UECKERMÜNDE

The Ueckermünde Provincial Mental Hospital had been in existence since 1875 and had room for around 800 patients at the beginning of the Second World War. The number of patients rose during the course of the war. From 1943 onwards, transports arrived mainly from the west, including 19 children and adolescents from the Waldniel ‘children’s ward’ in the Rhineland.

The institution’s agricultural operations had been discontinued in January 1939. Overcrowding and a lack of supplies led to starvation deaths in the provincial mental hospital. In 1945, more than half of all patients died in Ueckermünde. A crematorium had already been built in 1940 to burn the bodies.

From 1941 onwards, more and more children and young people were admitted. By 1943 at the latest, Ueckermünde was home to a »children’s ward«. The children and young people often died of malnutrition and from the medication they were given. Of the 19 children and young people who came from Waldniel, twelve died within a month. By the end of the war, at least 334 deaths had been documented.

Since Director Hans-Dietrich Hilweg had almost all incriminating files destroyed at the end of the war, there is no evidence pointing to the responsible personnel. No preliminary investigations were ever conducted. Hilweg continued to practise medicine in West Germany until 1962.