ABSTRACT
To the west of Linz, and in a direct line between Mauthausen and Dachau, stands the forbidding casde of Hartheim, its towers giving it a Byzantine appearance. Built in 1898 as an asylum for the mentally retarded, it was requisitioned by the SS and refitted, with a crematorium chimney that rose to a height of 25 metres but which was concealed from outside view by walls three storeys high. 1 At the time Hartheim stood isolated, 2 and the approach was forbidden to outsiders. From May 1940 until 1941, the SS used the castle for their euthanasia programme, and gave it the nicknames of Erholungsheim. (convalescent home) and Bad Ischl, the therapeutic baths being the gas chamber. Hartheim also contained an electric bone mill. 3 A staff of thirty Nazi doctors and assistants, under the direction of SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Lonauer, from Linz, worked there on medical experiments and in the greatest secrecy. 4 From 1941 it was used for the liquidation of those crippled by KZ life, especially in Mauthausen and Dachau, and from April 1944 the castle came under the jurisdiction of KL-Mauthausen.
