Autor/Autorin
On behalf of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Equality, the lives of doctors who took part in National Socialist „euthanasia“ crimes after 1945 were analysed as part of a medical history study. In view of the shocking personal continuities revealed in the recently published final report, the current Minister of Social Affairs, Carola Reimann (SPD), admitted: „It is shocking that perpetrators of National Socialist crimes were allowed to continue treating patients after 1945 as if nothing had happened – state bodies have failed here.“ [1 ]
The study „Personnel continuities in psychiatry in Lower Saxony after 1945“ was conducted by Dr Christof Beyer, who works at the Institute for History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine at the Hannover Medical School. The project took around ten months to complete and involved analysing relevant research literature as well as researching various archives. The focus was on the biographies of well-known doctors who continued their careers in Lower Saxony after 1945 despite their involvement in Nazi crimes.
The final report of the study, which was published at the beginning of June 2018, comprises a total of seventy-three pages. It begins with general remarks on the topic of „euthanasia“, before the second chapter addresses the legal conditions and possibilities for the reintegration of National Socialist perpetrators. On this basis, ten biographies are examined in the subsequent main section. Two biographies are presented in the chapter entitled „The reutilisation of psychiatrists involved in medical crimes in the province of Hanover in the service of the state of Lower Saxony“, three in the chapter entitled „The recruitment of Nazi psychiatrists from the German Reich into the service of the state of Lower Saxony“ and five in the chapter entitled „Dealing with doctors practising in Lower Saxony who were involved in National Socialist medical crimes“. The findings of the study are summarised at the end of the report.
The chapter „The reutilisation of psychiatrists involved in medical crimes in the province of Hanover in the service of the state of Lower Saxony“ deals with Willi Baumert (1909-1984) and Ernst Meumann (1900-1965).
From 1941 to 1944, Willi Baumert was head of the „paediatric department“ [2] in Lüneburg, where it is estimated that between 300 and 350 children and adolescents were murdered. After 1945, the investigations against him were dropped due to „lack of evidence“ and in 1953 he took up a position as senior physician. A short time later, the state of Lower Saxony congratulated him on his 25th anniversary of service and promoted him to senior medical officer. In 1958, he finally became director of the Königslutter State Hospital. In 1962, investigations by the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office led by Fritz Bauer led to renewed investigations against Baumert, but he was certified as „unfit to stand trial“. Nevertheless, he continued to work as director in Königslutter until his early retirement (see pp. 17-31).
Ernst Meumann, one of Baumert’s predecessors as director in Königslutter, was sometimes responsible for the transport of over 420 people to the Bernburg/Saale gas murder centre. After the Second World War, he was categorised as „exonerated“ and appointed „special representative of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs for the development of mental hygiene“. In 1954, he took up a position as director of the Moringen State Welfare Home and in 1959 he was appointed a civil servant for life. Shortly afterwards, he took early retirement (see pp. 32-38).
The biographies of Hans Heinze (1895-1983), Gerhard Kloos (1906-1988) and Hannah Uflacker (1906-1964) are described in the chapter „The recruitment of Nazi psychiatrists from the German Reich into the service of the state of Lower Saxony“.
Hans Heinze played a leading role in the preparation and implementation of „child euthanasia“ and was head of the Brandenburg-Görden „paediatric department“, where 147 children were killed. [3 ] He also acted as an expert for „Aktion T4“ [4 ]. In October 1945, Heinze was sentenced to seven years of forced labour by a Soviet military tribunal. After serving his sentence, he took up a position as assistant doctor at the Münster-Marienthal State Sanatorium in 1953. In 1954, he became head and chief physician of the paediatric and adolescent psychiatric department in Wunstorf. He also worked in the adolescent psychiatric counselling centre of the Hanover health authority. In 1956, investigations were again initiated against Heinze, who retired during the ongoing proceedings. The proceedings were discontinued due to his „inability to stand trial“ (see pp. 39-46). Hans Heinze died in 1983.
Gerhard Kloos was the director of the Stadtroda State Sanatorium in Thuringia, where at least 149 minors were murdered. Kloos, who had since been appointed a civil servant for life, became director of the Göttingen State Hospital in 1954 and was appointed a court expert in restitution proceedings. In 1958, he was given a lectureship at the Technical University of Braunschweig. The investigations against him were closed in 1962. The Kloos case was reopened in the 1980s on the basis of new findings. However, the proceedings ended with his death in 1988 (see pp. 47-53).
Hannah Uflacker worked as an assistant doctor at the Leipzig University Children’s Hospital and the „paediatric department“ there until 1944. In 1948, she was certified as a paediatrician and in 1960, she took up a position in the youth medical department of the Hanover health authority. As part of the proceedings against Hans Heinze, she confessed to having killed five to six children. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for her at the beginning of 1964. However, she was released from prison at the end of 1964 due to the statute of limitations for her offences. In 1965, the district president of Hanover suggested that her licence to practise medicine be revoked, whereupon she committed suicide (see pp. 54-55).
In the chapter „Dealing with doctors practising in Lower Saxony who were involved in National Socialist medical crimes“, the biographies of Heinrich Bunke (1914-2001), Klaus Endruweit (1913-1994), Helene Darges-Sonnemann (1911-1998), Ernst Wentzler (1891-1973) and Hildegard Wesse (1911-1997) are examined.
Heinrich Bunke was jointly responsible for the killings in the Brandenburg and Bernburg gas murder centres. After 1945, he initially worked at the State Women’s Clinic in Celle before setting up as a gynaecologist.
Klaus Endruweit took part in the „euthanasia“ murders at the Pirna-Sonnenstein gas murder centre and founded a general practice in Bettrum near Hildesheim as early as 1946.
In February 1962, Attorney General Fritz Bauer initiated a separate investigation against the two doctors and obtained arrest warrants. However, the two were spared pre-trial detention in return for conditions. The prosecution accused them of murder with base motives in at least 10,000 cases. „At the beginning of the main trial in June 1966, the charge was only accessory to joint murder“ (Bayer 2018, p. 56). The perpetrators became accomplices. In light of the ongoing criminal proceedings, the district governments of Lüneburg and Hildesheim suspended their licences, meaning that Endruweit and Bunke were no longer allowed to practise as doctors. The professional law measures against the two Nazi perpetrators caused a storm of indignation. In Bunke’s case, the state government even received a petition demanding that he be allowed to continue practising as a gynaecologist. Around 5,000 citizens from Celle signed the petition. On 23 May 1967, Endruweit and Bunke were acquitted due to their alleged lack of awareness of wrongdoing. According to the judgement, they were not guilty as they were convinced of the legality of their actions and had succumbed to an „insurmountable error of prohibition“. Although the Federal Court of Justice overturned the judgement in 1970, the proceedings against Bunke were discontinued shortly afterwards due to his „inability to stand trial“. Another trial was held in 1986, which ended in 1988 with Bunke being sentenced to three years in prison for aiding and abetting the murder of 9,200 people. The proceedings against Endruweit were finally discontinued in 1990 due to his „permanent inability to stand trial“, although he continued to practise as a registered doctor (see pp. 56-59). [5 ]
Helene Darges-Sonnemann worked in the „paediatric department“ in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort and was deputy director of the children’s hospital from 1942 to 1943. In 1948, she confessed to killing seven children before the Hamburg District Court. Nevertheless, the prosecution was suspended on the basis of „unavoidable error of prohibition“. After marrying Fritz Darges, a former SS-Obersturmbannführer and personal aide to Adolf Hitler, who earned his living as regional managing director of the Red Cross after 1945, she made a career as head physician at the paediatric clinic in Celle and became head of the nursing school. She took regular retirement in 1976 (see p. 60).
Alongside Hans Heinze and Werner Catel, Ernst Wentzler was one of the three chief assessors of the „paediatric euthanasia“ and decided on life and death. After 1945, he set up as a paediatrician in Hannoversch-Münden and continued to look after the needs of his private children’s clinic in Berlin-Frohnau. In 1949, the Hamburg District Court suspended the accused Wentzler from prosecution, as he had assumed that his actions were lawful. He was investigated again in 1962. However, no main proceedings were opened, as the district court did not regard his actions as murder, but at best as manslaughter, and manslaughter was already time-barred at that time. Ultimately, his involvement in the National Socialist medical crimes had neither criminal nor professional consequences.
Hildegard Wesse , née Irmen , worked in the Waldniel sanatorium and nursing home, where a „paediatric department“ was set up in 1941. The head of the department from 1942 was Hermann Wesse (1912-1989), whom she married in the same year. She later took over the management of the „paediatric department“ in Uchtspringe in Saxony-Anhalt. After the Second World War, she opened a general practice in Braunschweig and confessed in 1953 that sixty children were killed by drug overdose on her instructions. She was acquitted for these murders, also due to the alleged „error of prohibition“. However, she was sentenced to two years in prison for the killing of thirty adults. Following an appeal for revision and the new „impunity law“ [6 ], she was granted amnesty in 1954. Investigations were reopened in 1989, but discontinued in 1993.
The results of Dr Christof Beyer’s research impressively demonstrate the truth of Bauer’s assertion from 1960. The study reveals alarming continuities in the personnel of doctors in Lower Saxony’s psychiatry in particular and in Lower Saxony’s healthcare system in general. The biographies show that only very few doctors who actively participated in the National Socialist „euthanasia“ programmes were held accountable for their crimes against humanity. Most of them continued their careers after the Second World War and were sometimes even promoted. The results of denazification, the inconsistent and delayed investigation proceedings, the personal commitment of medical and administrative officials who were also incriminated, the legal framework created and a jurisdiction that acquitted convinced National Socialists on the basis of a constructed „prohibition error“ created the conditions for this to be possible. The court cases and verdicts described in the study make it clear that the value of the lives of people with disabilities was not unconditionally recognised even after 1945. The argumentation swung in favour of the perpetrators and it was even claimed that the „euthanasia“ doctors had reduced the total number of people to be killed by eliminating those who were still able to work (cf. Wojak 2018, p. 354). In contrast to the perpetrators, the victims of National Socialist medical crimes continued to be marginalised and for a long time received no recognition at all. Dr Christof Beyer concludes that highlighting this disparity is the task of current and future remembrance work and memorial site education.