Wave of Deportation from Srem, Srem, Poznan, Poland to Bogulin Forest, forest, Murder Site, Poland on 10/06/1941

Among the institutions in the Wartheland whose inmates were murdered was the Hospital for Indigent (Zaklad dla Ubogich) in Śrem (Schrimm) , situated 44 km south of Poznań (Posen). This institution was originally a detention center or penitentiary for so called asocial subjects. It was built 1907 under Prussian rule (Landarmenanstalt Schrimm) and taken over by the Polish state when Germany ceased it in 1919 due to the treaty of Versailles. Under Polish rule it became an institution for the relief of the poor. The Wehrmacht occupied Śrem on September 11, 1939. The institution soon was taken under the authority of the Gauselbstverwaltung, which in May 1941 sent Dr Viktor Ratka , to physically and mentally examine the occupants. Ratka was the medical director of the psychiatric hospital in Dziekanka (Gauheilanstalt Tiegenhof) near Gniezno (Gnesen) and in charge of the Nazi euthanasia program for several hospitals in the Wartheland. He interviewed and examined each person and drew up a list of candidates to be “evacuated”, 56 in total. This was the Nazi euphemism for murder....