Mother - Irma Eckler

Her final letter came in January 1942. The Wannsee Conference of 20th January 1942, the aim of which was to co-ordinate the steps to be taken for the Final Solution, suddenly changed the prisoners' situation. 

• "We still had no idea of what was to happen in the first months of 1942: no idea of the National Socialists' plan for extermination. The order came for lists of names of all who were born cripples, all epileptics, bed-wetters, amputees, asthma sufferers and those with lung diseases, and all the mentally ill. At the same time, the SS gave the reassuring explanation that these prisoners would be transferred to a camp with lighter work. A medical commision even appeared and inspected the sick. Then, one day, two lorries stood ready to collect the first load. In the evening, Milena reported, horrified, how the seriously ill were dumped onto piles of straw in the lorries; the cruelty with which the suffering were treated. From that moment on, there was no doubt in her mind about the transport's destination... One transport after another left the camp, and with gruesome regularity, the clothes of those killed came back. Once the 'hereditary ill' had been exterminated, new lists were made up with the names of all the Jewish prisoners. To Milena and me, this could mean only one thing. But however incredulous it may sound, the Jewish prisoners amongst us, with whom we discussed these lists and on whom we could only look with torn hearts, tried to persuade us that they were surely only going to be taken to another camp. Why to be killed? That would be madness! They were young, strong persons, fit to work! A young, Jewish doctor went with the first transport, and she promised to send a message in the hem of her prison dress telling us of their destination and destiny. We found the note. It read: They have taken us to Dessau. We have to get undressed. Farewell!" [M. Buber-Neumann: Milena - Kafkas Freundin, Frankfurt 1985, S. 259ff]

In the magazine "Die Tat" (The Deed) of 04.03.1950, No.9, there was an essay by Maria Wiedmayer about Olga Benario-Prestes in which there was reference to Block 11, where Irene's mother had been 

• "In Ravensbrück, Olga was the block eldest in the Jewish block... she freely confessed to being Jewish, and the Jewish women in Block 11, the 'pure' Jewish block, were much in need of Olga." 

All the Jewish women were taken in various transports from Ravensbrück to Bernburg (Bernburg is near Dessau). 

"The means of murder in all death camps was the same. The victims were taken to the building with the gas chamber. They were told that they would now be led to the shower room and therefore had to strip naked. The condernned were cautioned to lay their shoes and clothes in an orderly manner so that they could find them after the shower. In the meantime, the clothes would be disinfected. To complete the deception of the victims, there was a sign on the door to the gas chamber with 'To shower room' , whilst the door to the neighbouring room had the sign 'To disinfection' . When the prisoners were in the gas chamber the doors were locked from the outside." [A. Zörner (u.a.): Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, Frankfurt o.J. (Röderberg), S. 132]

In Bernburg carbon monoxide was used in the gas chambers. It is a colour less and odourless, lethal gas. On inhalation, it combines with haemoglobin and prevents the absorption of oxygen. A small amount, breathed-in, leads to suffocation. 

• "That was the terrible death that the women who were deported to Bernburg in spring 1942 also suffered. The first transport was followed by more in the following weeks. The removal of thousands of Jewish girls and women, together with the sick and elderly caused extreme agitation amongst the Ravensbrück prisoners." [A. Zörner (u.a.): Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück, Frankfurt o.J. (Röderberg), S. 132]

Frorn the information document at the memorial for victims of the NS "Euthanasia" at Bernburg:  From 1940-1941, part of the former state sanatorium and nursing home in Bemburg was one of the six "Euthanasia" centres of the Third Reich, where altogether 70.000 sick and handicapped people were murdered with gas... The NS-"Euthanasia"-crime began in Bernburg in autumn 1940. In October 1940 an advance detachment arrived from the "Euthanasia"-Clinic Brandenburg. The former men's wing was converted a gas chamber disguised as a shower room, a post-mortem room and a crematorium were the prerequisites for the murder of thousands of people. It was a perfect extermination plant. The victims did not stay long - they were killed on the day of arrival. As of August 1941 killing of the sick and handicapped was decentralized, and throughout the Reich in nearly one hundred psychiatric clinics the deaths continued by means of medicinal over-dose and/or the gradual with-drawal of food. At the same time, in three of the "Euthanasia" clinics, another mass murder took place. Under the so-calIed "Special Treatment 14 f 13", racially per- secuted prisoners, and those no longer able to work were killed in the gas chambers. In Bernburg alone, by March 1943 about 5,000 prisoners - almost all Jewish - from Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Groß-Rosen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen concentration camps had been killed.  "Special Treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) was a term used by the National Socialists to mean the physical extermination of people. "14 f 13" was an internal file reference where "14 f" meant death in a concentration camp, and "13" transportation to an "Euthanasia" clinic.  [U. Hoffmann: Todesursache: "Angina" - Zwangssterilisation und "Euthanasie" in der Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Bernburg, 1996, S. 87]

Grundriß Kellergeschoß "Euthanasie"-Anstalt Bernburg 1 Cellar corridor / 2 Staff common room / 3 Location of Gas cylinders / 4 Window to the gas chamber  5 Gas champer. 60 to 75 people were locked into an area of 13 m2. They died a harrowing death.   6 Two disecting tables stood here at the time of the "Euthanasia"-murders / 7 Mortuary / 8 Crematorium

After 1945, the grandmother tried to get a death certificate for her daughter. 

She knew that Irma had been arrested in the summer of 1938, but nothing about her detention in the Fuhlsbüttel, Oranienburg and Lichtenburg camps. 

In the Amtsgericht statement of 20th December 1949, it reads: 

• "the missing person, being Jewish, was arrested by the Gestapo on 14th June 1939, State Police Station Hamburg, sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and died there on 28th April 1942." (§§ 7 Missing Persons Act) 

Was it presumed that she was deported on 14th June 1939 because Ravensbrück was not occupied as a camp until 15th May 1939? Research has shown that she was arrested on 18th July 1938. Also, Irma Eckler did not "die" on 28th April 1942 in Ravensbrück, but, according to what we know, was murdered with the help of gas in Bernburg. 

To torment, humiliate and kill innocent people in this most brutal way will always remain incomprehensible.