“Can you hear them?” a faint voice seems to echo as you approach the Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik. It’s a whisper from the past. This is a place where the echoes of suffering and remembrance intertwine.
The Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik is located on the grounds of the Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik in Berlin-Reinickendorf. It is not just a cemetery. It is a memorial. It reminds us of a dark chapter in history.
Since 2014, the Freundeskreis Gedenkort Alter Anstaltsfriedhof has been working to raise awareness about the cemetery. The group wants to create a dignified memorial site. It would honor the thousands of patients of the Wittenauer Heilstätten. These patients died between 1933 and 1945. They were victims of neglect and hunger. They were victims of the Nazi “euthanasia” crimes. Some were murdered with medicinal poisons. They were buried in Reihengräbern or row graves.
In January 2022, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the restored cemetery wall. About 80 people attended. Representatives from the Freundeskreis spoke. Alexander Ewers and Marion Gardei also spoke. The KG Waidmannslust and Lübars sang. A trumpet player and the choir of Toralf Benz performed.
The Freundeskreis Alter Anstaltsfriedhof commemorates individual buried persons with memorial plaques on the former cemetery grounds.
Not far from the Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik stands a former sub-department of the Wittenauer Heilstätten. It was called the “Städtische Nervenklinik für Kinder” or Wiesengrund. This translates to the Municipal Psychiatric Clinic for Children. Deceptively named, this “children’s ward” conducted genetic studies and experiments on children between 1942 and 1945. These children were deemed “unworthy of life”. At least 81 of the 175 children died. The location of their bodies remains largely unknown. Some may have found their final resting place in the Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik.
More than 4,600 patients died in and through the Wittenauer Heilstätten during the Nazi era. Many were deliberately killed during the Nazi euthanasia program. It is believed that a large proportion of these people were buried in the Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik. The Freundeskreis Gedenkort Alter Anstaltsfriedhof has been working to make the burial site and its history known since 2014.
In the summer, a youth camp took place here. The exhibition “totgeschwiegen” in House 10 shows the history of the psychiatric clinic and the cemetery. It is located at Oranienburger Straße 285. It is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is also usually open on Sunday afternoons.
The Friedhof der Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik serves as a stark reminder. It reminds us of the atrocities committed during the Nazi regime. It also underscores the importance of remembering these dark times. It encourages reflection. It promotes a commitment to preventing such horrors from ever happening again. As you leave this place, carry with you the weight of its history. Remember the voices that were once silenced.