The artist Beate Passow's contemporary confrontation with the Holocaust: Beate Passow was born in Stadtoldendorf, in Lower Saxony. She now lives and works in Munich. Between 1969 and 1973 she studied under Professor Mac Zimmermann at the Akademie der Bildenen Kunst, Munich. The internationally renown artist Beate Passow has been awarded numerous prizes and grants and has had countless exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Beate Passow's work is politically engaged and critical. It makes use of composed and manipulated, large format photographs, historical and contemporary subjects, and acoustic and visual elements, such as tape recordings, lcd displays, surveillance cameras and monitors. Her work profits from a precise observation and ability to sift through "material" from the various media, for example newspaper articles, television, etc., with both an analytical distance and empathy. Her work speaks out against intolerance and the abuse of and violence against the individual. Mengenleere, Chapel Art Center, Hamburg, 31.1.-6.1.1996. The house at No. 153 Bebelallee, in the Alsterdorf district of Hamburg, in which the former Chapel Art Center was situated, was built between 1928 and 1931 by the architect Bernd Engel for the well-known Jewish lawyer Dr. Rudolf Dehn (1874-1938). The architects Semmy and Bernd Engel were most active in the early decades of the twentieth-century, mainly in the Grindel Quarter and Eimsbüttel district of Hamburg. Semmy Engel built the synagogue "Vereinigte alte und neue Klaus in Hamburg" at No. 11 Rutschbahn, in 1905, the Bornplatz Synagogue (today Joseph-Carlebach-Platz), in 1906, as well as the Henry-Johnes-Loge at No. 9-11 Hartungstraße, in 1903, (today the Hamburger Kammerspiele theatre). Bernd Engel built the synagogue at No. 38 Marcusstraße. The architect Bernd Engel constructed two submergible wooden walls on the groundfloor of the house at No. 153 Bebelallee allowing the possibility of varying the number of rooms from one to three. In the centre of the wooden wall is an open doorway with two rows of five glass panels either side. Beate Passow installed a photograph of the tattooed number on the left forearm of twenty survivors of Auschwitz, mainly Jews, on exposed black and white film, that retained the structure of the skin and the background table covering, on each of the twenty glass windows. The wooden dividing wall fully exposed with the twenty photographs. The submergible wooden wall one-third submerged. The submergible wooden wall two-thirds submerged. The submergible wooden wall entirely submerged. German Psychiatry The participation of physicians, especially psychiatrists, in the Holocaust is unprecedented in history. The mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals was prepared and preceded by the medicalized mass murder of mental patients.     Fräulein B.                                             Frau P. Cibachrom auf Alucubond                         Cibachrom auf Alucubond 90 x 210 cm                                         120 x 165 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München Action T 4 On 1st September 1939, the "Ethanasieerlaß" (Euthanasia Decree) was disclosed to the directors of psychiatric institutions inside Germany's prewar boundaries. The directors were ordered to send a registration form for each patient to a specifically created administration in Berlin, in order to ascertain whether the patient fulfilled the necessary criteria for death. A group of well-know psychiatrists was appointed as "T 4 Gutachter" (T 4 Experts), who re-examined the registration forms. One group of experts travelled from institution to institution in order to check the completeness and correctness of the reports, especially with those few institution directors who tried to delay the reports. Six institutions within Germany's prewar boundaries were emptied of their patients and gas chambers were installed. A transport company, specially founded for this purpose, brought the selected patients from the psychiatric hospitals to the extermination institutions, mostly in groups of 40 to 120 patients. Immediately on arrival the patients were undressed, photographed, numbered with a stamp on the shoulder or arm, briefly seen by a doctor who checked their identity by means of a file, whereupon they were led into the gas chamber. Carbon Monoxide was introduced into the chamber while a doctor observed through a window. After death gold teeth were extracted and the bodies burned in crematoriums. Relatives received a report that the person concerned had died of an illness. It was not possible to keep these proceedings secret. The staff of the hospitals of origin as well as relatives soon became aware of the fate of the patients. There were relatives who protested, and there were staff of hospitals who advised relatives to take patients home in order to save them from this fate. Thereby, a few were able to be rescued from death. A total of 70,273 people were killed in these six institutions. Due to increasing public criticism, and for organisational reasons, this action was terminated by a decree on 24th August 1941. Euthanasia of Children         "...möchte ich Sie noch höflichst bitten, mir folgende Fragen zu beantworten:", Beate Passow, 1996. "...I want to most courteously ask you to answer the following questions:", Beate Passow, 1996. Children were excluded from Aktion T 4, but by October 1939 a special children's unit was established in Görden, where the killing of children began. After the termination of "Euthanasia Aktion T 4" in August 1941, the euthanasia of children was systematically developed. At least 21 special units were established within Germany's pre-war boundaries. The directors of the units were authorised to kill children. Children were transferred to these wards from hospitals and welfare organisations who selected them for the euthanasia programme. They were then transferred to special units after approval by the Central Organisation in Berlin. Children were transferred to these special wards as "observation cases". The doctor responsible then made a report, by which the central office in Berlin decided if the child should continue to be observed, or killed. The latter were given Luminal in tablet form, or mixed with food, wherupon they became unconscious and died after two to five days. Sometimes Morphium Scopolamin was injected. Circa 5,000 children were killed within Germany's prewar boundaries, for example in Bavaria 695 children were killed. This programme was scientifically promoted and organised by the universities. Zähler und Nenner The Auschwitz Numbering System: Although all "prisoners in protective custody" were registered in the concentration camps of the Third Reich, it was only in Auschwitz-Birkenau, following "selection", that they were marked with tattooed prisoner numbers. Various series of letters and numbers were created to reflect different prisoner classifications, for example, "Z" for Zigeuner (Gypsy), "EH" for "Erziehungshäfling" (prisoner for correction), and "RKG" for Russischer Kriegsgefangener, for the few registered Russian prisoners-of-war, who incidentally were never photographed. The registration lists show the prisoner's number, name, date of arrival, place of origin of the transport, and sometimes cause of death, for example, 27w for injection of phenol into the heart, and 14 f 13 for euthanasia. In May 1942 a new series of numbers for Jewish prisoners was introduced: "A" for Jewish men and women, and later "B" for Jewish men. The SS also took photographs of the registered prisoners en face and in profile, with the assigned number and classification letter, up until 1943. The number 1 was given to "criminal prisoner" Bruno Brodniewitsch, who was transferred from Sachsenhausen concentration camp on May 20, 1940, while the last number, 202499, was given to the architect and surveyor Engelbrecht Marketsch on January 18, 1945. In 1942 the camp authorities began to re-use numbers. Life expectancy in the camp was a mere three months which allowed the Nazis to reallocate numbers. Today, it is assumed that approximately 405,000 prisoners of various nationalities were registered with tattoos on their left forearms. Russian soldiers reached the camp on 27. January 1945. Tätowiernadeln mehrteilige Fotoarbeit Cibachrom auf Alu 80 x 100 cm 1995 Tätowiernadeln mehrteilige Fotoarbeit Cibachrom auf Alu 80 x 100 cm 1995 Tätowiernadeln mehrteilige Fotoarbeit Cibachrom auf Alu 80 x 100 cm 1995 Tätowiernadeln mehrteilige Fotoarbeit Cibachrom auf Alu 80 x 100 cm 1995 Tätowiernadeln mehrteilige Fotoarbeit Cibachrom auf Alu 80 x 100 cm 1995 Literature: Beate Passow: Vertweigte Zeit, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, Edition Braus Heidelberg, 1995. Beate Passow and Andreas von Weizsäcker: Wunden der Erinnerung: ein Euopäisches Projekt, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nürnberg, 1995. Beate Passow: Mengenleere, Keeser Verlag, Hamburg, 1996. Das Schweigen im Walde. Zwölf europäische Künstler zum Thema Heimat, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen, 1996. Beate Passow: White Pride, Aspekte Galerie der Münchner Volkshochschule, Parat Druck GmbH, 2000. Beate Passow: Gesammelte Verluste, Fotoarbeiten, Objekte, Video 1992 - 2002. Haus am Waldsee, Berlin 2002; mit Texten von Helmut Friedel und Barbara Staka sowie Gedichten aus dem "Landsberger Poesieautomaten" von Hans Magnus Enzensberger.