Elisabeth (Elise) JUNGWIRTH was born in Perwang am Grabensee (in the Braunau district of Upper Austria) on March 27, 1884. She was the daughter of an unmarried servant named Wilhelmine Jungwirth (about whom almost nothing is known so far) and was baptized in the Catholic Church.

Wilhelmine’s brother Ferdinand JUNGWIRTH and his wife Anna Maria stood as godparents at her baptism.

They held local citizenship rights in Maxglan (which became part of the city of Salzburg in 1935) and had lived in their own home at 36 Maxglaner Hauptstraße since the 1880s.

Elisabeth’s uncle Ferdinand was a master tailor who died young in 1901 while his widow Anna Maria worked as a primary school teacher in Maxglan.

The police registration files indicate that since 1911 Elisabeth JUNGWIRTH lived with her widowed aunt Anna Maria – she remained unmarried and presumably because of her medical condition she was never able to learn a trade or to work.

On February 8, 1939, almost a year after the Nazis took over Austria, Elisabeth JUNGWIRTH was admitted to the Salzburg State Asylum. She was one of 68 patients who were deported from there to the Hartheim Castle killing center near Linz on April 16, 1941 – where they were all murdered.

As with all the other victims of the Nazis’ secret »T4«1 program, the death of the 57 year old Elisabeth JUNGWIRTH was not recorded in the Salzburg police registration files.

Elisabeth’s aunt Anna Maria survived the terror years in Salzburg and died there at age 84 in 1947.

1 It was called »T4« because its Berlin headquarters were located at Tiergartenstraße 4.
Those chiefly responsible for the murders of the handicapped in Salzburg were: Governor Dr. Friedrich Rainer, the head of the regional health and welfare office Dr. Oskar Hausner, the director of the Salzburg State Asylum (now called the Christian-Doppler-Klinik) Dr. Leo Wolfer, and the chief of the genetic disability section of the State Asylum Dr. Heinrich Wolfer.

Sources

  • Schloss Hartheim Learning and Remembrance Center
  • War Crimes Records of the U.S. Judge Advocate Division Headquarters (The National Archives Washington DC)
  • Baptismal Records for Perwang am Grabensee
  • Police Registration files for Maxglan and Salzburg in the Salzburg city archives
Author: Gert Kerschbaumer
Translation: Stan Nadel

Stumbling Stone
Laid 18.08.2016 at Salzburg, Maxglaner Hauptstraße 36

<p>HIER WOHNTE<br />
ELISABETH JUNGWIRTH<br />
JG. 1884<br />
DEPORTIERT 16.4.1941<br />
SCHLOSS HARTHEIM<br />
ERMORDET 1941</p>
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer

All stumbling stones at Maxglaner Hauptstraße 36