Otto Ernst Falkenhagen papers

Copyright Holder: Ms. Bonnie Cruz Otto Erich Falkenhagen was born in 1922 to Otto and Ella Falkenhagen in Hamburg, Germany. Otto’s younger sister, Inge, was born in 1928. Inge had both physical and intellectual disabilities that prompted scrutiny and persecution of the Falkenhagen family under Nazi eugenics policies. In 1937 Otto Sr. died at the Hafenkrankenhaus in Hamburg, four years later Inge died at age 12 in the Alstersdorf Anstalten. In 1940 Otto Erich Falkenhagen was sentenced to serve 6 months for a transgression by a youth court in Hamburg. After serving this sentence Otto was sent by state authorities to the Moringen youth camp where he was interned for the next five years until his liberation in April 1945. Consists of four letters written by Otto Falkenhagen in the 1990s reflecting on his life and that of his family under National Socialism in Hamburg, Germany. The letters address his internment between the years 1940 and 1945 at the Moringen Youth Camp, the persecution of his father and disabled sister under Nazi eugenics policies, and the death of his sister who died at age 12 in the Alstersdorf Anstalten in 1941. Also includes 3 copy prints of photographs depicting Falkhagen family members circa 1920—1931.