Nazi Euthanasia at Fort 7 and Oswinka | holocaustresearchproject's Blog

Owinska is a town situated about 10 km north of Poznan. The home located there was the oldest established hospital for the mentally sick people in the Generalgouvernement, . The German army occupied Owinska in mid-September 1939, when the mental home was taken over by the Gau-Selbstverwaltung of Poznan and a Nazi commissioner appointed.

The new head demanded a list of all patients and prohibited the discharge of anyone from the hospital. The staff was told that the home would be closed and all patients transferred to other hospitals. 

In fact, SS Sonderkommando Lange was ordered to Owinska for the purpose of exterminating all patients. In the second half of October 1939, the first patients were collected by military trucks, under surveillance of SS men. 1-3 trucks left the home every day.

The staff of the hospital had no knowledge of the vehicles’ destination. Initially all of the male patients were deported, followed by the women, and finally by 78 children on 11 November 1939. By 30 November 1939 the Owinska mental home was empty, apart from the few staff that remained to deal with business affairs.

Many of the patients were killed in a primitive gas chamber at Fort VII in Poznan. Later, mobile gas chambers (gas vans) drove patients to Murowana Goslina. During the drive, all of the victims were killed by the vans’ exhaust fumes.

Each incoming truck at Fort VII held about 25 persons. After their arrival they were taken to a gas chamber which was installed in a bunker in the courtyard of Fort VII. The closed door of the chamber was sealed with clay. The victims had to remain in the gas chamber while the SS installed gas cylinders with (probably) carbon monoxide besides the entrance.

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The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

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