Liquidation of the Psychiatric Hospital in Chełm | holocaustresearchproject's Blog

Liquidation of the

Psychiatric Hospital in Chełm

At the time of its liquidation, the psychiatric hospital in Chełm Lubelski contained 450 mental patients - both Poles and Jews (128 women, 304 men and 18 children). Most of them were from the Lublin region. From the beginning of the German occupation the hospital had suffered from very difficult conditions, since the German authorities did not supply sufficient food or medicine. In November and December 1939, doctors decided to release those patients who did not require full time care. This left the 450 patients in the hospital who were very sick.

Several days before the execution, the hospital was visited by a delegation from the SS and Gestapo. The SS officers were very arrogant toward the hospital staff and patients during this visit. On 12 January 1940 an SS unit arrived at the hospital - 30 SS-men under the command an officer named Bielisch. They took several Polish workers from a nearby brick factory and ordered them to dig two mass graves in a location about 150 m from the hospital buildings.

Simultaneously, Bielisch gathered the entire hospital staff and ordered them to immediately leave the premises. Only 12 male nurses were allowed to remain. At that time the chief nurse of the children’s’ department, Nun Cichoslawa was severely beaten by the SS-men because she did not want to leave the children who were in the hospital.

In the evening the SS-men started to expel the patients from the hospital building. The Germans ordered the male nurses to take the patients from their beds and lead them to the entrance doors. Several machine guns stood opposite the doors. One was operated personally by Bielisch. The patients were executed immediately at the threshold of the hospital buildings.

Those patients who refused to leave voluntarily were thrown out of the windows of the hospital by SS-men and shot. Some patients tried to escape and were killed in the park in front of the building. The biggest problem the SS-men had was with the children. Some of these were hidden in wardrobes by doctors and nurses before the execution; others ran into the building trying to escape. All the children were finally caught and executed.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/chelm.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009