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Lola Ulawski * 1934

Stresowstraße 6 (Hamburg-Mitte, Rothenburgsort)

HIER WOHNTE
LOLA ULAWSKI
JG. 1934
EINGEWIESEN 7.8.1943
’HEILANSTALT’ EICHBERG
ERMORDET 7.9.1943

Lola Ulawski, born 4/13/1934 in Hamburg, murdered at Eichberg mental hospital 9/7/1943

Stresowstrasse 6 (formerly no. 8)

Lola Ulawski was born as the sixth child of her mother Sophie, née Hermann; another brother was born after her. The family included the father, Helmuth Ulawski, an alcoholic, and also his attentive parents. The three generations had lived together in two rooms until 1932, when Helmuth and Sophie Ulawski got an apartment for themselves. They already had four children when they married in 1927, four more were to follow. The four older children and later also the youngest grew up with their grandparents.

In spite of all her efforts, Sophie Ulawski couldn’t manage to care for her household and for little Lola correctly. Her husband left her, but later returned.

Helmuth Ulawski lived from odd jobs and welfare payments. According to his welfare record, He regularly spent the money he received on drinking. In 1936, the "Alcoholics’ Welfare” and the Youth Welfare Agency intervened and made a joint effort to improve the situation of the mother and her children. Two sons were placed in after-school care, and Lola was admitted to the Rothenburgsort children’s hospital on account of psychic and physical neglect. The aim was to check if she "only” suffered from severe neglect or if there was a mental disorder. Wilhelm Bayer, the hospital chief physician, diagnosed a congenital brain defect, which, however, did not exclude the chance for an improvement of her mental and physical capabilities. When Lola’s father took her out of the hospital, against the doctors’ advice, so he shouldn’t lose the children’s allowance he would no longer get if his daughter remained in the hospital, Wilhelm Bayer even attested the child an improved contact with her environment.

In 1936, the hereditary health court ordered the sterilization of Helmuth Ulawski. As a further measure, he was admitted to a detoxification center and put under custodianship, with the consequence that he lost custody of Lola. Sophie Ulawski "sighed of relief” and did her best to care for her household and her children. Thus, she did not understand why the Youth Welfare Agency admitted Lola to the Alsterdorf institution.

On entry, Lola with her 76 cm was relatively small for her age of two and three months, and slight with her weight of 9.6 kg. She resisted any type of examination, screamed and kicked whenever anyone touched her. During the year 1937, she developed well. She spoke a few words, repeated sung melodies correctly, observed her environment, walked on her own, played and tattled. She needed help with personal hygiene and eating. From April 1938 to November 1940, one infectious disease followed the other, so that she lost abilities she had just acquired. In 1942, she was in the sick ward with scarlet fever for two months. She became increasingly uneasy and dependent. In April 163, there was the first mentioning of the fact that she had been forced to wear a "protective jacket.” There are no notes that family members visited her or took her home for vacations.

In the meantime, two of her brothers also lived at the Alsterdorf Institution, Berthold since March 15th, 1940 and Richard since January 16th, 1941. Richard died in June 1943 of "tuberculosis of the pancreas”; Berthold was later transferred to the Langenhorn mental hospital.

On August 6th, 1943, Lola Ulawski and 27 other children were sent to the Eichberg mental hospital in the Rheingau near Frankfurt on the first transport the management of Alsterdorf had put together to relieve the Hamburg institution damaged by allied bombing. The transport by train took two days an arrived in Hattenheim during an air raid. Walter Schmidt, head physician of Eichberg at the time, later reported: "The attending personnel had deserted, and we found the children, who had obviously been given tranquillizing injections, lying on top of each other and completely exhausted in the railroad car. Most of them were in straitjackets.” All those children perished at Eichberg."

Lola Ulawski was killed on September 7th 1943 at the age of nine. The cause of her death was given as "heart weakness, stupefaction.”


Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2019
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: Ev. Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, V 13; StaH 213-13, Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – NSG, 0018/001; Jenner, Meldebögen; Wunder, Abtransporte; ders., Exodus.