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Dortmund-Aplerbeck (Provinzial-, Heil- und
Pflegeanstalt
Dortmund-Aplerbeck)
The Kinderfachabteilung in Dortmund-Aplerbeck was established in
November 1941 as the second of (what today
is the state of) North Rhine-Westphalia's three special children's
wards and served as the functional replacement for the children's ward
at Niedermarsberg. It operated
at least until 1943.
The
clinic's medical director
was Dr. Fritz Wernicke, and Dr.
Theo Niebel was responsible for the special children's ward. Both
physician's careers after WWII remained untarnished by their
involvement in children's euthanasia. Dr. Wernicke continued as a
practicing physician and died in 1961. Dr. Niebel even became a state
Senior Medical Officer of Health (Landesobermedizinalrat) in 1957 and
died in 1974.
The initial conference of the directors and head administrators of
medical and care facilities in the province commemorated those who had
fallen in the war yet did not mention those who had perished under the
"euthanasia" measures. After pressure from American presecutors in the
context of the Nuremberg and the British occupation authorities as well
efforts
by the appointed first minister president of North
Rhine-Westphalia, Rudolf Ameluxen, to shed light on the murder of
patients, the provincial association of Westfalen as the larger
communal institution responsible for the general welfare of the
population conducted investigations resulting in reports in 1946-47 on
the Euthanasia
crimes in the Province of Westfalia established that children had been
murdered in the Kinderfachabteilung in Niedermarsberg but erroneously
concluded that the special children's ward in Dortmund-Aplerbeck had
never operated as such. The events at the Kinderfachabteilung never
came under
judicial review (see Teppe 1993; Hanrath, p. 96). A partial explanation
for
the failure to recognize the events in the children's ward may lie in
the ward's characteristics: unlike its predecessor in Niedermarsberg,
the special children's ward,
housed in what had been built as a facility for the sick
(Lazarett-Gebäude), was
embedded in a larger children's station (Kinderabteilung) open to the
public, and the nurses were recruited from existing personnel on the
premises. These characteristics helped the ward to maintain an
appearance of normalcy and allowed the killing actions to remain less
visible. Still, the medical director Wolfgang Leonhardt (1972-1986)
interviewed nurses who had worked in the special children's ward and
knew about a high rate of mortality there, even though their memories
remained vague.
Picture drawn
of the children's ward, based on the memory of a survivor in
1951 (Source:
Die Grünen; Dokumentation des Bundes der
"Euthanasie"-Geschädigten und
Zwangssterilisierten e.V./original exhibit; also in Bitzel, p. 79)
Picture of the building in which the
children's ward was housed (Source: Bitzel, p. 79)
Of the 491 children and youths up to the age of 18 admitted to the
facility in Aplerbeck between November 1941 and the end of WWII, 236
died during this period. Based on the already elevated levels of normal
deaths, estimates of 162 unexplained deaths exist. One notorious case
of a child experiencing the conditions in the Kinderfachabteilung was
that of Paul Brune, who is said to have survived due to his good record
as a student.
These crimes against children remained forgotten until 1989. In 1983,
on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Nazi
dictatorship in 1933,
the then director of the Regional Council (Landschaftsverband) of
Westfalen-Lippe, Herbert Neseker, and the Council Committee
(Landschaftsausschuss) initiated a review of the history of the
Provinzialverband der Provinz Westfalen (the Provicial Association of
the Province of Westfalia), the historical predecessor of the Regional
Council, during the Nazi period, specifically in the area of
psychiatric care, a task it commissioned its research institute to
carry out. Dr.
Karl Teppe of the Institute of Westphalian Regional History
(LWL-Institut für westfälische Regionalgeschichte) informed the
Assembly of the Regional Council of Westphalia-Lippe in August 1989 in
his lecture "On the value of life (and lack thereof) during the years
of National Socialism: Hitler's 'Euthanasia'-decree of 1 Sept. 1939" of
the mass murder among psychiatric patients and engendered public
interest in the subject matter. The director of the clinic, Prof.
Janssen, later noted that he had previously not known about the
"euthanasia" crimes on site. The speech also mentioned the existence
of a children's euthanasia ward in Dortmund-Aplerbeck, as did his
written report (Teppe 1989, p. 22), in which Dr. Teppe affirmed its
existence.
These events mark the "discovery" of the "euthanasia" crimes in the
children's ward. Several
activities ensued.
Source: author
First, in front of the building that housed the Kinderfachabteilung
members of the clinic's staff union planted a Ginko tree and placed a
memorial stone next to it 1989--a staff activity not initially
supported by the clinic's entire directorship. The memorial stone'
inscription reads "In memory of
the victims of fascism in psychiatric institutions in 1939-1945.
Initiated by personnel and funded by union members of the public
service union of this facility in the year 1989" (Zum Gedenken an die
Opfer des Faschismus in der Psychiatrie 1939 - 1945. Auf Anregung der
Beschäftigten und gestiftet von ÖTV Gewerkschafterinnen und Gewerkschaften dieser Klinik im Jahr 1989).
According to reports, sometimes small flowers are still sometimes
placed there, placed by invididuals (visitors, staff, or patents).
Source: author
Second, the personnel at the clinic, as it exists today, decided to
erect a memorial, which they chose after a proposal for a competition
under the guidance of sculptor Theo Uhlmann at the Dortmund College of
Design. Among 15 student competitors, the artist Antje Kietzmann
provided the winning design, a scupture that she describes as follows:
"5 stelae, intended to illustrate the fear of the children, sculpted in
stone, having to wait for their murder. 5 stelae,
intended to remind us of fear and agonizing deaths, without being so
repulsive as to turn away the viewer. The intention is not to depict in
detail the cruelty or
the ugliness of the euthanasia-crimes;
rather, the viewer should stop, look at the small bronze plaque
positioned at the foot of the stelae on the lawn, with the inscription
'In Memory of the Victims of Nazi Rule.' The visitor should walk around
the stelae...Look at each one: the screaming child's face with those
big eyes and pictured the wide-open mouth....hands in the middle of the
stela trying to defend themselves...a huddled, fearful child...the back
and head of a child turning away with fear... the huge terrified eyes
of a child" (see here).
The memorial was erected in 1991 - as Bernd Eichmann reports (on the
basis of newspaper stories), apparently no survivors had been invited
or given the opportunity to speak when it was dedicated on 9 December.
Third, the clinic commissioned the
historian Uwe Bitzel to write a monograph on the involvement of the
clinic and its personnel in NS crimes. It contains a detailed section
on victims of "children's euthanasia" there. The book was published in
1995.
Source: author
Fourth,
on the initiative of the Regional Council of Westfalen-Lippe as
well as Dr. Bernd Walter (see Walter 1996, p. 699 n. 570), on 29
November 1994 a
commorative display was erected on the premises of an area that
contains the former clinic cemetery where many of the child victims
were buried. It is a memorial stone. The text reads: "On this site the
cemetery of the hospital Dortmund-Aplerbeck was located from 1897 to
1976. Until 1966 patients and also hospital personnel were buried here.
Among the 2,658 dead were at least 130 children, among whom a still
remained unknown number became victims of the Nazi "euthanasia" crimes
in the so-called "children's ward" in the institution between 1941 and
194. Here, where the memorial stands, were the bones of the children
laid to rest. In the Westphalian Clinic for Psychiatry Dortmund a
monument also memorializes the victims of the Nazi regime. The mortal
remains of 448 dead, who died almost exclusively after 1945, were
exhumed in 1976, and most of them taken to the main cemetery in
Dortmund" (Auf diesem Gelände befand sich von 1897 bis 1976 der
Friedhof der Heilanstalt Dortmund-Aplerbeck. Bis 1966 wurden hier
Patienten und auch Angehörige des Anstaltspersonals beigesetzt. Unter
den 2658 Toten befanden sich mindestens 130 Kinder, von denen eine bis
heute unbekannt gebliebene Zahl 1941-1945 Opfer der
nationalsozialistischen „Euthanasie"-Verbrechen in der sogenannten
„Kinderfachabteilung" der Anstalt wurde. Hier, wo diese Gedenktafel
steht, wurden die Gebeine der Kinder zur letzten Ruhe gebettet. In der
Westfälischen Klinik für Psychiatrie Dortmund erinnert ein Mahnmal auch
an diese Opfer des NS-Regimes. Die sterblichen Oberreste von 448 Toten,
die fast ausschliesslich nach 1945 gestorben sind, wurden 1976
umgebettet, die meisten auf den Hauptfriedhof Dortmund.)
Fifth, researchers Dr. Franz-Werner Kersting and Dr. Bernd Walter of
the Institute of Westphalian Regional History published a series of
scholarly analyses on the details of the Nazi "euthansia" program in
Westphalia.
The website
of the clinic expressly addresses "children's Euthanasia" crimes on its
premises, and the Landschaftsverband (Regional Council) of
Westfalen-Lippe addresses "euthanasia"-crimes in its account of the history of the Provinzialverband (der
Provinz Westfalen), its historical predecessor.
Regular commemorations appear to occur on 27 January (see below).
Source: http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Gesundheit/psychiatrieverbund/K/lwl_klinik_dortmund/neues/
A small exhibit on "euthanasia" was on display in the church of the
facility in early 2010, on the initiative of the by reverend Anke Thimm.
The memory of a child described as a victim of "children's euthanasia"
and admitted to the ward (she was later transferred to Niedermarsberg)
is preserved here.
Source: Högl, pp. 370-4.
The city archive of Dortmund has a permanent exhibition at the Memorial
Steinwache, which includes panels with information concerning the
operation of the Kinderfachabteilung. The exhibition catalog provides
detailed information, including about two victims
Literature
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