2000: The Trial Against Heinrich Gross

The final murder trial of a Nazi perpetrator was to take place in the year 2000 in Austria. The accused was Heinrich Gross for his participation in “child euthanasia” at the Viennese institute “Am Spiegelgrund”. Whereas the director of “Spiegelgrund”, Ernst Illing, was executed in 1946 for his crimes, Gross withstood the intense phase of persecution of Nazi perpetrators as he was in Soviet captivity. After his return home in 1948, he was taken into custody; however, the proceedings fizzled out and he was released in 1950. Thereafter, nothing stood in the way of a brilliant career. Gross completed his training as a psychiatrist, became the most prominent court expert in his field and published numerous essays based on the specimens obtained from the corpses of Spiegelgrund victims. In 1975, he examined Friedrich Zawrel, who had been interned at Spiegelgrund as a child. Zawrel recognized his former tormentor, who subsequently tried to silence him by issuing a damning psychiatric assessment. Only due to the commitment of the “Working Group Critical Medicine” (“Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kritische Medizin”), run by Werner Vogt, was Friedrich Zawrel released from custody in 1981. Also in 1981, Gross lost a libel case in the court of appeal that he had brought against Werner Vogt. Nevertheless, it would take almost two decades for Gross to stand trial as a defendant; but the trial could not take place because Gross was declared unfit for trial by expert opinion. He died in 2005.

External Resources:

www.gedenkstaettesteinhof.at