STEFAN LAPIKOW (1907 – 1945)

According to the death register, Stephan Lapikow was born on 27 September 1907 in Kruki, Russia. His medical records state that he was Ukrainian. Kruki is actually a town in present-day Ukraine, which at that time belonged to the Soviet Union. It is known that he worked in agriculture in Römmelmoor in the Wesermarsch district. How and why he ended up in the Nordenham court prison cannot be determined from the file. In Nordenham, he was examined by a Dr. Neeser, who recommended his admission to the Oldenburg mental hospital in Wehnen because Stephan Lapikow suffered from »manic-depressive insanity«.

He was admitted there on 5 May 1944. The attending physician came to the conclusion that »L.[apikow]’s state of depression should certainly not be understood as part of a prison psychosis, but rather, given the long duration of the severe depressive states […] which belong to the
spectrum of manic-depressive insanity, should be considered as such.« The entry ends with the note that Stephan Lapikow was transferred to Lüneburg. There is no »final report«.

Lapikow lived only a few more days at the Lüneburg sanatorium. He died on 22 December 1944. His file contains no entry about his admission, no progress report, no reference to his physical or mental condition. The only note made by Redepenning, the head of the »foreigners‘ collection point«, was: »Died in Lüneburg on 22 December without any particular symptoms of illness, from exhaustion«. The word »exhaustion« is underlined. Stephan Lapikow died at the age of 37.