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Claus Grimm * 1941
Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)
ERMORDET IN DER
"KINDERFACHABTEILUNG"
DER HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
LANGENHORN
CLAUS GRIMM
GEB. 17.8.1941
ERMORDET 1.5.1942
further stumbling stones in Langenhorner Chaussee 560:
Gerda Behrmann, Uwe Diekwisch, Peter Evers, Elke Gosch, Werner Hammerich, Marianne Harms, Hillene Hellmers, Helga Heuer, Waltraud Imbach, Inge Kersebaum, Hella Körper, Dieter Kullak, Helga Liebschner, Theo Lorenzen, Jutta Müller, Ingrid Neuhaus, Traudel Passburg, Edda Purwin, Angela Quast, Erwin Sänger, Hermann Scheel, Gottfried Simon, Monika Ziemer
Claus Grimm, born on 17.8.1941 in Hamburg, killed on 1.5.1942 in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home” (Kinderfachabteilung)
Asklepios Clinic North Ochsenzoll,
Henny-Schütz-Allee, memorial house 25, entrance Langenhorner Chaussee 560
Claus Grimm was born in Hamburg on August 17, 1941. He was baptized Roman Catholic. His mother Margarethe Elisabeth Grimm was unmarried and worked as a commercial clerk. In Claus's medical file, she is described in the "Prehistory” as "with apparently rachitic dwarfism” and her family members as "many strange people who deal with dream interpretation and sidereal [star-related] pendulums. No nervous or mental illnesses”. The child's father is said to have worked as a chauffeur. The mother had many complaints during the pregnancy, often accompanied by fainting spells. After a two-week transfer period, labor was stimulated with quinine and injections, and the birth had to take place by caesarean section at the Eppendorf Women's Clinic due to the congenital hydrocephalus.
After the birth, Claus was transferred from the Eppendorf Women's Clinic to the St. Georg General Hospital, Baustraße department, and then to the children's home at Winterhuder Weg 11.
At the age of seven months, Claus was admitted to the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn” on April 1, 1942 with a certificate from the municipal administration and a diagnosis of "hydrocephalus” (hydrocephalus, a pathological enlargement of the cerebrospinal fluid-filled fluid spaces of the brain [cerebral ventricles]). In a letter dated April 9, 1942, his mother was ordered to see Dr. Friedrich Knigge in House 10 the next day between 11 a.m. and 12 noon "for consultation”. In the case history, he noted the following about Claus: "[...] was not nourished, his head grew 2 cm per month. [...] It has not yet suffered any childhood illnesses. The mother has hardly paid any attention to the child's development. She agrees to treatment.”
Knigge's last records read: "27.IV.42. Continues to decline physically 1.V.42. Exitus letalis [fatal outcome] [diagnosis:] Hydrocephalus internus. Nutritional disorder. Epileptiform seizures. Dr. Knigge”
Claus lived in the "children's ward” for only one month. He died there on May 1, 1942 at 7:00 a.m. in House M 10. In the death certificate, the assistant physician Dr. Anneliese Steinbömer certified "hydrocephalus, pneumonia” as the cause of death.
Claus Grimm was presumably killed by Friedrich Knigge with a syringe and an overdose of Luminal, a sleeping pill, in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”.
Knigge killed with Luminal injections, a sleeping pill. Fever and pneumonia were the result; the children suffered a slow and agonizing death. In most death certificates, as with Claus, the words "bronchopneumonia” or "pneumonia” refer to this killing.
Claus was 8 months and 2 weeks old.
Eight days later, he was buried by the Häussler funeral home on May 9, 1942 at 1:30 p.m. at Ohlsdorf Cemetery, where his mother had ordered "decorations”, grave location Bf 66, row 60, no. 45. His grave is no longer preserved.
After the war, Knigge commented on the accusations of murder and euthanasia in the "children's ward” at Langenhorn Hospital. In a letter dated June 13, 1945 to the criminal investigation department via Prof. Rudolf Degkwitz, senior official of the Hamburg health authorities, he only admitted to euthanasia in ten to eleven "mentally ill and deformed” children, which he considered to be justified by the order of the "Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Suffering”. He did not mention Claus Grimm's name.
Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr
Quellen: StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64217 u. 380/1942 Claus Grimm; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9933 u. 380/1942 Claus Grimm; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1942 Sta 1b Nr. 380 Claus Grimm; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01 Nr. 6 Akte 29661; Archiv Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Beerdigungsregister 1942 Nr. 3857; Standesamt Hamburg 1, Geburtsregister, Nr. 1432/1941 Claus Grimm.