Memorial plaque and 'stumbling stones' at the former Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital

The plaque on the former Rothenburgsort Children’s Hospital (now the Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine) was unveiled on 9 November 1999 and commemorates the murder of more than 50 children with disabilities between 1941 and 1945. As part of the Nazis’ ‘euthanasia’ programme, an evaluation committee had categorised the children as ‘unworthy of life’ and admitted them to so-called ‘special children’s wards’, where they were killed. The Hamburg Health Administration, Hamburg public health officers and doctors from the hospital were all involved.
In addition to the plaque, 35 Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) have been laid in 2009 in memory of the murdered boys and girls as well as Dr Carl Stamm, who was the head physician at the children’s hospital until 1933. He took his own life before he could be deported.

Also 88 babys and infants of forced labourers were murdered in 1944 and 1945 in the Rothenburgsort Children's Hospital and the "Olgaheim". ("Olgaheim" was a temporary clinic in Wohldorf where some children were born). The children died because of underfeeding and neglect.

The attempts made since then by former teacher Hildegard Thevs to expand the memorial site have thus far been unsuccessful. Though a working group was established in Rothenburgsort which presented a complete design concept for a ‘euthanasia’ memorial at the former children’s hospital in 2019, and financing was in place as well, the property manager objected to the plan. It has only been possible to carry out temporary art projects such as those created by students from the Stadtteilschule Bergedorf.