The Murders of Priests at Hartheim Castle under “Sonderbehandlung 14f13”

Authors

  • Florian Schwanninger Hartheim Castle – Place of Learning and Remembrance

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/STW.2018.02.02

Abstract

In the years 1940–1944, Hartheim Castle served as a Nazi euthanasia center, in which people were put to death on a mass scale. From May 1940 to August 1941, over 18,000 people were murdered there under Action T4, while between August 1941 and November 1944 more than 10,000 prisoners of concentration camps and forced laborers were in the Castle.
The latter group included 330 priests who were brought to Hartheim mainly from Dachau, but also from Mauthausen-Gusen. According to our present knowledge, at least 310 of them came from Poland. Considered by the occupier as enjoying high social and political standing, they were arrested and deported as part of the Nazis’ systematic effort to eliminate the Polish intelligentsia and Polish leadership elites. Using selected examples, the paper examines what exactly the priests experienced on their way to the concentration camps, and also the circumstances that accompanied their deaths at Hartheim Castle.

Author Biography

Florian Schwanninger, Hartheim Castle – Place of Learning and Remembrance

Graduate in history from the University of Salzburg, he is the director of the “Hartheim Castle – Place of Learning and Remembrance”.
Selected publications:
Die Rekonstruktion der Namen der Toten der “Aktion 14 f 13” in der Tötungsanstalt Hartheim – Beispiel einer institutionellen Kooperation, in: Gedenkbuch für die Toten des KZ Mauthausen und seiner Außenlager, Vol. I: Kommentare und Biografien, (ed.) A. Kranebitter (2016); along with S. Hördler and M. Rachbauer, Die Ermordung der “Unproduktiven” – Zwangsarbeiter als Opfer der NS-Euthanasie, in: Zwangsarbeit im Nationalsozialismus, (eds.) S. Hördler, V. Knigge, R.-G. Lüttgenau & J.-Ch. Wagner (2016); with I. Zauner-Leitner, Lebensspuren. Biografische Skizzen von Opfern der NS-Tötungsanstalt Hartheim (2013);
Hartheim und Niedernhart. Zwei Stätten der NS-Euthanasie in Oberösterreich, in: Der organisierte Massenmord an Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Ostmark 1940–1945. Gedenkdokumentation für die Opfer der NS-Euthanasie, (ed.) W. Häupl (2008).

Studia nad Totalitaryzmami i Wiekiem XX Tom 2 2018

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Published

2025-09-21

How to Cite

1.
SCHWANNINGER, Florian. The Murders of Priests at Hartheim Castle under “Sonderbehandlung 14f13”. Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies. Online. 21 September 2025. Vol. 2, pp. 24-36 (PL), 158-169 (ENG). [Accessed 30 December 2025]. DOI 10.12775/STW.2018.02.02.

Issue

Vol. 2 (2018)

Section

Artykuły

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