Postcard, Ansbach Sanatorium and Nursing Home in Bavaria, original aerial photograph, 1934.

ArEGL 99.

ANSBACH

The »children’s ward« at the Ansbach mental hospital existed from December 1942 to March 1945. It was the last of three »children’s wards« in Bavaria. Children and adolescents had been admitted to the hospital as early as April 1941, but were transferred to Kaufbeuren in August 1942.

Hubert Schuch was the medical director in Ansbach. The head of the »paediatric ward« was the doctor Irene Asam-Bruckmüller. She was assisted by Prießmann, who took his own life at the end of the war. A total of 303 children and adolescents were admitted to the »paediatric ward«, at least 156 of whom died. An evaluation of the 144 surviving medical records of deceased children reveals an age range from one week to 16 years. In at least 86 cases, the children’s brains were removed and sent to Eglfing-Haar and the German Research Institute for Psychiatry (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute) in Munich.

None of those responsible for the murders of children in Ansbach were convicted. All those involved were merely questioned as witnesses, and all investigations against them were dropped. Irene Asam-Bruckmüller died in 2000.