Spiegelgrund

[first lines]

Alois Kaufmann:
What was unbearable was death. Death loomed behind all of them. That is, the children were put to death by the female stuff for trivialities.

[last lines]

Narrator:
In 1995 this law was amended and the definition of what constitutes a victim was widened. However, the survivors of the Spiegelgrund reformatory remain excluded and still have no legal claim for compensation.

Elisabeth Brainin:
Those people who have no legal status as victims have no chance of a pension or any compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Which I think is a terrible thing, not only in a material sense but also because they will always have the feeling - well, it is very important for people who suffered such a terrible fate, that they can have the feeling that it is somehow acknowledged, that it is accepted that they underwent terrible suffering. But these people must have the feeling that the authorities or the state, when they refuse this recognition or compensation or pensions, are on the same side as those who caused them all that suffering.

Title Card:
This documentary was completed in 1999.

Title Card:
Up to this date... -... the mortal remains of the Spiegelgrund euthanasia victims had still not been buried.

Title Card:
...the trial of Dr. Gross had still not taken place.

Title Card:
...no legal framework had been set up for the recognition of the survivors of the Spiegelgrund reformatory as victims of the National Socialist regime.