Eduard Reinitz
* 1936

Eduard Hermann Reinitz, born 25.1.1936 in St. Georg General Hospital in Hamburg, admitted to the former Alsterdorfer Asylum (now Alsterdorf Protestant Foundation) on 18.8.1938, deported to the Mainkofen sanatorium and nursing home on 10.8.1943, died there on 27.12.1944

Rostocker Straße 16 b (St. Georg)

Eduard Hermann Reinitz (callname Eduard) was born on 25 January 1936 in St. Georg General Hospital in Hamburg. He and his mother Erna Luise Reinitz, née Braasch, born on 2 January 1908 in Schwartau, left the hospital on 3 February 1936. His father was the labourer Julius Eduard Hermann Reinitz, born on 22 July 1904 in Hamburg. The family lived at Rostocker Straße 14, later in a rear building at Rostocker Straße 16 in the St. Georg district.

Eduard Reinitz was born without any problems. However, as with his mother, the boy soon developed a severely enlarged thyroid gland.

On 9 August 1938, the parents took their son to St. Georg Hospital. According to the hospital report, he behaved extremely loudly on admission, constantly banging his head as if he had an earache, screaming, was unresponsive and did not react to anything. The diagnosis was ‘rickets’ (also known as English disease), hydrocephalus and ‘congenital feeblemindedness’.
(Hydrocephalus is a condition in which an excessive amount of cerebrospinal fluid accumulates inside the skull. The term ‘feeblemindedness’, which is no longer used today, refers to a reduction in intelligence or congenital intelligence deficiency).

When the St. Georg Hospital felt unable to continue treating Eduard Reinitz in hospital due to his loud behaviour, it transferred the boy to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (now the Alsterdorf Protestant Foundation) on 18 August 1938 ‘for further clarification of the diagnosis’. According to the patient file, Eduard Reinitz could walk when he was led by the hand, but could not speak and did not listen to his name. He could not do anything with toys; he often played with his fingers. After these findings, he was transferred back to the St. Georg General Hospital and soon afterwards discharged to his parents.

On 8 February 1939, Eduard Reinitz was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum for the second time. According to the patient file, the boy had behaved as he had before after recovering from pneumonia. He was said to be able to sit well. He stood unsteadily when held by both hands, but could walk when led by the hand. He, the three-year-old, needed help with personal hygiene. He shows a good appetite, but needs to be fed. He wets and soils himself during the day and at night. As before, it was said that he didn't know what to do with toys and often played with his fingers instead. Eduard could not speak and did not listen to his name. The child was ‘always sleepy’ and cried all the time.

The reports were repeated in the same way until finally, on 11 August 1943, Alsterdorf senior physician Gerhard Kreyenberg noted, ‘Due to severe damage to the institutions, transferred to Mainkofen as a result of an air raid.’

The Mainkofen sanatorium and nursing home, a psychiatric hospital in the pre-National Socialist era, was systematically developed into a death centre during the National Socialist regime. During the first phase of ‘euthanasia’, people were deported from there to the Hartheim Castle killing centre near Linz until August 1941 and murdered with gas. 606 of them are known by name (as of 2016). After this first phase, the patients in Mainkofen were murdered themselves through food deprivation as part of the ‘Bavarian Hunger Decree’ (starvation diet, meat- and fat-free diet, known as ‘3-b diet’ in Mainkofen), nursing neglect and overdoses of medication. According to the information available in 2016, 760 Mainkofen inmates died of malnutrition. The alleged cause of death was given as intestinal catarrh, tuberculosis, pneumonia or pulmonary tuberculosis.

In Mainkofen, Eduard Reinitz was essentially assessed in the same way as in the Alsterdorf Asylum. In December 1943 it was stated: ‘The patient's mental behaviour is completely unchanged from earlier reports. There is a considerable degree of feeblemindedness. Patient is completely dependent, communication is not possible. He hardly understands the commands given. At times the patient is loud, especially restless at night, he has no contact with other children, stands around alone, does not play, occupies himself with his fingers, smears saliva around, is extremely unclean, occasionally unclean.’

During the following year, no further entries were made in Eduard Reinitz's patient file in Mainkofen, nor were there any indications of a deteriorating physical condition. He died on 27 December 1944, allegedly of pulmonary tuberculosis. It can be assumed that Eduard Reinitz did not die of natural causes.

Eduard Reinitz became seven years old.

Erna Reinitz, whose husband had lost his life on 22 October 1943 as a pioneer soldier in the ‘eastern region of war’, received a telegram informing her of her son's death. She replied immediately: ‘Coming to my child's funeral. Request for a good funeral. Get flowers. Pay for everything.’ Erna Reinitz was the only relative of the Alsterdorf patients deported to Mainkofen who managed to attend her child's funeral.

On 11 January 1945, Eduard's mother wrote to the Mainkofen sanatorium and nursing home: ‘I ask you to write to me about the condition of my son Eduard Reinitz, who died on 27 December 1945. I was told by the doctors in Hamburg, in the Alsterdorf Asylum, where my son was previously, that if the child is dead, you could tell me exactly where it came from, as it is not hereditary. As I waited in vain for the doctor twice last week, please tell me about it.
With German greetings, Mrs E. Reinitz’.

It cannot be determined whether Erna Reinitz ever received a reply.