LOBEN | LUBLINIEC

In the course of 1941, a »Children’s ward« was established in Loben (Lubliniec), the first in occupied Poland. Ernst Buchalik was the medical director in charge, and the »Children’s ward« was headed by the physician Elisabeth Hecker.

The children and adolescents were housed in buildings A and B. In building A, they were selected for human experimentation or murder. If they were considered suitable for killing, they were transferred to building B, which was located outside the clinic grounds. The children were poisoned with medication.

The corpses were opened and examined intensively by Hecker. She removed the brains and handed over more than 200 to the Neurological Research Institute at the University of Breslau. There, neuropathologist Hans Joachim Scherer used them for his work. Professor Viktor von Weizsäcker headed the institute from 1941 onwards and later claimed to have had no knowledge of this.

A total of around 293 children and young people were murdered in Loben.

Hecker initially went into hiding in Bavaria and moved to Niedermarsberg in 1951. From 1952 onwards, she headed the child and adolescent psychiatry department in Gütersloh. Ernst Buchalik went into hiding in Greiz (Thuringia). In 1957, he became senior physician in Niedermarsberg. Von Weizäcker became a professor at Heidelberg University Hospital. The investigations against Hecker and Buchalik were dropped in 1974. Five years later, Hecker was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class.

back