Emil Schlüter
* 1906

Emil Wilhelm Heinrich Schlüter, born on 5.1.1906 in Hamburg, admitted to the then Alsterdorf Asylum on 22.3.1935, transferred to the Langenhorn Nursing and Care Institution on 10.5.1939, then transferred to Lübeck to the Strecknitz Nursing Institution, transferred to Weilmünster Nursing and Care Institution in Central Hesse on 24.9.1941, died there on 1.12.1941

Kurze Straße 8

Emil Wilhelm Heinrich Schlüter (known as Emil) was born on 5 January 1906 as the fourth child of Emil Friedrich Schlüter (born on 28 January 1874 in Hamburg) and Johanna Louise Wilhelmine Günter (born on 13. August 1870 in Hamburg). At the time of his youngest son’s birth, Emil Friedrich Schlüter stated his occupation as a stonemason (paver). In the early 1930`s he called himself a labourer and, from 1934/35 onwards, a trader. The couple had married on 8 October 1899 in Hamburg.

Emil Schlüter’s three siblings were born between 1892 and 1902. The eldest brother, Gustav Willi, was born on 2 November 1892 in his parent’s home at Volksdorfer Straße 16 in Barmbek. He was followed by his sister, Frida Bertha on 5 December 1900 at Bethesdastraße 3 in Borgfelde and another brother, Martin Albert Emil, born on 10 January 1902. This brother lived only three years and two months. He died on 12 March 1905 in what was then the Eppendorf General Hospital.

The life story of the family remains largely unknown. We do not know how the families fate unfolded nor do we know the details of Emil Schlüter’s life. It also remains unclear how Gustav Willi, who was born before his parent’s marriage, came to have the surname Schlüter from birth according to the Birth Registry entry. The Birth Registry entry gives no explanation for this. The cause of death of the toddler Martin Albert Emil who died at the age of three also remains unknown.

We must assume that Emil, the youngest member of the family, suffered from mental illness. This conclusion is based on the fact that on 22 March 1935 the 29 years old was admitted from his parent’s home at Kurze Strasse 8 (Hamburg-Neustadt) to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (now the Protestant Foundation Alsterdorf). Only a few details are known about the rest of his short life.

Emil Schlüter spent four years in the then Alsterdorf Asylum. On 10 May 1939, he was transferred with at least thirteen other residents to the Hamburg-Langenhorn Nursing and Care Institution. From there he was transferred on 3 April 1940 in a transport of 25 people to the Strecknitz Nursing Institution in Lübeck.

This transport was one of several that took place from 1930 onwards on the basis of an agreement between the City of Hamburg and the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. The Strecknitz Nursing Institution had a Hamburg ward with 400 beds which the Hanseatic City of Hamburg had financed for its patients in 1930.

After repeated unsuccessful attempts in the late 1930s to close the Strecknitz Institution, the long planned evacuation was carried out very suddenly on 24 September 1941. Under the direction of the Gemeinnützige Krankentransport Gesellschaft (GeKraT), a sub organisation of the “Euthanasia” headquarters in Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin, 605 patients were transported by train to the Nursing and Care Institutions Eichberg and Weilmünster and, in one case, to Scheuern/Nassau. Only 80 patients remained behind.

302 people from the transport from Lübeck were taken to the Weilmünster Nursing and Care Institution in what is now the district of Limburg-Weilburg. Among them was Emil Schlüter.

During the first phase of the killing of the sick, Weilmünster like Eichberg and Scheuern served as a transit facility for the Hadamar killing centre near Limburg. After the official end of the murders by gassing on 28 August 1941, the murders continued in the transit facilities.

In 1982, Walter Adlhoch, former chaplain at the Institution, reported on the conditions in Weilmünster:
“They were only given vegetables, died in the wards, and had constant diarrhoea. There was not enough laundry, the beds were rotten, as were the mattresses. Because the beds were rotten, the dying lay in the bathtub in water. So I administered the last rites to them in there, the water coloured green and covered in faeces. They were just skin and bones, skin and bones.”

We do not know what really happened to the 36 years old Emil Schlüter in Weilmünster. However, it is safe to assume that his death was caused by an overdose of medication, neglect by the carers and, above all, by systematic starvation as reported by Walter Adlhoch.

Emil Wilhelm Heinrich Schlüter died on 1 December 1941 in the Weilmünster Nursing and Care Institution, The Death Certificate lists the cause of death as “Frequent epileptic seizures.”

Translation: Steve Robinson