KAUFBEUREN-IRSEE

The »children’s ward« at the Kaufbeuren mental hospital began operating in December 1941 as the second of three »children’s wards« in Bavaria. The medical director was Valentin Faltlhauser. Lothar Gärtner, deputy medical director of the Kaufbeuren mental hospital, became head of the »children’s ward«.

A few months after the killings began in the »children’s ward« in Kaufbeuren, a branch was set up in the neighbouring monastery in Irsee. A total of at least 221 children and young people died at both locations as part of the »child euthanasia« programme. After the »children’s ward« in Stuttgart was closed, children and young people from there were also sent to Kaufbeuren.

Many of the children died as a result of drug trials. A tuberculosis vaccine is said to have been tested. Brains removed from Kaufbeuren and Irsee were also sent to research institutions.

Gärtner took his own life in 1945. Faltlhauser was sentenced to three years‘ imprisonment for »incitement to aid and abet murder« and was pardoned by the Bavarian Minister of Justice in 1954. He died in 1961.