Bullenhuser damm

In November 1944, twenty children from five to twelve years of different nationalities were transported to the Neuengamme concentration camp outside Hamburg. These were to be used in medical experiments by SS doctor Kurt Heissmeyer. Among other things, he injected tuberculosis bacteria to investigate the body’s natural protection against this disease. The condition of the children and the development of the disease were carefully documented. Unsurprisingly, the physical health of the children deteriorated as no treatment was given as this had counteracted the purpose of the experiment. At the end of the war, Heissmeyer and SS-Obersturmführer Arnold Strippel decided to cover up the experiments by transporting the children to Bullenhuser damm. This was a satellite camp to Neuengamme and was located in a former school in Hamburg. On April 20, the children were taken down to the basement of Bullenhuser damm where the SS told them that they would be vaccinated against typhoid, in other words, they had nothing to be afraid of. But instead of vaccination, they were drugged with morphine and became unconscious, then hung one by one in the hooks that hung on the wall. Kurt Heissmeyer was sentenced in the sixties to life imprisonment and Arnold Strippel was sentenced to 21 life sentences (one for every murder he committed) but was later released.