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Waltraud Imbach * 1940

Langenhorner Chaussee 560 (Hamburg-Nord, Langenhorn)

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

WALTRAUD IMBACH
GEB. 27.9.1940
ERMORDET 13.11.1942

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

Waltraud Imbach, born on 27.9.1940 in Hamburg, killed on 13.11.1942 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

Waltraud Imbach was born in Hamburg on September 27, 1940. She was the fifth child of Maria Anna, née Vollmann, and the telegraph worker Ferdinand Wilhelm Imbach. According to the surviving story, her mother suffered a great fright in the seventh month of pregnancy due to a nearby bombing and cried for three days as a result. The newborn Waltraud was breastfed for six weeks. She initially stayed with her parents and siblings in Henriettenstraße and was baptized an Evangelical Lutheran.

As she was not developing, her doctor prescribed lime and high-altitude sun after six months. However, this was not successful. From February 5, 1941 to March 13, 1941, Waltraud was admitted to the Eppendorf Children's Hospital with the clinical diagnosis of "parantral dyspepsia” (correctly: parenteral indigestion due to an infection) "and rickets”. The enclosed description at the time of her discharge read: "Age-appropriately developed, always friendly, pale child, [...] with a nutritional disorder following an infection. [...] The condition is never threatening. Discharged prematurely at the mother's urgent request against 'reversal' [discharge against medical advice].”

When Waltraud was brought to the Eppendorf University Children's Hospital again six months later on October 17, 1941, the assessment was different and the diagnosis was "idiocy” and "One-year-old, completely idiotic child, whose static functions are very backward. The child was to be transferred to Alsterdorf, but was initially discharged home because it would not be possible to place her there for months due to a lack of space.” On the day she was discharged, October 30, 1941, Waltraud had a fever of 38.2 degrees and "angina catarrhalis” (tonsillitis).

After just two and a half months, Waltraud had to return to hospital because she had had a severe cough, no appetite and a fever of 38.5 degrees for eight days. However, when she was admitted to the Altona hospital on January 16, 1942, her nutritional and physical condition was assessed as good. Contrary to the ongoing application from the Eppendorf University Hospital for placement in the "Alsterdorfer Anstalten”, she was admitted to the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn” after her discharge.

At the age of one and a half, she was admitted to the "children's ward” on April 25, 1942 with a certificate from Dr. Triep and a diagnosis of "imbecility” (middle-grade feeblemindedness). The doctor treating him there, Dr. Knigge, recorded: "Is generally indifferent and dull, prefers to be left alone. Has no attachment to her mother, knows no one around her, starts screaming immediately if anyone tries to engage with her. Does not grasp and does not fixate. Has not yet spoken, cannot yet sit up. [...] Ref. still needs to speak to her husband about possible treatment.”

Five days later, on April 30, 1942, Knigge added: "Both parents present are in agreement with the treatment, which promises success.” In the last days of Waltraud's life, he recorded: "5.XI.42 Has severe diarrhea and high fever again. Has become very physically run down.
15.XI.42 Exitus letalis [fatal outcome] under the symptoms of bronchopneumonia [...] Diagnosis: organic brain process with epileptiform seizures. Idiocy”

Waltraud Imbach was killed in the ‘children's ward of the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home’. She died there at 11 p.m. on November 13, 1942 in House 10.

In the death certificate, Knigge noted "organic brain process, idiocy, bronchopneumonia” as the cause of death. 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 in Waltraud's case, the words "bronchopneumonia” refer to this killing.

Waltraud was 2 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days old.

Six days later, her burial took place at the Ohlsdorf cemetery by the Schröder funeral home on November 19, 1942 at 1 p.m. Her parents had ordered decorations and harmonium and organ music, grave location Bo 63, row 23, no. 11. Her grave site is no longer preserved.


After the war, Knigge commented on the accusations of murder and euthanasia in the "children's ward” of the 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 Waltraud Imbach's name.

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterbefallsammelakten, 64214 u. 966/1942 Waltraud Imbach; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 9934 u. 966/1942 Waltraud Imbach; StaH, 352-5 Standesämter, Todesbescheinigungen, 1942 Sta 1b Nr. 966 Waltraud Imbach; StaH, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 2000/01 Nr. 3 Akte 29750; Standesamt Hamburg 2b, Geburtsregister, Nr. 1701/1940 Waltraud Imbach; Archiv Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Beerdigungsregister 1942 Nr. 8826.