in detail
In November 1940, the president of the province of Hessen-Nassau vacated and leased the Hadamar facility to the "euthanasia" head office in Berlin. It was the sixth and last institution to take up the killing with gas as part of the "Action T4" program. From January to August 1941, over 10,000 children, women and men were murdered with carbon monoxide in gas chambers disguised as showers in the basement of the building. The corpses were then burned in the crematorium. To conceal the murders, the so-called "consolation letter department" (Trostbriefabteilung) of the special registry office (Sonderstandesamt) in "Hadamar-Mönchberg" sent death certificates issued with phony causes of death. After the "euthanasia" action was halted in August 1941, "T4" workers in the spring of 1942 restored the institution to its previous form so that nothing would suggest the former criminal use of the building. However, when the former administration of the Hadamar institution returned, instructions from the T4 headquarters in Berlin ordered that the killing continue. Of the 4,817 people from all parts of the Reich who were admitted up to 1945, 4,422 died - the majority from unnatural causes. During the day, the institution`s doctor selected the weak, ill and unmanageable patients who were destined for murder, while during the night, the guardians and nurses carried out the orders by administering overdoses of medicine. As of 1943, the Hadamar victims included half-Jewish children who were wards of the state, forced laborers with tuberculosis and their children, as well as mentally ill SS-family members and soldiers. As of 1942, the corpses were buried in mass graves in a newly constructed cemetery.
Since 1964, the cemetery has been a memorial. In 1983, a memorial museum commemorating the victims of the Nazi "euthanasia" crimes was established in the Hadamar psychiatric hospital. It includes the cemetery, the preserved original rooms in the basement and a newly developed exhibit about the Nazi "euthanasia" crimes. Also available to visitors are rooms to conduct seminars and show films and a reference library.
January - August 1941
Gas chamber facility within the framework of the "euthanasia" (Action T4) program; approximately 10,000 patients are killed with carbon monoxide gas.
August 1942 - March 1945
Second phase of the "euthanasia" murder (more than 4,000 deaths).
Since 1945
The facility is used as a psychiatric hospital/ "Center for Social Psychiatry" .
1964
The institution`s cemetery, where the dead are buried in mass graves, is remodeled.
1983
The first documentation exhibit about "euthanasia" crimes in Hadamar is developed and installed in the basement rooms.
1991
A new exhibit about Nazi "euthanasia" crimes is mounted.
