Documentary premiere about Hartheim Castle: a memorial of memory

Documentary premiere about Hartheim Castle: a memorial of memory

Alkoven, Österreich - On March 28, 2025, the documentary “Schloss Hartheim-The Nazi Mordanstalt” by director Thomas Hackl and Martina Hechenberger premiere celebrated on ORF III. This documentation illuminates the gloomy heritage of Hartheim Castle, the largest euthanasia institution in the German Reich, which is located in Alkoven, Upper Austria. Hackl, which was born nearby, has a personal connection to this historic place. The stories of neighbors and relatives are both the perpetrator and the victims are central components of the film, which addresses the brutal events between 1940 and 1944.

In the documentary, the neighbor Gabriele Hofer-Stelzhammer expresses that he was watching visitors to the liberation celebrations of the Mauthausen concentration camp every year. These visits are part of the memory of the victims, the importance of which was somewhat weakened in particular by the conversion of the castle to social housing in the community. Olga Stoiber remembers terrible scenes, including the screams of people and the image of a girl in a beautiful dress that was caught in Hartheim Castle.

The atrocities in Hartheim

Hartheim Castle was converted into an euthanasia institution in the spring of 1940 as part of the so -called “Action T4”. The conversion happened under the direction of Rudolf Lonauer, a doctor from Linz who led the killing facility. Georg Renno was his deputy and is quoted in the documentation, with his lack of insight to shock for the acts committed. The first victims of this facility were the former residents who had previously been housed there. The murders in the gas chamber began in May 1940.

As part of the secret euthanasia program, around 30,000 people were murdered in Hartheim from 1940 to 1944. The victims were mainly people with physical and intellectual disabilities as well as mental illnesses that came from various care facilities and psychiatric institutions. Even work-incapable prisoners from concentration camps such as Mauthausen-Gusen were brought to Hartheim to be gassed there.

The legacy of Hartheim Castle

The documentation of Hackl and Hechenberger combines personal stories with current research results on the euthanasia institution. These approaches should help to better accept the "sad heir" from Hartheim and not to be forgotten the brutal memories. Historical analyzes show that the killing doctors not only fought responsibility for selection and deportation, but also play a central role in the current research and processing.

As early as the turn of the year 1944/45, the first dismantling work was carried out on the killing systems. This should prevent the previous use of the castle from being remembered. Nevertheless, the memory of the atrocities remains alive, not least due to the continuous efforts to clarify and commemorate how it took place in the Hartheim learning and memorial location, which opened in 2003.

The examination of the past of Hartheim is important because many people who were murdered there were victims of a system that systematically destroyed human life. Your fate is a memorial for the dangers of ideological extremisms and should encourage us all to think.