Pirna-Sonnenstein euthanasia centre

Pirna-Sonnenstein - darkometer rating : 7 - Schloss (castle) Sonnenstein in Pirna in Saxony, Germany , was one of the six "euthanasia" killing centres of the Nazis ' " Aktion T4 ". It had served as a mental hospital and care home from 1811, but in 1939 it was closed and appropriated by the Nazis. Between 1940 and 1941, over 13,000 mentally ill patients were systematically murdered here, namely by gassing, because they were deemed "lebensunwert", 'unworthy of life', in the crude and brutal Nazi ideology. About a thousand inmates from concentration camps ( Sachsenhausen , Buchenwald , Auschwitz ) were also killed here as they were no longer fit to work – pushing the total death toll of the place to nearly 15,000. Later some of the perpetrator staff moved on to serve in the death camps in eastern Poland where they "applied" the "experience" they had gained in gassing at Pirna-Sonnenstein to the full-scale industrialization of the Holocaust . It's a similar pattern to that at Schloss Hartheim . The history of the site was nearly forgotten, but was rediscovered and endeavours towards a proper memorial took shape during the 1990s. The present memorial and documentation exhibition opened in 2000. In addition to the exhibition on the top floor of the former killing centre, building C16 (the address is now Schlosspark 11), a basement room where the actual murders took place has been turned into a memorial – 22 selected (representative?) individual cases of victims are chronicled here. Furthermore, a series of 16 marker plaques have been placed along the way from Pirna train station to the castle/memorial, each with one of the key words/phrases related to the history of the site, including e.g. "Gnadentod" ("mercy killing'), "Trostbrief" ('letter of condolence') or "Knochenmühle" ('bone grinder'). Opening times: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., plus on the first Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.