Hildegard Wesse

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Hildegard Maria Elisabeth Wesse , born Irmen (* 28. March 1911 in Strotzbüsch ; † 27. May 1997 in Braunschweig ) was a German doctor who to as eugenics titled Euthanasia Crimes of the Nazis was involved. She is responsible for at least thirty deaths.

Childhood and studies

Hildegard Irmens patriarchal father Matthias Irmen, a devout Catholic, was a teacher at the local elementary school. She had two younger brothers. Her mother died on June 12, 1917 at the age of 27 - Hildegard was only six years old. Her father remarried his new wife Franziska on March 25, 1919. Despite the modest salaries of the teachers, all children were given the opportunity to attend secondary school. At the age of 14 Hildegard came to a boarding school in Hersel . When her father got a job in Düsseldorf , she moved to Düsseldorf-Garath with him in 1927. In 1932 she graduated from the St. Angela School in Düsseldorf. In 1934 she completed the Physikum in Cologne , then moved to the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf , where she passed the state examination on September 1, 1937. Her dissertation with the title The bronchial carcinoma and industrial damage , which was conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Huebschmann delivered it on October 21, 1937. This made her a Dr. med. PhD . The content of the work was the question of whether car exhaust fumes can cause lung cancer .

Worked in the euthanasia crimes

On December 15, 1938, Irmen was employed as a trainee doctor at the Andernach Sanatorium. Here she met her future husband Hermann Wesse , who came to Andernach on April 22, 1940 . Their relationship caused a stir, as he was already engaged to another woman at this point. It is very likely that she already learned about the transports from the Bedburg-Hau asylum here, because Hermann Wesse had been transferred from there to Andernach because Bedburg-Hau was almost dissolved and space was needed for a hospital there.

On July 18, 1941, she was transferred to the Waldniel Institution, which was assigned as a branch of the Johannistal Institution, where, after appropriate training, she took over the management of the men's department. The doctor Elisabeth Kalt came to Andernach from Johannistal to replace her. This was a common rotation. There she met the doctor Georg Renno , who headed the children's department established in October 1941 , and became friends with him. At that time, Renno had already worked as deputy head of the Hartheim killing center in the killing of 18,000 people. Wesse visited Irmen here regularly on the weekends. They were engaged in the meantime. The opportunity for both of them to lead a life together again arose in December 1941, shortly before their wedding. Renno proposed Hermann Wesse as successor to the Reich Committee with regard to the management of the Waldniel children's department . Wesse took over the management of the children's department .

In the course of the dissolution of the Waldniel children's department, Hildegard Wesse completed a course from May to August 1943 at the children's hospital of the University of Leipzig with Werner Catel , where her husband was also employed. She then worked at the Uchtspringe State Hospital. In Uchtspringe she took over the management of the women's department and her husband the children's department. Hermann Wesse was drafted into the Wehrmacht on December 1, 1943 . The director of the Uchtspringe facility, Dr. Beese, then made her head of the children's department. According to her own account, she resisted it, but took over when Beese threatened to take over the management herself. Allegedly she wanted to prevent worse. In the later trial she herself stated that she had "put to sleep" at least 60 children.

“The children became unconscious after a very short time and usually died after a day or two, as they were generally very weak physically. For individual children, whose physical condition was even better, she prescribed a morphine injection, which was also given by the nurse, in some cases she even carried out the injections herself (...) the defendant had no remorse that the parents had a wrong one The cause of death was communicated because she thought it was right that their feelings were spared. "

- Testimony of Hildegard Wesse from July 24, 1952

She was recognized for her zeal in “treating patients” and received a special bonus. At the end of 1944, euthanasia in Uchtspringe was extended to include adult patients. Wesse was responsible for the women's department. She later admitted responsibility for the deaths of 30 women. At this point in time, her husband had already been working at the Idsteiner Kalmenhof for about six months , for his part also with comparable crimes.

After the end of the Second World War

On July 10, 1945, the Red Army marched into Uchtspringe. At this point, Wesse was already back in Düsseldorf, where she gave birth to her second child in August. She lived here with her husband until Hermann was arrested on September 8, 1946. She herself was arrested on November 9, 1946 and taken to the Düsseldorf police prison. On December 12th of the same year she was taken to the Derendorf Pretrial Detention Center. She was to be delivered to Magdeburg in the Soviet occupation zone on June 14, 1947 . However, the British military government decided this extradition request was negative. Up until this decision she was imprisoned in Helmstedt for four and a half months , but was then taken to the Braunschweig remand prison . She was released from prison on August 19, 1948.

From 1953 at the latest, she practiced again as a doctor in Braunschweig in a practice at Richterstraße 18 . While her husband remained in prison, she was acquitted on December 2, 1953 by the Göttingen Regional Court for the killing of disabled children, but sentenced to two years suspended prison sentence for the manslaughter of 30 women . Meanwhile, the relationship between the two spouses deteriorated. This is probably related to the fact that from this point on Hildegard was striving for a future free from past encumbrances, imprisonment or legal proceedings. After two requests for clemency failed , all contact between the couple was broken. On June 27, 1956, the marriage of the Wesses, from which two children came, was divorced by the Marburg -Lahn district court .

In 1989, investigations against Wesse were initiated again by the Dortmund public prosecutor's office, but these were discontinued in 1993. She died on May 27, 1997. Unlike her husband, she has probably never regretted what she did.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Kinast Die Anstaltsärzte In: "The child is not capable of training ..." Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943 Ed .: Landschaftsverband Rheinland, SH-Verlag, 2010, p. 103
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 671
  3. ↑ Bundesarchiv Zentralstelle Ludwigsburg B 162, 18119, Bl. No. 247-251 after Andreas Kinast Die Anstaltsärzte In: “The child is not capable of training…” Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943 Ed .: Landschaftsverband Rheinland, SH-Verlag, 2010 , P. 88
  4. ↑ Andreas Kinast Die Anstaltsärzte In: “The child is not capable of training…” Euthanasia in the Waldniel children's department 1941–1943 Ed .: Landschaftsverband Rheinland, SH-Verlag, 2010, p. 98
personal data
SURNAME Wesse, Hildegard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wesse, Hildegard Maria Elisabeth (full name); Wesse, Hilde (nickname); Irmen, Hildegard (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Strotzbüsch
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1997
Place of death Braunschweig