in detail
The district of Pirna is about twenty kilometers from Dresden above the Elbe river. Since 1811, the Pirna Sonnenstein Castle had housed one of the first sanitoriums for mentally ill patients. Because of its advanced methods, it received world-wide acclaim and served as a model for other institutions.
During the Third Reich, this place of humanity was transformed into a place of horror. After the institution was closed in October 1939, a screened off building complex with gas chambers and crematoriums was established in the spring of 1940 under the direction of offices of the NSDAP and a specially created agency for the planned mass murder of the mentally ill ("Action T4"). Within the framework of the "Action T4" program, at least 13,720 people, including hundreds of children, died there between June 1940 and August 1941.
In the summer of 1941, more than a thousand additional prisoners from concentration camps were killed as part of "Action 14 f 13". The extent of the prisoner transports from concentration camps is not yet completely known. There are records of transports from the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (269 prisoners from June 4-7, 1941), Buchenwald and Auschwitz. A large portion of the 187 prisoners of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp who were gassed on July 14 and July 15, 1941 were Jews. This operation was followed by a transport on July 28, 1941 of 575 Jewish and Polish prisoners from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp who were also gassed to death in the Sonnenstein gas chamber. These mass gassings demonstrate the beginning of a new dimension of killing.
In the so-called "Dresden Doctors` Trial" of 1947, some of the participants in the murder operation at the Sonnenstein were held accountable. After the Doctors` Trial, hardly a word was spoken in Pirna about the crimes perpetrated there. The crimes were repressed for over four decades. A large business which utilized the buildings of the extermination center was established on the grounds of the Sonnenstein and concealed from the public.
On September 1, 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the National Socialist murder operation against the mentally ill, a small exhibition on the "T4 Action" opened, initiated by a small group of citizens and created by the West Berlin historian Götz Aly. As a consequence of this exhibit, a citizens` movement to create a memorial for the victims of the murder operation at the Sonnenstein created the Sonnenstein Memorial Board in 1991. The work of the Board has resulted in the planning of memorial ceremonies and symposia, archival research, the development of an exhibition on the history of the Sonnenstein Sanitorium, two publications and successful archaeological studies of the murder areas. In February 1995, the initial stages of the memorial construction began. With the completion of construction and reconstruction it was possible on June 9, 2000 for the workshop and memorial museum to be used for their intended purposes. At the same time the memorial museum opened a permanent exhibition documenting the "Euthanasia" crimes committed at the Sonnenstein.
June 1811
One of the first German sanitoriums is opened in the Sonnenstein castle, gaining international renown during the first half of the 19th century.
October 1939
The sanitorium is closed.
1940
The facilities are reconstructed into an extermination center.
June 1940 - August 1941
Within the framework of the "Action T4" at least 13,720 mentally ill and retarded patients are gassed.
June - August 1941
More than 1,000 concentration camp prisoners are murdered ("Action 14 f 13").
1973
A memorial plaque is erected at the castle entrance.
September 1989
An exhibition on "Action T4" opens at the Sonnenstein church community center.
June 1991
The Sonnenstein Memorial Board is established.
1993-94
Archaeological research takes place in the death cellars.
1995
Construction begins on the memorial.
1997
Foundation stone is laid for the establishment of a workshop for the disabled of the AWO Sonnenstein and for the Memorial Museum.
June 2000
Extension of the workshop for the disabled and the memorial museum. The permanent exhibition of the museum is opened.
