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Helga Heuer * 1938

Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

ERMORDET IN DER
"KINDERFACHABTEILUNG"
DER HEIL- UND PFLEGEANSTALT
LANGENHORN

HELGA HEUER
GEB. 20.1.1938
ERMORDET 19.1.1942

further stumbling stones in Langenhorner Chaussee 560:
Gerda Behrmann, Uwe Diekwisch, Peter Evers, Elke Gosch, Claus Grimm, Werner Hammerich, Marianne Harms, Hillene Hellmers, 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

Helga Heuer, born on 20.1.1938 in Rostock, killed on 19.1.1942 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

Helga Heuer was born in Rostock on January 20, 1938, prematurely at six months and 21 days, weighing three pounds and not breastfed. She was the daughter of Gertrud, née Berwardt, and the showman/mechanic at Heinkelwerke, Friedrich Martin Karl Arnold Heuer. Helga was baptized a Protestant and initially lived with her parents in Seestadt, Rostock, Waldemarstraße 38.

At the age of one, Helga became paralyzed and mentally retarded. This was followed by several stays in hospital. Because of her conspicuous developmental delay - she was not yet able to sit - her foster mother took her to the Eppendorf Children's Hospital in Hamburg on April 20, 1940, when she was two years old. Helga stayed there for almost six weeks until June 5, 1940, when she was diagnosed with "mental and physical underdevelopment (after birth trauma)”. After a bout of measles and a restless period during a bout of bronchitis, which she survived well, it was noted on discharge: "She is not sitting up yet. The child is calm and well-behaved”.
After a stay at the Altona Children's Hospital, Treskowallee, Helga was treated for eczema by Dr. Wilhelm Bayer at the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital from January 17 to February 18, 1941. The ointment treatment was successful, as recorded in the discharge bill: "Skin completely smooth and irritation-free, general condition good”.

Shortly before her fourth birthday on December 2, 1941, Helga was admitted to the "Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home” with a certificate from the Rostock Health Department and a diagnosis of "idiocy”. At the time, her mother was six months pregnant with another child.

The attending physician Friedrich Knigge documented his psychological findings in Helga's medical records: "Gentle and friendly in nature. Rarely speaks spontaneously, but understands everything and has good contact with her surroundings, enjoys conversation, is likely to lose her train of thought and usually quickly forgets a wish she has expressed. Usually lies in bed quite aphatic. Always seems to have to think about whether she will give answers. Makes a mentally retarded impression, especially in view of the lack of drive, even if there is no higher degree of insanity.”

Knigge did not mention any support measures, but recorded the following after seven weeks' stay on January 19, 1942: "Had vomiting and headaches. Temperature 39 degrees. Lymphadenitic swelling on the right side of the neck. Was transferred to the diabetic ward because of suspected diarrhea (smear was taken the day before yesterday). Died there. Diagnosis: Cerebral palsy (Little) premature birth”.

Helga Heuer was presumably killed by Knigge in the "children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home”, probably by Luminal injections, a sleeping pill. Fever and pneumonia were the result; the children suffered a slow and agonizing death. In most death certificates, the words "bronchopneumonia” indicate that the children were killed.

The indication "bronchopneumonia” as the cause of death is missing here. However, it can be assumed that the symptoms of vomiting and headache with fever indicate the administration. Whether the transfer to the diphtheria ward was a cover-up cannot be proven, but it can be assumed. Helga died there at 11:15 pm on January 19, 1942, 45 minutes before her 4th birthday. In the protocol and the death certificate, Knigge gave "cerebral palsy, diphtheria” as the cause of death.

Helga was 3 years and 364 days old.

It can be assumed that the parents did not give their consent when Helga's body was released for scientific research.
Seven days later, on January 26, 1942, the burial took place in her hometown at the New Rostock Cemetery; it was a burial in the ground, grave location field Pk, row 1, no. 6.

On February 11, 1942, Friedrich Knigge received a letter of thanks from Dr. Jacob from the "Psychiatric and Nervous Clinic of the Hanseatic University”: "Thank you again for the kind transfer of the brain. However, I only received the one case. As your dissection nurse informed Mr. Moebert, the other two announced cases have not been dissected. [...] With most sincere greetings and awaiting further brains! Your Dr. Jacob”.

On September 8, 1942, Helga's body was laid out again and cremated in the crematorium there. Three days later, the urn was buried in the family burial plot, Field Me, grave no. 48, to the right of the stone. This grave was returned to the cemetery at the beginning of 1971 and was reassigned in April 1971. It still exists there today. Helga's name is not preserved on any gravestone.

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64217 u. 57/1942 Helga Heuer; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9933 u. 57/1942 Helga Heuer; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1942 Sta 1b Nr. 57 Helga Heuer; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01 Nr. 31 Akte 29223; Standesamt Rostock, Geburtsregister, Nr. 250/1938 Helga Heuer; Grabregister Rostock, Erdregister 1942 Nr. 24334, Grablage Feld PK, Reihe 1, Nr. 6, Krematorium EÄ-Nr. 3007 v. 8.9.1942, Urnen-R.-Nr. 25290, Auskünfte Kerstin Kinder und Caroline Troschke, Friedhofsverwaltung Rostock vom 8.7.2020.