Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Leipzig-Dösen
Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Leipzig-Dösen is a former psychiatric hospital in Leipzig, now largely abandoned after becoming the Parkkrankenhaus. Its buildings and grounds evoke a difficult chapter of the city’s history during the Nazi era.
From October 1940, a Kinderfachabteilung operated here, the fourth special children’s ward in Germany and the first in Saxony. The ward grew from 35 beds to 192 by mid-1943. At least 551 children died among 827 admitted, while estimates place the total number murdered above 600. More than 600 people also underwent forced sterilisation here, and over 860 disabled people were transferred to Pirna-Sonnenstein between June 1940 and August 1941. Doctors examined the brains of murdered children in cooperation with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch.
Ruth Kirschbaum, a seven-year-old Jewish girl, was murdered here in 1941. A grave memorial for her stands at Leipzig’s Alter Israelitischer Friedhof, alongside continuing remembrance through Stolpersteine, Stolperschwellen, exhibitions and local research.
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