Maria SCHEURINGER, née Königsdorfer, was born in Hallwang (about 6.5 km north of Salzburg) on June 24, 1888. She was the Catholic wife of a railroader and had a daughter.
Along with many other railroaders the SCHEURINGER family lived in Itzling, which was part of Gnigle until they were both annexed to the city of Salzburg in 1935, and they had local citizenship rights there.

On September 21, 1936 Maria SCHEURINGER was admitted as a patient in the Schloss Schernberg sanatorium maintained by the Merciful Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul in Schwarzach (in the Pongau region of Salzburg). Despite the »most courageous protest of the Church in Salzburg« (Ernst Hanisch) Schloss Schernberg was targeted by the Nazi regime’s »Euthenasia« program along with the Salzburg State Asylum.

In fact it was one woman, not the Church who displayed courage: the Catholic nun Anna Bertha Königsegg who was the Visitor (Inspector) for the Merciful Sister’s Salzburg Province.
When Anna Bertha Königsegg was arrested by the Gestapo on April 16, 1941 the Schloss Schernberg patients lost their protector, though some of her co-workers were able to save 17 patients by hiding them in the woods before the Nazis came to take them all away.

The 52 year old Maria SCHEURINGER was one of the 115 patients who were deported from Schloss Schernberg to the Hartheim Castle killing center near Linz on April 21, 1941—where they were all murdered.

As with all the other victims of the Nazis’ secret »T4«1 program, Maria SCHEURINGER’s death was not recorded in the Salzburg police registration files.

Her widowed husband died in Salzburg in 1963 and her married daughter Josefine had three children.

1 It was called »T4« because its Berlin headquarters were located 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 (today’s Christian Doppler Clinic).

Sources

  • Salzburg city archives
  • Schloss Hartheim Learning and Remembrance Center
Author: Gert Kerschbaumer
Translation: Stan Nadel

Stumbling Stone
Laid 14.11.2016 at Salzburg, Pflanzmannstraße 6

<p>HIER WOHNTE<br />
MARIA SCHEURINGER<br />
GEB. KÖNIGSDORFER<br />
JG. 1888<br />
DEPORTIERT 21.4.1941<br />
SCHLOSS HARTHEIM<br />
ERMORDET 1941</p>
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer

All stumbling stones at Pflanzmannstraße 6