousands of physically and mentally handicapped persons, concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers who were murdered there by the Nazis. Also in 2003 the exhibition "Value of Life" was opened.[8]
Further reading
- Angela Gluck Wood, Holocaust - the events and their impact on real people Foreword by ISBN 978-0-75662-535-1
Sources
- Pierre Serge Choumoff, Les Assassinats Nationaux-Socialistes par Gaz en Territoire Autrichien, Vienna, Bundesministerium für Inneres, 2000, ISBN 978-3-9500867-1-3
- Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials (PDF) Table of contents, introduction and index only.
- Eutanasia, le radici dello sterminio (in Italian)
References
- ^ "Euthanasia Program and Aktion T4". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Klee: Dokumente zur Euthanasie, p. 232 f.
- ^ Klee: Euthanasie im Dritten Reich, p. 290.
- ^ a b "Euthanasia Centre 1940–1944". schloss-hartheim.at. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
- ^ Helm, Sarah. If This Is A Woman. Inside Ravensbrück: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women. p. 453-455.
- ^ "Alice Ricciardi-von Platen obituary". The Times. April 15, 2008. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
- ^ Weindling, Paul (March 13, 2008). "Obituary: Alice Ricciardi-von Platen". The Guardian. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
- ^ "Official website". Memorial Site Hartheim Castle. Retrieved July 14, 2022.