Richard Jenne Is Murdered at Kaufbeuren-Irsee

Although Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces on May 8, 1945, the mass murder of people with disabilities continued at the Bavarian state psychiatric hospital at Kaufbeuren-Irsee for several weeks. Four-year-old Richard Jenne was the last child murdered by hospital staff on May 29, 1945, as part of the Third Reich’s child “euthanasia” program. The hospital’s director, Dr. Valentin Faltlhauser, falsely recorded that Jenne’s death was caused by typhus. It was common practice for German medical staff to falsify records and claim that murdered people with disabilities had died from diseases such as typhus or pneumonia. 

American military personnel entered the hospital in late April 1945. They found evidence of severe neglect, mistreatment, and systematic murder. Faltlhauser had overseen the killing of people with disabilities at Kaufbeuren-Irsee for several years. Other so-called euthanasia facilities adopted the method of murder by starvation that he devised. Under his direction, hospital staff murdered more than 1,300 adults and 200 children. Faltlhauser stood trial for his crimes in 1949. However, he only received a three-year-long sentence for the relatively minor charge of abetting manslaughter.