FRIEDRICH DAPS (1932 – 1942)

Friedrich Daps was born on 4 October 1933 in Isernhagen near Hanover. His parents, Willi and Alma Daps, had two other children. Friedrich was the eldest. Friedrich had an intellectual disability and was brought to the Pestalozzi Foundation in Großburgwedel on 17 July 1937, accompanied by his father Willi. Friedrich was not yet four years old at the time. It is not known why his parents brought him there. Presumably, they were overwhelmed by their son’s disability. He was only supposed to stay there for a few days.

On 8 August 1937, Friedrich Daps was compulsorily examined by a doctor. The doctor concluded that Friedrich was »in need of institutional care«. Shortly afterwards, on 10 August 1937, the Pestalozzi Foundation transferred Friedrich to the Langenhagen sanatorium and nursing home. The institution was surprised by the haste with which this was done.

In a report by the foundation, he was described as »uneducable«. In March 1938, he was transferred from Langenhagen to the institutions of the Inner Mission in Rotenburg. The few entries in Friedrich’s file from both institutions describe him as »feeble-minded« and »uneducable«. On 9 October 1941, he was transferred together with 137 other children from Rotenburg to the »children’s ward« in Lüneburg.

Friedrich died there on 21 March 1942. He was only eight years old. The alleged cause of death, »congenital mental deficiency« and »pneumonia«, is questionable. It is highly probable that Friedrich was murdered in the »paediatric ward« in Lüneburg with the drug Luminal.

A telegram was sent to the father on the same day informing him that his son would be buried the following day at 3:30 p.m. in the institution’s cemetery, now known as the North-West Cemetery. There was no thought of transferring the body to Hanover. Rather, the child had to be buried quickly.

Friedrich’s brain was removed after his death and sent to the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf for research purposes. Seventy years later, it was found there alongside brain sections from eleven other child victims from the Lüneburg »paediatric ward«. These remains were buried on 25 August 2013 in the North-West Cemetery, where a memorial had been erected.

In February 2021, a street in Großburgwedel was named after Friedrich Daps in the neighbourhood of the Pestalozzi Foundation. In spring 2022, a Stolperstein was laid in front of his former home in Isernhagen.