Transport from Dziekanka, Gniezno, Poznan, Poland to Fort VII Posen, Camp, Poland on 08/12/1939

Among the state psychiatric institutions in the Wartheland whose patients were murdered was the psychiatric hospital Dziekanka (Dekanat), about 2.5 kilometers from the city center of Gniezno (Gnesen). The hospital was run by the Polish state and called Krajowego Zakładu Psychiatrycznego (National Psychiatric Facility). The Wehrmacht occupied Dziekanka on September 11, 1939. At that time the hospital served 1,172 patients in 21 wards. The staff consisted of 8 physicians, 194 nurses and 43 further employees. Drastic changes began to take place on October 18, 1939, with the arrival of Dr. Johannes Banse. Banse was the former director of two Pomeranian hospitals whose patients had been victims of the Pomeranian euthanasia murders initiated and implemented by Gauleiter Franz Schwede-Coburg. It is not known who sent Banse to Dziekanka because 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 the Wartheland. Banse provided reports about his visits and activities in the psychiatric hospitals, some of which have been preserved. The historian Maria Fiebrandt writes that his reports presented “an essential planning basis for the future shape of the psychiatric landscape in the Warthegau.” Banse specifically tried to classify the patients according to their ethnicity and citizenship which served as a directive who should be murdered first. ...