Gatzke, Siegfried

Siegfried Gatzke was born on August 12, 1930, the son of Walter Gatzke and his wife Luise Anna née Thadewald. He suffered from hydrocephalus, monoplegia brachialis dextra, both probably related to spina bifida. In 1934 his parents took him to the infirmary of the Oberlinhaus Nowawes (today Babelsberg), from there he came to the Wittenauer Heilstätten in November 1935. In 1938 he was admitted to the Brandenburg an der Havel state nursing home. The Brandenburg sanatorium was set up as an ostensible hospital, but in reality served as a mass killing facility. It was located at Neuendorfer Strasse 90 c in an old penitentiary. A total of 8,989 mentally ill and mentally handicapped people were killed in a gas chamber in just 11 months between February and December 1940, including more than 400 Jews. The killing of the people was done with carbon monoxide. The gas chambers were disguised as showers. The operation of the gas tap was reserved for superior physicians, but in the course of the action it was frequently operated by non-medical personnel as well. The corpses were burned at night in two mobile ovens. The last gassing took place on October 29, 1940. Siegfried Gatzke was gassed on June 11, 1940.