Transport from Dziekanka, Gniezno, Poznan, Poland to Fort VII Posen, Camp, Poland on 07/12/1939

Among the state psychiatric institutions in the Wartheland whose patients were murdered was the psychiatric hospital Dziekanka (Dekanat), situated about 2.5 kilometers from the Gniezno (Gnesen) city center. It had been established between 1891 and 1894, when the area belonged to the German state of Prussia. The Provinzial-Irrenanstalt (German: provincial lunatic asylum) had a capacity of 600 beds. After Landkreis Gnesen was turned over to Poland in 1920, the hospital was run by the Polish state and changed its name to Krajowego Zakładu Psychiatrycznego (national psychiatric facility).

The Wehrmacht occupied Dziekanka on September 11, 1939. At that time the hospital served 1,172 patients in twenty-one wards. The staff consisted of eight physicians, 194 nurses, and forty-three other employees. Drastic changes began to take place on October 18, 1939, with the arrival of Dr. Johannes Banse, the former director of two Pomeranian hospitals, Provinzial-Heilanstalt in Lauenburg (Lębork) and Provinzial-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt in Ueckermünde. Many patients at these institutions were murdered by the SS unit Wachsturmbann Eimann after being categorized by Banse as incurable and selected for death. Who sent Banse to Dziekanka and the other psychiatric institutions is unknown; he was not on the payroll of the Gauselbstverwaltung but he was a key figure in preparing for the killing of the mentally ill in Pomerania and the Wartheland. Banse provided reports about his visits and activities in the psychiatric hospitals, some of which have been preserved. Historian Maria Fiebrandt writes that his reports presented “an essential planning basis for the future shape of the psychiatric landscape in the Warthegau.” Banse attempted to classify patients by ethnicity and citizenship, which served as a directive as to who should be murdered first....