Private children’s hospital in Rothenburgsort (main building on the left, infectious diseases ward on the right), before 1945.

Private collection of Lotte Albers.

HAMBURG-ROTHENBURGSORT

There were two »children’s wards« in Hamburg, one at the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home and one at the private children’s hospital in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort, which had been founded by an association in 1898. Even before the official establishment of a »children’s ward«, three infants died there in March 1940, suggesting that they had been murdered.

The »children’s ward« in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort was not an independent hospital ward. Rather, it consisted of treating individual children and adolescents according to the so-called »Reich Committee Procedure«, which was applied from May 1941 at the latest.

Due to bomb damage, the »children’s ward« had to be evacuated twice. At the end of June 1941, the sick children and adolescents were temporarily accommodated in other facilities and returned in August 1941. As a result of the »fire storm« on 27 and 28 July 1943, the hospital was so badly damaged that around 200 children and adolescents were accommodated in Celle, some until May 1944, and infants were also accommodated in Schwarmstedt.

Between 1940 and 1945, around 130 children and young people were murdered in the »children’s ward« in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort. As many medical records were destroyed during the »fire storm« and at the end of the war, the final number of victims remains unclear. The number of children and adolescents murdered as so-called »Reichsausschusskinder« (children of the Reich Committee) is also unclear. After their deaths, the bodies were dissected at the General Hospital in Barmbek and at St. Georg Hospital.

Those responsible for the murders were Medical Director Wilhelm Bayer, who headed the children’s hospital from July 1934 onwards, Senior Physician Helene Sonnemann, and assistant physicians. Helene Sonnemann pursued her career at Celle General Hospital from 1943 onwards. In 1976, she retired as Chief Physician of the Children’s Clinic. Five nurses and a secretary at the Hamburg-Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital received »special allowances«v in 1942 for their involvement in »child euthanasia«, meaning they can be considered accomplices. Bayer practised in his private practice until 1952, which he had also run during his time at the children’s hospital. He died on 18 April 1973. None of those involved were held accountable, and an investigation against Bayer was dropped in 1949.