Leipzig-Dösen (Landes-, Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Leipzig-Dösen)

The Kinderfachabteilung in Leipzig-Dösen was established in October 1940 as the forth one overall and the first in what today is the state of Saxony. It continued to operate until Dec. 1943, when its operations were transferred to Grossschweidnitz. The reason for the transfer appears to have been the bombing of the city, including the university children's clinic (see Kinderfachabteilung Leipzig), which necessitated the transfer of patients from there to Leipzig-Dösen and likely did not leave enough space for the continued operation of the Kinderfachabteilung.

The clinic's deputy medical director was Dr. Emil Eichler (he retired at the age of 68 in 1943). The physician responsible for the "special children's ward" was Dr. Arthur Mittag, who subsequently became responsible for the ward at Grossschweidnitz and who committed suicide in 1946 while in detention awaiting trial. Dr. Eichler had charges brought against him in the Dresden doctors' trial in 1947, but the court found him unfit to stand trial on the first day.

It was believed that 505 children died in the special children's ward in Leipzig-Dösen, of whom about 300 were identified by the clinic's former economic director. According to Dr. Seyde, the latest figure for the number of children who were admitted to the clinic is 827, of whom 551 died (see here) - one of the largest numbers of victims in the special children's wards.

Google Earth picture of clinic in Meusdorf

Google Earth picture of clinic in Meusdorf

Source: author

The site of the clinic became the Parkkrankenhaus and is largely abandoned today (it is in the suburb of Meusdorf), with the occasional use of films that are short there for its historical ambience.

Source: author; Psychiatriemuseum Sachsen

In 1993, an internal pamphlet published on a small museum exhibit on site still did not refer to "euthanasia crimes" (see Seyde, in Lahm et. al, p. 120 n. 6), but by 1995, as noted by Christiane Roick in her dissertation (p. 2), the exhibit contained references to "euthanasia." It was Dr. Seyde who had initiated the changes. Subsequently, parts of the exhibit on Dösen were incorporated into an exhibit housed at the Saxon Museum of Psychiatry (here- see "Ab nach Dösen").

picture of memorial stone for Ruth Kirschbaum

Source: Lahm et al., p. 113; Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig

After Dr. Seyde produced a first list of children who had died at Leipzig in the late 1990s, based on the so-called "Römer list," in 2001 a grave memorial was created for a Jewish victim of children's euthanasia at the Alter Israelitischer Friedhof in Leipzig. A girl, Ruth Kirschbaum, was murdered at Leipzig-Dösen at age 7 in 1941. (Her name has been identified to the public on websites of the City of Leipzig; see here.) A second victim is buried in the same cemetery.

For the further history of commemoration of victims in Leipzig, see Kinderfachabteilung Leipzig.

For the 2007 exhibit, which also covers this special children's ward, see exhibits.

A city memorial book for citizens in Leipzig who fell victim to the Nazi rule (Gedenk- und Totenbuch der Leipziger Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft von 1933 bis 1945) was made available online on 27 January 2010 (here). It contains the names of child victims at Leipzig-Dösen but not of the Leipziger university children's clinic.

Literature

Benzenhöfer, Udo. 2003a. "Genese und Struktur der 'NS-Kinder- und Jugendlicheneuthanasie.'" Monatsschrift für Kinderheilkunde 151: 1012-1019.

———. 2003b. "Hans Heinze: Kinder und Jugendpsychiatrie und 'Euthanasie.'" Pp. 9-52 in Beiträge zur NS-"Euthanasie"-Forschung 2002, edited by the Arbeitskreis zur Erforschung der nationalsozialistischen "Euthanasie" und Zwangssterilisation. Münster: Klemm und Oehlschläger.

Buhl, Christoph. 2001. "Von der Eugenik zur Euthanasie: Eine Spurensuche in Leipzig." Master's Thesis, Fachbereich Sozialwesen der Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur Leipzig. Here.

"Eene meene muh - und raus bist du: Kindereuthanasie in Leibzig: Eine Erinnerung: Schüler auf der Suche nach verblassten Spuren." Available at http://www.leipzig.de/imperia/md/content/51_jugendamt/fachstelle/kindereuthanasie_in_leipzig.pdf.

Lahm, Berit, Thomas Seyde, and Eberhard Ulm, eds. 2008. 505: Kindereuthanasieverbrechen in Leipzig. Leipzig: Plöttner Verlag.

Roick, Christiane. 1997. "Heilen, Verwahren, Vernichten: Die Geschichte der Sächsischen Landesanstalt Leipzig-Dösen im Dritten Reich." M.D. Diss., Medical College University of Leipzig.

Stadt Leipzig, Dezernat für Schule, Jugend, Soziales und Gesundheit. 2007. "Euthanasieverbrechen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Leipzig." Available at http://www.leipzig.de/imperia/md/content/53_gesundheitsamt/ozialpsychiatrischerdienst/euthanasieverbrechen_schulinfo-neu.pdf.

Topp, Sascha. 2004. “Der ‘Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden’: Zur Organisation der Ermordung minderjähriger Kranker im Nationalsozialismus 1939-1945.” Pp. 17-54 in Kinder in der NS-Psychiatrie, edited by Thomas Beddies and Kristina Hübener. Berlin-Brandenburg: Be.bra Wissenschaft.

———. 2005. "Der 'Reichsausschuß zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden': Die Ermordung minderjähriger Kranker im Nationalsozialismus 1939-1945." Master's Thesis in History, University of Berlin.