Mniszek - Grupa / Pomerania - Poland - the place of German war crimes

Sanatorium of death in Lubliniec

Lubliniec

On 17th September 1939 German authorities appointed Dr Ernest Buchalik the administrator of Lubiniec hospital. A  doctor from the local Toszek, since 1933 a member of NSDAP he was notorious for his hostility to the Polish population. Like other mental hospitals, the Lubliniec outpost, which then changed its name into Landes-Heil-und Pflegeanstalt Lublinitz, started to take transports of children as early as September 1941, mainly from Silesia, the Basin and Saksonia. These children were handed over by German courts and NSV (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt - National Socialist Folk Social Welfare). Every time the children were told, that they were going to a sanatorium, while, in fact, it was a "sanatorium of death". In the mid-year 1942 Jugendpsychiatrische of Loben Clinics - Children's Psychiatric Clinics - was organised. At first children were placed in ward "A", situated in the rooms of the oblates' monastery, which was superintended by Dr Elisabeth Hecker, and in the former farm building (ward "B"), headed by Dr E. Buchalik. Later ward "A" was in the castle, next to the women's ward. "A" was an observation ward. There children were diagnosed and sorted, and their fate depended on E. Hecker. Children, who were diagnosed by E. Hecker as minimally handicapped, or too difficult from the educational point of view, were referred to special young offenders' institutions.  The other children, with inborn or acquired physical disabilities and mental illnesses, were transferred to "B" ward, where they were put to death. Medical documentation was forged in order to cover up the traces, various false causes of death were given, like e.g.: pneumonia, influenza, cardiovascular diseases. By the orders of E. Buchalik children were killed with the increased dose of Luminal or diethylbarbituric acid.

All children after receiving Luminal vomited, some seemingly got used to it, sometimes they staggered, felt dizzy , however they ate well, ran, played. Others reacted more strongly, were constantly in half-sleep, lay limply. After a certain time they started having a high fever, stopped eating, wheezed and foam which was sometimes bloody came from their mouths, and in the end they died . According to the statistical data, till November 1944, barbiturates  were given to 235 children in ward 'B", which caused the death of  221 children.

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Kościan and the Euthanasia (action T4)

Hospital in Kościan

"Kościan (47 km from Poznań) was one of the first places where Nazi euthanasia action took place, even before such measures had commenced in Germany and Austria. The reasoning behind the "cleaning" of the Polish mental homes surely was almost certainly to obtain space for German troops at the beginning of the war.

In early 1940 the hospital in Kościan was taken over by the SS Sonderkommando Lange and the Gau-Selbstverwaltung (German Council Association) from Poznan. The Polish medical personnel were dismissed, leaving behind 612 Polish patients. Now the hospital was administered by Dr Johann Keste (psychiatrist), Dr. Fritz Lemberger (gynaecologist), Hans Meding (medical inspector) and Wilhelm Haydn (chief of the male nurses), killers in white doctor’s gowns.

In early January 1940, an SS Sonderkommando arrived, carrying a dark brown bottle containing a morphine-scopolamine mixture used to calm the victims.

Probably on 15 January 1940, the first group of naked patients received an injection and were bundled into a mobile gas chamber (gas van or gas trailer) inscribed with an advertisement for "Kaiser's Kaffee Geschäft". Of course, Kaiser's Coffee Company was not involved in the action. The van's (or trailer's) inner sides were lined with metal sheets, the floor was covered with a wooden grate and a lamp on the ceiling illuminated the gas chamber for inspection through a peephole in the back door.

When the driver (an SS man) started the vehicle's engine, the exhaust fumes were emitted into the loading space. The victims screamed loudly before they died. Then the gas van drove from Koscian to Jarogniewice Forest (a site on the road Koscian - Poznan, about 15-20 km north of Koscian). After 15-20 minutes the van finally reached the forest, and nobody in the gas chamber was left alive.

At Jarogniewice Forest prisoners (from KZ Fort VII in Poznan) opened the back doors of the gas van and buried the corpses in mass graves. One week later (on 22 January 1940) a second group of patients were killed in an identical fashion.

Within that week, all in all, 534 patients had been killed - 237 men and 297 women. However, this was only the beginning of a more extensive action in Koscian. On 9 February a transport from Germany with 2,750 Jewish and non-Jewish (German) patients from mental and old people's homes arrived in Koscian. All were killed in the same manner as the first patients. It is most likely that on 24 February 1940 the last transport left Koscian Hospital for Jarogniewice Forest. In total, 3,334 patients lost their lives in course of this euthanasia action in Koscian." (1)