Niederschrift [Oath of Office] Signed by Marianne Tuerk

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.145

Object Name

Oath

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

Tan paper with two hole punches on the left side and printed text in German. Includes printed Nazi seal on top, as well as several pencil signatures and purple hand stamps.

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 Action T4, headed by Philipp Bouhler. Along with neurologist 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 so-called euthanasia. Overdoses of Luminol, Veronal and Morphine were administered to children with mental and physical diseases and disabilities and 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 An Oath of Office (Niederschrift) signed by Tuerk, in which she pledges her fidelity and obedience to Hitler and the German empire, and to fulfill her duties conscientiously.

Dimensions

4 1/2 x 7 3/4"

Keywords

Kinderspital Am Spiegelgrund, Children, Vienna, Nazi Euthenasia program, Action T4, Lebensunwertes Leben, Life Unworthy of Life, Luminol, Veronal, Morphine, Spiegelgrund, Oath of Office, Niederschrift, Marianne Tuerk

Subcollection

Euthanasia, Trial

Recommended Citation

"Niederschrift [Oath of Office] Signed by Marianne Tuerk" (2015). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.145.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/235