Stumbling stone for Erich August Ott

Erich August Ott was born on April 16, 1920 in Offenbach at Friedrichstraße 42. As the boy was not recognized as his son by the mother's husband, Johanna M., née Ott, (born 1890) in Wiesbaden, the mother lived with the disabled child in the Offenbach care home at Buchhügelallee 2 after the divorce in May 1921.

In May 1924, Erich Ott was admitted to the Hessische Landes-Heil-und Pflegeanstalt Goddelau at his mother's request due to physical and mental disorders.

It was noted in the admission file: Congenital feeblemindedness. While certain positive changes in his ability to walk and speak were recorded in the following annual assessments, the entries from 1933 onwards were consistently negative: "Ott is an idiot who is incapable of education and requires special care." In 1941, the last assessment was: "Ott is a profound, destructive and difficult idiot."
Such an entry was the criterion for the Nazi authorities to consign such "inferior ballast existences" to extermination.

As the secret Nazi T4 headquarters in Berlin did not expect his condition to improve, Erich Ott was transferred to the Weilmünster state sanatorium and nursing home in March 1941. At the time, Weilmünster was the transit camp for patients who were to be killed in the nearby Hadamar institution. Erich Ott was gassed in Hadamar in June 1941. His death certificate, dated June 25, 1941, was sent to the Offenbach residents' registration office.