Elisabeth LEITNER, born in Salzburg on November 16, 1885, and baptized Catholic, was the third of six children of the married couple Kreszentia and Karl Leitner.
The prominent bourgeois family was entitled to reside in the city of Salzburg according to Austrian law. Elisabeth’s father was a banker and entrepreneur who purchased Mönchstein Castle in 1887 and had Villa Leitner, named after him, built.
He also had the road from Mülln to Mönchsberg, the electric elevator, the restaurant and the observation tower built.
Karl Leitner, whose banking house went bankrupt, died in 1911 and his property on the Mönchsberg had to be sold by his heirs.
His widow had been living with her children Rosa and Leopold in the Lehen district of Salzburg since 1928.
In July 1917, their unmarried and sick daughter Elisabeth LEITNER was admitted to the Salzburg State Sanatorium for the first time. She was among the 29 inmates who were deported to Hartheim and murdered on April 18, 1941.
As with all victims of the National Socialist secret action »T4«1, the death of the 55-year-old woman is not recorded in the police registration file of the city of Salzburg.
Her mother and two of her five siblings were still living in Salzburg.
Her mother Kreszentia Leitner died at the age of 87 in March 1947.
1 »T4«: named after the »euthanasia« headquarters in Berlin, Tiergartenstraße 4.
Those mainly responsible for the murders of the sick in Salzburg: Dr. Friedrich Rainer as Reichsstatthalter, Dr. Oskar Hausner as head of the Gaufürsorgeamt, Dr. Leo Wolfer as head of the Landesheilanstalt and Dr. Heinrich Wolfer as head of the hereditary biology department of the Landesheilanstalt (now Christian Doppler Clinic).
Sources
- Salzburg City Archives
- Schloss Hartheim Study and Memorial Center
Translation: DeepL
Stumbling Stone
Laid 06.07.2011 at Salzburg, Mönchsberg 27
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer