It is a black and white photo. It was taken from a slightly elevated perspective. You can see a fork in the road, with landscaped gardens in the foreground. Behind it is a settlement of many, mostly two-storey houses. These have curved mullioned windows and decorated brick walls. A tall tower is half recognisable on the right-hand edge of the picture, which is a black and white photo. It was taken from a slightly elevated perspective. A fork in the road can be seen, with landscaped gardens in the foreground. Behind it is a settlement of many, mostly two-storey houses. These have curved mullioned windows and decorated brick walls. A tall tower is half recognisable on the right-hand edge of the picture.

Postcard, Obrawalde Institution and nursing home near Meseritz, before 1933.

Katarzyna Szluba-Frachowiak collection.

MESERITZ-OBRAWALDE | MIĘDZYRZECZ

The Obrawalde »Children’s ward« was probably established in the second half of 1942, after Theophil Mootz became medical director of the Obrawalde Institution and nursing home. Walter Grabowski was the economic director. The »Children’s ward« was headed by Dr Hilde Wernicke, who had been senior physician at the institution since 1929. The »Children’s ward« was located in Building 3.

In 1943 and 1944, Wernicke demonstrably selected around 600 sick adults, children and adolescents for euthanasia. Head nurse Helene Wieczorek injected lethal doses of morphine-scopolamine.

At the end of the war, Wernicke and Wieczorek went into hiding in Wernigerode. They were tracked down and arrested in August 1945. Both were tried at the Berlin Regional Court for their involvement in »euthanasia« crimes, which ended in March 1946 with their death sentence.

»Child euthanasia« played a secondary role in the proceedings. The focus was on her involvement in the murder of hundreds of adult patients. More than 10,000 patients were murdered in Obrawalde, and recent research suggests that the number of victims was much higher. For this reason, the institution is classified as a killing centre.

Wernicke and Wieczorek were executed by guillotine on 14 January 1947 in Berlin-Moabit Prison.

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