Postcard of the Johannisthal Institution and Nursing Home in Süchteln, formerly St. Josefsheim Waldniel, 1915.

ArEGL 99.

WALDNIEL

From 1941 onwards, a »Children’s ward« was operated in the former »Schutzengelhaus« (Guardian Angel House) of the former St. Josefsheim der Franziskaner (St. Joseph’s Home of the Franciscans) as part of the Johannistal Institution and nursing home in Viersen-Süchteln, where, according to current research, a total of 99 children and adolescents were examined, selected and murdered.

The first director of the Waldniel »Children’s ward« was Dr Georg Renno. He had worked with Dr Hermann Nitsche in Leipzig-Dösen and helped develop the method of murder using barbiturates, known as the »Luminalschema«. He then became deputy director of the Hartheim killing centre (near Linz in Austria), where he had over 18,000 people gassed with carbon monoxide as part of »Aktion T4«.

Renno left the »Children’s ward« after only a few months in February 1942 due to his tuberculosis. On 1 October 1942, Dr Hermann Wesse took over as head of the ward. Prior to this, his wife, Dr. Hildegard Wesse, had been temporarily in charge of the »Children’s ward«. Meanwhile, Wesse received further training in the practical implementation of »child euthanasia« at the »Children’s ward« in Göhrden and at the children’s hospital in Bonn.

During criminal proceedings after 1945, Wesse confessed to having murdered children and adolescents in the Waldniel »Children’s ward« during his time as senior physician. The number of 30 he gave does not correspond to the number of deaths later proven. In fact, more than twice as many children and adolescents were murdered during his time there.

At the beginning of July 1943, the Waldniel »Children’s ward« was closed due to the war. The facility was needed as an alternative hospital. The remaining 183 children and adolescents were transferred to five other »Children’s wards«. The transfers took place to Ansbach, Göhrden, Uchtspringe, Ueckermünde and Lüneburg. On 3 July 1943, the »Children’s ward« in Lüneburg took in a total of 38 children and adolescents from Waldniel. At least 25 of them did not survive. One child was »discharged without being cured« nine weeks after being transferred to Lüneburg. Another child was transferred to the Eben-Ezer Foundation in Lemgo in August 1944.

Although preliminary proceedings were initiated against Hermann Wesse after 1945, the first attempts to come to terms with the crimes committed in Waldniel did not begin until 1962, on the initiative of the church communities. In the same year, a memorial cemetery with a high cross was established in the cemetery. In 1982, a memorial plaque for the victims of »euthanasia« was added to the high cross. Between 1986 and 1988, the cemetery, which had since been deconsecrated, was converted into a memorial site by the municipality of Schwalmtal with the support of a local secondary school. Between 2016 and 2018, the memorial site was redesigned by the Vienna-based Struber_Gruber working group and inaugurated on 29 May 2018. A key feature of the artistic design is the listing of the known names of the victims.