Josefa LANGHAIDER, was born at 8 Festungsgasse in the city of Salzburg on July 8, 1875, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the daughter of a single 20-year-old also named Josefa Langhaider, who had been unable to learn a trade and had to work as a »maid.« Josefa’s mother died in the 1880s when Josefa was still a young child.
Only a few stations of the orphan Josefa’s ordeal are known: the girls’ orphanage in the Mülln neighborhood of Salzburg, St. John’s [state] Hospital, various homes operated by the »Sisters of Mercy« and the »Sisters of the Good Shepherd«, and some private addresses where the girl was temporarily cared for.
Around 1900 Josefa LANGHAIDER was admitted as a patient of the Salzburg State Sanatorium for the Mentally Ill for the first time, and from November 1932 on she was a patient in the institution run by the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in Schernberg near Schwarzach im Pongau [in the mountains about 65 km south of Salzburg].
It is now well known that the administrator of the Salzburg Province of the Sisters of Mercy Anna Bertha KÖNIGSEGG, protested with great courage against the Nazi murder campaign which is still wrongly referred to as a »euthanasia« program.
Josefa LANGHAIDER was one of the 115 victims who were sent from Schernberg bei Schwarzach im Pongau to the Schloss Hartheim killing center near Linz on April 21, 1941 — where they were all murdered.
As with all of the victims of the Nazi’s secret »T4«1 extermination campaign, the death of 65 year old Josefa LANGHAIDER was not recorded in the police registration files in Salzburg.
1 It was called »T4« because the »euthanasia« campaign’s headquarters was located at Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin.
Those primarily responsible in Salzburg for the murder of the handicapped were: Dr. Friedrich Rainer as Reich Governor, Dr. Oskar Hausner as Head of the District Welfare Office, Dr. Leo Wolfer as Head of the State Sanatorium, and Dr. Heinrich Wolfer as Head of the Genetic Biology Department of the State Sanatorium (now called the Christian Doppler Clinic).
Sources
- Birth and Marriage Register of the Salzburg Archdiocese
- Police registration files and Local Citizen files (Salzburg City and State archives)
- Study and Memorial center Schloss Hartheim
Stumbling Stone
Laid 08.10.2025 at Salzburg, Gaswerkgasse 4 (ehemals Mädchenwaisenhaus)
