German Authorities Dismantle Hartheim

On December 11, 1944, German authorities forced prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp to dismantle the gas chamber and other infrastructure at the Hartheim killing facility.

Hartheim was one of six killing facilities established by Nazi authorities as part of the mass murder of people with disabilities. These killing facilities, also called killing centers, were part of the Euthanasia Program, or  “Operation T4” (Aktion T4). In 1940–1941, German authorities murdered thousands of people with disabilities in the gas chamber at Hartheim. From 1941 to 1944, they murdered thousands of other people in Hartheim’s gas chamber, including concentration camp prisoners and foreign forced laborers. The last gassing at Hartheim likely took place in November 1944.