JÜRGEN ENDEWARDT (1941 – 1942)

Jürgen Endewardt was born on 25 February 1941, the third of four children, in Lüneburg on Bülowstraße, now Georg-Böhm-Straße 4. As Jürgen was unable to sit, walk or speak, his mother Elly Endewardt was concerned about her child’s development. Among other things, she took him to the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. There he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus (water on the brain). Treatment was to be attempted at the Lüneburg Children’s Hospital at Barckhausenstraße 6. This attempt was not made, however, and instead Jürgen was transferred to the »children’s ward« of the Lüneburg Institution and Nursing Home on 17 November 1942.

When his mother wanted to visit her child a week later, she had to force the nursing staff to allow her access to Jürgen. In doing so, she discovered the lack of care and the poor condition of her son. On 5 and 6 December 1942, two meetings took place with the medical director, Max Bräuner. Relatives report that Elly Endewardt wanted to remove her son from the »children‘s ward.« Whether this is true is uncertain. The day after the second meeting, on 7 December 1942, Jürgen Endewardt died. The official cause of death was »gastrointestinal catarrh.« However, it is highly probable that he was murdered with a drug.

At his mother’s request, Jürgen was not buried in the institution’s cemetery, but in Lüneburg’s central cemetery. This allowed his mother to conceal the fact that Jürgen had been an institutional patient from his father, who held a higher rank in the SS.

After Jürgens‘ death, the family suffered further blows. Jürgens‘ father was seriously injured as a soldier in 1943, Jürgens‘ eldest sister Ute was run over by a tank in 1946, and Jürgens‘ youngest brother Udo died three months after his birth as a result of a congenital heart valve defect.

In 2019, a Stolperstein was laid in what is now Georg-Böhm-Straße in memory of Jürgen Endewardt.