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Fritz Lentge * 1934

Mildestieg 14 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
FRITZ LENTGE
GEB. 1934
EINGEWIESEN 1942
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 1943
KALMENHOF / IDSTEIN
ERMORDET 24.8.1943

Fritz Lentge, born 7.3.1934 in Uetersen, admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, now Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf) on 17.8.1942, "transferred" to the "Curative Education Institution Kalmenhof" ("Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof") near Idstein, Rheingau on 7.8.1943, died there on 24.8.1943

Mildestieg 14, Barmbek-Nord

Fritz Lentge was the only child of the ship's engineer Christian Friedrich Lentge, born on 23 Oct. 1908 in Büdelsdorf, and his wife Ida Maria, née Petersen (Date and place of birth are not known).

According to his mother's reports, Fritz at first did not suffer any serious illnesses and learned to walk when he was ten months old. She described his speech development as "normal". He had been a strong child who had been fed on mother's milk for a long time. In September 1936, at the age of two and a half, he suddenly collapsed and had been suffering from convulsions ever since. At first, the seizures occurred every seven to eight days, later less frequently with breaks of up to seven weeks, usually at night. As a result of the seizures, Fritz's mental state had declined considerably and his speech ability had deteriorated, too.

The Friedrichsberg State Hospital discharged him after a stay from 16 to 29 Nov. 1940 on the grounds that the boy could not be expected to improve through therapy. During another stay in Friedrichsberg on 16 July 1942, which lasted only one day, epileptic seizures occurred again.

On 17 Aug. 1942, Fritz Lentge was transferred to what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum (today the Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf). When he was admitted there, he suffered a severe seizure. No therapy efforts are recorded in Fritz Lentge's patient file during his one-year stay in Alsterdorf.

During the heavy air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 (Operation Gomorrha), the Alsterdorf Asylum also suffered damage during the night of 29/30 July 1943 and again on 3-4 Aug. 1943. The director of the asylum, SA member Pastor Friedrich Lensch, asked the health authorities for permission to transfer 750 patients, allegedly to make room for wounded and bomb-damaged persons. Three transports between 7 and 16 Aug. brought a total of 468 girls and women, boys and men to the Eichberg Sanatorium ("Landesheilanstalt Eichberg") near Wiesbaden, to the "Curative Education Institution Kalmenhof” ("Heilerziehungsanstalt Kalmenhof") in Idstein, Rheingau, to the "Sanatorium and Nursing Home Mainkofen” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Mainkofen") near Passau and to the "Wagner von Jauregg-Sanatorium and Nursing Home of the City of Vienna” ("Wagner von Jauregg-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt der Stadt Wien") in Vienna (also known as the institution "Am Steinhof").

Fritz Lentge also had to leave the Alsterdorf Asylum. He was one of the 52 boys destined for the "Curative Education Institution Kalmenhof”. The last entry in his medical file was dated 6 Aug. 1943 and read: "Transferred to Idstein due to severe damage to the institution by air raid. Signed Dr. Kreyenberg."

In the hospital of the "Curative Education Institution Kalmenhof” there had been a "children's specialist department" since the end of 1941. The term "children's department" was used in the National Socialist German Reich as a euphemism for special psychiatric facilities in hospitals and sanatoriums and nursing homes. They were used for "Children Euthanasia", i.e. the research on and killing of children and adolescents who were physically or mentally handicapped.

With one exception, all the children from the Alsterdorf transport to Kalmenhof came to a violent death, mostly by an overdose of the barbiturate Luminal, by morphine injections or by neglect.

17 days later, Fritz Lentge was dead. It must be safely assumed that he did not die of natural causes.

The Stolperstein commemorates Fritz Lentge in front of his parents' Hamburg home address.

Translation Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: March 2023
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf Archiv, Sonderakte V 158. Michael Wunder, Ingrid Genkel, Harald Jenner, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr – Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, 289 ff.https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/24708/NS-Kindereuthanasie-Ohne-jede-moralische-Skrupel (zuletzt zugegriffen am 14.7.2022)