It is a black and white photo. It is a panoramic view from a hill to a valley below. There are settlements in the valley. Behind it is a hill with a high tower in a dense forest.

Postcard, aerial view of Niedermarsberg, 20 June 1917. On the right-hand side of the picture, you can see St. Johannis-Stift, where the »Children’s ward« was established in 1940.

Es ist ein schwarz-weißes Foto. An die Ränder des Bildes sind handschriftliche Notizen eingetragen. Zu sehen ist eine große Gruppe Menschen ordentlich zum Foto aufgestellt. Die Männer und Jungen tragen unterschiedliche Anzüge mit Uniformmützen. Die Frauen tragen Flechtfrisuren und Kittel über den Kleidern.

Group photo in front of St. Johannis-Stift, 1916.

ArEGL 99.

NIEDERMARSBERG

In Niedermarsberg, a »Children’s ward« was set up in 1940 at St. Johannes-Stift, a former Capuchin monastery. In the months that followed, at least 36 children and adolescents were murdered there. The medical director was Theodor Steinmeyer, and the »Children’s ward« was under the supervision of the physician Werner Sengenhoff.

Due to unrest among the population, the »Children’s ward« was closed in November 1941. The remaining children and adolescents were transferred to the Dortmund-Aplerbeck Institution and nursing home. After that, the monastery building was used as a military hospital, as it had been during the First World War.

Even long after the Second World War, there were still considerable shortcomings in terms of care and education at the Niedermarsberg Children’s Hospital.

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