Lot 661

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Description:

HITLER APPOINTS A EUTHANASIA DOCTOR TO A 'GENETIC HEALTH COURT'
Rare and important partly-printed D.S., 1p. 10 x 14 in., Berlin, April 29, 1939, the appointment of Medical Dr. Martha Nordkemper (1892-1997) to a position as an administrator at the Erbgesundheitgericht, or 'Genetic Health Court' in Bremen. With blind-embossed seal at bottom, Hitler's signature in facsimile, and the signature of a representative of the Reichminister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick. Fine condition, in original presentation folder with gilt eagle and swastika insignia on cover. In the 1930s, Dr. Nordkempen was in charge of a maternity ward and childcare, apparently for the state. In this promotion, she is given an administrative position in the court, 'tasked with enforcing the racial hygiene laws of the state', and at the same time she was employed at the Bremen Hemelingen Sterilization clinic. In 1940, at the age of 48, she became the chief doctor of this clinic. In 1944, 147 patients from the clinic would be taken to the infamous Meseritz-Obrawalde Euthanasia Center, where they were killed. The Genetic Health Courts sought to sterilize the mentally ill, racial 'mischlings', and others to promote the 'racial hygiene' of the Reich. The book, 'Die 'ErbPolizei' im Nationalsozialismus' by Asmus Nitschke cites the case of patient 'D.R.', a victim of Dr. Nordkemper who was half-Gypsy, the mother of two children and an expectant mother three months pregnant. Nordkemper testified: 'D.R....is described as disorderly, quarrelsome, unclean, intolerable. A teacher writes of her: 'In my work I have never come across such a ragged, dirty...girl as D.R. Her achievements were insufficient in spelling, essay and arithmetic. The final verdict is: lazy and quarrelsome, gossip addicted, stubborn, lies, tantrums, extremely dirty, completely unreliable. After leaving school, D.R. spent 1 year as a housemaid in the hospital in Twistringen, then 6 months as a kitchen maid at the Europa Hotel, then 1 year at Kaffee Central and a few weeks at Focke Wulf. [Since then] she has been at home for 2 years...it is nevertheless a question of congenital dementia as a hereditary disease within the meaning of the law on the prevention of hereditary offspring... dementia is to be regarded as hereditary and sterilization is necessary...' 'D.R.' would end up in the Gypsy' Zigeunerlager in Auschwitz where the mortality rate was extremely high, and where she died. In Bremen alone, the Nazis would sterilize 2,665 people, of which 19 died from the procedure. Genetic Health Court official documents are rarely found and the personnel/officers often disappeared after the war with little notice. Nordkemper became a dendrodologist shortly after the war - possibly to severe ties to her evil past.

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June 14, 2023 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

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