UCHTSPRINGE

The »Children’s ward« at the Uchtspringe State Institution existed from June 1941 to April 1945. Ernst Beese was the medical director of the clinic. Gerhard Wenzel was initially responsible for the »Children’s ward«, but Hermann Wesse took over for a few months in the autumn of 1943. Wesse had previously worked in the »Children’s ward« in Görden, Waldniel and Leipzig and was later appointed director in Kalmenhof. After Wesse was drafted into the Wehrmacht in December 1943, his wife Hildegard Wesse became the new director.

In Uchtspringe, around 350 children and young people were murdered with Luminal. Hundreds more victims died as a result of deliberate neglect and starvation. The total number of children and young people murdered there is estimated at around 753.

Ernst Beese died of a stroke in June 1945. Gerhard Wenzel was acquitted in his trial in 1953 and worked in a clinic for people with head injuries. Hermann Wesse was never convicted for his crimes committed in Uchtspringe. However, he received a life sentence for his actions in Kalmenhof and Waldniel. He was released in 1966 for medical reasons. His wife, Hildegard Wesse, was sentenced to two years in prison in the same trial as Gerhard Wenzel, not for her involvement in the murder of children, but for the murder of 30 adult women. The following year, the case was dismissed and the verdict was not legally binding. She continued to work as a doctor in Braunschweig.

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