It is a black and white photo. It shows a wide intersection of two streets. The streets are lined with tall trees. There is a bench and a historic street lamp to the right of the crossroads.

Postcard, Leipzig-Dösen Institution and Nursing Home, street scene, after 1945.

ArEGL 99.

LEIPZIG-DÖSEN

On 19 October 1940, the first child was admitted to the newly created »Children’s ward« in Leipzig-Dösen. It remained in operation until 7 December 1943, when it was relocated to the Großschweidnitz institution due to the war. Leipzig-Dösen then became an alternative hospital for the Leipzig University Hospital, which had been damaged by bombs.

The Leipzig-Dösen »Children’s ward« was planned by institution director Emil Eichler as a large facility and was intended to accommodate all »uneducable« children and adolescents with disabilities from Saxony. This included children and adolescents from Saxon Institutions and nursing homes in the administrative districts of Chemnitz, Leipzig, Zwickau and Dresden, e.g. Arnsdorf and Großschweidnitz. However, the minors were not all concentrated in Leipzig-Dösen and the »Children’s ward« in other institutions were not dissolved. Instead, children and young people from outside Saxony, for example from North Rhine-Westphalia, were also admitted.

Initially, the children and young people were housed in Building B 3, but in autumn 1941 they moved to the larger »children’s home« C. After the Jewish Hospital in Building D was closed in November 1943, this building was also to be used as a »Children’s ward«. However, this did not happen due to the move to Großschweidnitz.

In the »Children’s ward« in Leipzig-Dösen, most of the murders were carried out according to the »Luminal scheme«, which had been developed in-house by Emil Eichler’s predecessor, Paul Nitsche, and his senior physician and later head of the ‘paediatric ward’ in Waldniel, Georg Renno. There were at least 551 murders in the »Children’s ward« in Leipzig-Dösen before it moved to Großschweidnitz.

There was close cooperation with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch (Julius Hallervorden) and the University of Leipzig, resulting in hundreds of brain removals and regular pathological examinations of the children’s corpses.

The Leipzig-Dösen »Children’s ward« was headed by Arthur Mittag. When it moved to Großschweidnitz, he went with it and took over as head there as well. After the war, Mittag remained in service until October 1945. In 1946, he was arrested. He injected himself with a solution made from 30 Luminal tablets and took his own life.

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