Refuge

memorial to the over 500 patients of the Gabersee Clinic murdered in 1940 as part of the ‘euthanasia’ programme

More than 500 patients at what was then the Gabersee Sanatorium and Nursing Home (now the kbo Inn-Salzach Clinic in Wasserburg) were murdered in 1940–41 as part of the Nazi crimes known as ‘Aktion T4’ (‘euthanasia’). They were deported to the Hartheim extermination centre (near Linz) and killed there. The transports to the extermination centres took place by rail. Three of these transports to the Hartheim killing centre departed directly from Gabersee in November 1940. On the mornings of 7, 11 and 29 November 1940, the carriages were standing ready south of the institution on the connecting track from the town of Wasserburg to Wasserburg railway station in Reitmehring. The research carried out suggests that it was here, at the junction of the railway tracks and the path leading to Gut Gern, that the patients boarded the carriages which took them via Wasserburg station (Reitmehring), Rosenheim and Salzburg to Linz. It is likely that the deported patients were murdered on the very same day at the nearby Hartheim extermination centre.

A memorial is to mark the spot where the patients boarded the train that took them to their deaths. It is intended to offer relatives and passers-by an opportunity to pause and reflect. It is intended to address the issues of exclusion and stigmatisation.

The idea for this design arose from the image of a patient walking from one of the residential blocks at the Gabersee Clinic to the railway tracks on a November morning in 1940. As soon as he or she turned left onto the path behind the clinic grounds, he or she saw the tracks with the carriages. Knowing that they were being taken to certain death, this patient would have desperately longed for a refuge.

The keep was the tallest tower of a medieval castle. It offered the castle’s inhabitants a very last refuge in the event of a siege. It had no windows and only a high-set door, which one reached by climbing a ladder that was then pulled in. The space at the top behind the battlements served as a defensive position.

The design of a keep symbolises the refuge that was lacking at the time. It is built of clinker brick, which looks just like that of the patients’ homes. As with their homes, it also has a decorative moulding that visually separates the storeys. The patients would probably have found it familiar. But there is no ladder to climb up to the door. And the door is a false door. The keep is not accessible.

The patients remain excluded. They had no real or symbolic keep at their disposal. Neither their relatives, nor the doctors and nurses, nor the state offered them a place of refuge.

Among the various floor plans for castle keeps, there is also a pentagon, consisting of a rectangle and a triangle attached to one side of the rectangle. This triangular side was aligned like a ram wedge towards the most vulnerable point. The decision was made to opt for a pentagonal keep, as this floor plan allows the ram wedge to be aligned precisely – like a marker arrow – at the junction of the path and the railway tracks. As the memorial is situated around 50 metres from the site of the deportation, it is important to mark the actual location.

A clinker brick bench built into the ram wedge offers relatives and visitors the opportunity to sit there and look out towards the site of the deportation. At the same time, they symbolically become part of the ram wedge, which serves as a defence.

The design is intended to be striking, so that it can be easily found by relatives and is not overlooked by cyclists and walkers, inviting them to take a short break whilst learning about the history of this place.

The memorial is considerably smaller than a historic keep. Its layout was adapted to the leased plot of land, and its height to the surrounding landscape. To this end, the plot, the distance to the surrounding trees and the heights of the trees were measured, and a 3D representation was created to illustrate the proportions.

The memorial draws on the motif of the keep as a last refuge. This motif would not be appropriate in any other location. It relates to the townscape of Wasserburg, which is characterised by medieval buildings. Through its clinker brickwork, in turn, the memorial references the old residential buildings of the Gaberseeklinik.