Barbara PLOTENY, née Hejlik, was born in Gnigl (a community bordering on Salzburg that is now part of the city) on September 6, 1889. She was married to a bricklayer and had four children. The Ploteny family lived in the Maxglan communits which became part of the city of Salzburg in 1935.
Mrs. PLOTENY was hospitalized on several occasions and in September 1930 she was admitted to Schloss Schernberg, a nursing home in Schwarzach in Pongau (a rural region of Salzburg). The home was operated by the Merciful Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul which was led in Salzburg by Anna Bertha Königsegg.
Anna Bertha Königsegg bravely opposed the Nazis’ so-called »euthanasia« program to eliminate the handicapped, but when she was arrested by the Gestapo on April 16, 1941 the patients in the care of her order lost their protector.
Her brave co-workers were able to rescue 17 of the patients from the Schloss Schernberg nursing home.
The 51 year old Barbara PLOTENY was one of the 115 patients who were deported from Schloss Schernberg to the Hartheim killing center near Linz on April 21, 1941 where they were murdered.
As with all the other victims of the Nazis’ secret »T4« program1 her death was not recorded in the Salzburg police registration files.
Her son Franz, who had been born in 1921, was a Wehrmacht soldier killed in Bologna on April 4, 1945.
1 It was called the »T4« program because its Berlin headquarters was located at Tiergartenstraße 4.
Main persons responsible for the murders of the sick in Salzburg: Dr. Friedrich Rainer as Reichsstatthalter, Dr. Oskar Hausner as head of the Gaufürsorgeamt, Dr. Leo Wolfer as head of the Landesheilanstalt and Dr. Heinrich Wolfer as head of the hereditary biology department of the Landesheilanstalt (today Christian Doppler Clinic).
Sources
- Salzburg City Archives
- Schloss Hartheim Study and Memorial center
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 28.09.2017 at Salzburg, Maxglaner Hauptstraße 37
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer