Germany
Hesse
Gießen District
Lahntal
Landkreis Limburg-Weilburg
Weilmünster
Vitos Clinic Weilmünster
Germany
Hesse
Gießen District
Lahntal
Landkreis Limburg-Weilburg
Weilmünster
Vitos Clinic Weilmünster
Cycling Highlight
Recommended by 47 out of 52 cyclists
Location: Weilmünster, Landkreis Limburg-Weilburg, Lahntal, Gießen District, Hesse, Germany
This clinic has a very sad and infuriating history. During the Nazi era, the clinic became the scene of crimes committed by Nazi racial hygiene. Between 1940 and 1945, 6,000 patients from Weilmünster died in the facility itself or in the Hademar killing facility.
Due to the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring, a total of 278 people were forcibly sterilized in Weilmünster between 1934 and 1939.
In 1940, the clinic was declared an "intermediate institution" as part of the "euthanasia" campaign "T4". The Nazi era represented a criminal low point in the history of health care: Weilmünster played a central role in the state-controlled program of murdering sick people. Around 6,000 people who were housed in the Weilmünster "intermediate institution" between 1940 and 1945 were subsequently murdered in Hadamar or died in great suffering in Weilmünster itself - from malnutrition, neglect of nursing care, but also from targeted drug killings. In Weilmünster itself, over 3,000 patients died between 1940 and 1945.
After the psychiatric patients were murdered, the facility served as an army hospital. The Hesse State Welfare Association (LWH) took over the management of the facility in 1953. Today, the facility operates as a non-profit subsidiary under the umbrella of a holding company of the LWH as the Vitos Clinic.
April 22, 2024
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