• Memorial to the Victims of National Socialist Patient Killings in Meseritz-Obrawalde
Between 1942 and 1945, the hospital in Meseritz-Obrawalde – originally established in 1904 – was one of the killing centres in the National Socialist »euthanasia« campaign. Here, physicians and medical staff systematically murdered thousands of mentally ill patients.
Between the two world wars, Meseritz (today: Międzyrzecz) was part of the province of Posen-West Prussia; between October 1938 and the end of the war, it was part of the province of Brandenburg. The hospital, however, was administered by the provincial association of Pomerania. Today, the city lies in west Poland, close to the German border.
Image: Meseritz-Obrawalde, undated, Entrance to the hospital as depicted on a postcard, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Meseritz-Obrawalde, undated, Entrance to the hospital as depicted on a postcard, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach

Image: Międzyrzecz, undated, The psychiatric hospital today, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
Międzyrzecz, undated, The psychiatric hospital today, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
Under the National Socialist regime the term »euthanasia« stood for the murder of thousands of mentally and physically handicapped people. The murder was planned and organised by a central office which directly reported to Adolf Hitler. The office was code named »T4« in reference to its postal address in Berlin's Tiergartenstraße. At first, toddlers up to the age of three fell victim to »euthanasia«, later older children and youths were affected. Beginning 1940, handicapped adults and ill people were included in the scheme under the new code »Action T4«.
From the summer of 1939 on, the hospital in Meseritz only treated mentally ill patients, all other wards were shut down. When the Wehrmacht invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, about 2,300 patients from hospitals in Pomerania, including Meseritz, were deported to the occupied Polish territories and murdered there between October 1939 and January 1940. Some of the patients were transferred to other hospitals, including Meseritz. Between the beginning of 1940 and autumn 1941 – the official duration of »Aktion T4« – at least 166 patients were transferred from Meseritz to the killing centres in the German Reich. Meseritz itself only became a killing centre after »Aktion T4« had officially come to an end. The murders began with the arrival of the new »economic director« Walter Grabowski in November 1941. Grabowski had previously already participated in the murders in occupied Poland. Between 1942 and 1945, doctors and nurses killed patients by administering fatal amounts of pain killers. Some of the patients also succumbed to malnutrition and exhaustion due to the labour they were forced to carry out. Those not deemed capable of working were murdered within a few days and buried in mass graves on the hospital cemetery or incinerated in a crematory in Frankfurt (Oder).
Image: Meseritz-Obrawalde, undated, Entrance to the hospital as depicted on a postcard, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Meseritz-Obrawalde, undated, Entrance to the hospital as depicted on a postcard, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach

Image: Międzyrzecz, undated, The psychiatric hospital today, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
Międzyrzecz, undated, The psychiatric hospital today, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
The exact number of victims cannot be determined due to a lack of documentation and poorly kept register of deaths. Most of the victims were mentally ill patients from various institutions in the German Reich. Polish prisoners of war and Russian forced labourers were also murdered here. In 1967, the prosecution in the Hamburg district court had a report compiled based on the preserved documentation – according to this, 6,991 patients were murdered at the Meseritz-Obrawalde psychiatric hospital. According to members of the medical staff involved in the killings, about 18,000 patients may have been murdered.
Image: Międzyrzecz, 2010, Commemorative ceremony at the cemetery, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Międzyrzecz, 2010, Commemorative ceremony at the cemetery, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach

Image: Międzyrzecz, undated, Monument on the hospital premises, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
Międzyrzecz, undated, Monument on the hospital premises, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach, Dariusz Nowak
On January 29, 1945, the Red Army took Meseritz. Several commissions investigated the hospital premises. The building eventually came under Polish administration in July 1945. Today, the premises once again house a psychiatric clinic. In 1966, a monument to the victims of the patient killings between 1942 and 1945 was dedicated on the hospital premises. The administration building holds a small exhibition, set up in 1973, on the crimes committed here. A further memorial to the murdered patients is located next to a mass grave on the cemetery neighbouring the hospital premises.
Image: Międzyrzecz, 2010, Scouts during a commemorative ceremony on the hospital premises, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Międzyrzecz, 2010, Scouts during a commemorative ceremony on the hospital premises, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach

Image: Międzyrzecz, 2010, Scouts during a commemorative ceremony on the cemetery, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Międzyrzecz, 2010, Scouts during a commemorative ceremony on the cemetery, Samodzielny Publiczny Szpital Dla Nerwowo i Psychicznie Chorych w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Name
Pomnik dla ofiar hitlerowskiej służby sanitarnej w Międzyrzeczu-Obrzycach
Address
ul. Poznańska 109
66-300 Międzyrzecz
Phone
+48 (095) 742 8700
Fax
+48 (095) 742 8701
Web
http://www.psychiatria.miedzyrzecz.pl
E-Mail
sekretariat@obrzyce.eu
Open
The cemetery is accessible at all times. The exhibition at the clinic can be visited only by appointment.