Medical Statement from Dr. Marianne Tuerk

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.144

Object Name

Statement, Medical

Date

6-12-1941

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front: White paper with black printed text in German and typewritten information on dotted lines. Includes a purple hand stamp on the left with a black signature beneath.Back: Additional printed text and typewritten information on dotted lines. Includes a purple hand stamp on the left with a black signature beneath. A block of black printed text beneath.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Marianne Tuerk was a medical doctor who had been imprisoned for murdering children at Kinderspital Am Spiegelgrund, the children's clinic in Vienna, as part of the Nazi “euthanasia” program known as Aktion T4, headed by Philipp Bouhler. Along with Margarethe Heubsche and Ernst Illing, the head of the "clinic," she claimed that the murders were ordered from Berlin to "purify and improve the physical standards of the German race." These children were designated as "Lebensunwertes Leben"- Life Unworthy of Life - and were thus targeted for "euthanasia." Overdoses of Luminol, Veronal and Morphine were administered to children with mental and physical diseases and disabilities or were considered "inferior" according to Nazi racial policy. Over seven hundred children perished at Spiegelgrund, one of six Nazi institutes where physically and mentally handicapped people were killed as part of the T4 program. In most cases the cause of death was cited as pneumonia, or muscle problems. Brains and other body parts were collected and placed in jars of formaldehyde. Dr. Tuerk was imprisoned for ten years after the war. Illing was hanged. This document is the Rosenegger sterilization document signed by Tuerk and forwarded to Dr. Jekelius. The document states that Annemarie Rosenegger, currently in the children's hospital (Spiegelgrund) suffers from "hereditary physical deformity" and is informed about sterilization and its consequences in accordance with Reich law. Compulsory, or forced, sterilization was an integral part of the Nazi eugenics program, over and above euthanasia. Over 400,000 individuals were sterilized under Nazi law.

Dimensions

9 x 6 1/2"

Keywords

Kinderspital Am Spiegelgrund, Children, Vienna, Nazi Euthenasia program, Action T4, Lebensunwertes Leben, Life Unworthy of Life, Luminol, Veronal, Morphine, Spiegelgrund, Rosenegger, sterilization, Marianne Tuerk, Bouhler

Subcollection

Euthanasia

Recommended Citation

"Medical Statement from Dr. Marianne Tuerk" (1941). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.144.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/234