Maria Rausch was born in Arnsdorf bei Lamprechtshausen (23 km north of Salzburg) on June 16, 1906. She was an unmarried Catholic servant who worked for the family of Aurelia and Rudolf Spängler who lived on the second floor of 13 Getreidegasse in Salzburg (according to the Salzburg police registration files).

From October 1932 on Maria Rausch was a patient in the Salzburg State Asylum. With no prospect for recovery she was considered unworthy of life by the Nazis and on April 16, 1941 the 34 year old was deported to the Hartheim killing center near Linz where she was murdered.

As with all the victims of the Nazi’s secret »T4«1 program to kill incurable and severely handicapped Germans her death was not recorded in the Salzburg police registration files.

1 The »T4« program was named after the Berlin address of its headquarters at 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 the Christian Doppler Clinic).

Author: Gert Kerschbaumer
Translation: Stan Nadel

Stumbling Stone
Laid 02.07.2014 at Salzburg, Getreidegasse 13

All stumbling stones at Getreidegasse 13