Stolen Babies in East Germany?: A Tale of Desperate Mothers

By Heidrun Budde

Were newborns being abducted in the GDR? Did the state fake their deaths? Based on years of archival research, this book uncovers contradictions and questions that have not yet been answered, appealing to adoptive parents, especially those in Western countries, to help clarify the matter. The book uncovers much that is highly suspicious: alleged transports of infants under 1000 grams birth weight, which were neither technically nor medically possible in 1969; ominous handwritten notes on the infants' death reports, whose meaning nobody wants to explain; reports of autopsies on the bodies of babies, which cannot be found in any cemetery; close contacts between the Stasi and the neonatal unit of the Rostock University Women's Hospital - and full-time Stasi employees working unrecognised as doctors in civilian medical institutions. Was the GDR home to a top-secret medical shadow empire? If so, what were the motives for depriving the babies and parents of each other by faking the deaths of newborns? The parents and siblings of the vanished children have a right to learn the answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Dec 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9783347421592

Book preview

Insider information

Through my work as an assistant professor, I have acquired various types of contacts, including insiders who consented to give me confidential information as long as they remained anonymous. These people stated that there really had been organised child abductions executed with the help of faked deaths starting in 1969 in former East Germany.

As a lawyer, I can only use information if I can find proof for it. Therefore, I decided to concentrate on one year, 1969, and to look for proofs: after all, there had to be documents about the development of the child mortality rate from 1969 onwards in former East Germany. And indeed, my research in the German Federal Archives and the Rostock City Archive unearthed a great deal.

Unexplained infant deaths in 1969

The Federal Archives confirmed that indeed there was an unexplainable rise in the infant mortality rate in 1969, covering the entirety of former East Germany. The response of the Ministry of Health to this concerning report was to hold an investigatory conference on April 8th, 1970, in Berlin to uncover the causes.¹

This handwritten analysis of specific districts states that East Berlin, Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Potsdam, Magdeburg, Halle, Erfurt, Gera, Dresden and Leipzig show increases in premature and stillborn births.

Here are some excepts of the analysis:

"Erfurt:

The focal point is on premature mortality and mortality of prematurely born infants. Increased occurrence in the areas of Bad-Langensalza, Gotha and Erfurt city. High occurrences in both premature mortality and premature birth mortality. For premature babies, the reason usually given is ‘sudden death’.

Potsdam:

A relative increase in premature birth rate; increased mortality of prematurely born infants. No premature infant centres in the northern districts. Chances of survival reduced due to long transport routes.

Magdeburg:

Increase in premature birth rates and high mortality of prematurely born infants. 12 sudden deaths in the fourth quarter of the year.

Halle:

Large differences between the data reported by the Central Administration for Statistics and the data reported by the districts with regard to infant mortality. Focal points of high infant mortality: the districts of Quedlinburg, Hettstedt and Wittenberg.

Rostock:

Increase in premature births and the mortality of prematurely born infants. (…) Extremely high utilization of paediatric bed capacity leading to unsolved problems for patient transport. It appears that the high utilization was detrimental to the supply of the population. New structural planning required."²

As early as September 18, 1969, the problem was addressed by the Commission for the Reduction of Infant and Child Mortality at the Rostock City Council; an unusual increase in premature infant mortality for 1969 was reported. The minutes of the meeting read: The table shows that the overall high infant mortality was a direct result of the high mortality of prematurely born infants. No reason could be found for this unexplainable rise.³

The investigatory conference of the Ministry of Health in Berlin in 1970 had no explanation for the drastic increase in infant mortality, either. All that remains are a few letters of intent designed to improve medical care.

The insider information was fully confirmed by this initial research, confirming me in my plans to conduct further investigations. Next, the question arose, In the case of these infant deaths, how were the bureaucratic procedures executed? It was clear that further exhaustive research into the saved files needed to be carried out. If these procedures were manipulated, then there would probably be errors and contradictions which could help uncover the fraud. It cannot be stressed enough that access to these documents, which are openly available for investigative research today, had been strictly forbidden in the not so distant past.

Further research

The GDR was a typical German bureaucracy. In case of an infant death, extreme precision was used in recording; various documents were issued. If the death occurred in a hospital, the procedure was as follows: In the case of death of an infant up to one year old, a written report, in accordance with Section 28 (4) of the Civil Status Act had to be submitted to the local registry office; the death report and a birth certificate of the child had to be available before the register entry in the death book. A legally correct authentication had to be carried out by the office of the registry; in order to do this, all relevant information had to be checked.⁴

Furthermore, mandatory checks and document requests had to be processed by the local Commissions for Reduction of Infant and Child Mortality at the parents’ place of residence by the Mother and Child Unit. The test results determined if the death was avoidable or unavoidable.

Accordingly, to decide if infant deaths were ever faked, these documents had to be meticulously examined and evaluated for clues.

To accomplish this, I categorised infant deaths according to different age groups; then, all available documents had to be combed over carefully. I began by checking the death records of the City of Rostock in 1969, 1970, 1975, and 1979, comparing all registered infant deaths to the remaining, written reports of the death of an infant up to one year old in accordance with Section 28 (4) of the Civil Status Act. I would have also analysed the death and birth certificates from the registry office, but unfortunately, these were no longer present at the city of Rostock archive.⁵

Still, comparison was possible. To clearly define a field of research, I first dealt with the deaths concerning the Rostock University Hospital. In 1969, the increase in infant mortality was connected to premature births: it was thus to be clarified when a child was classified as premature at the time.

Life expectancy of premature infants in 1969

In 1969, the medical community made a distinction between children born alive, stillborn infants and aborted foetuses. In a 1970 publication, the lecturer and senior doctor at the Institute for Hygiene at the University of Rostock, Dr. med. Habil. Siegfried Akkermann, stated: An infant in whom lung respiration and heartbeat had set in after complete separation from the womb is considered to be born alive. An infant qualifies as stillborn if, after complete separation from the mother’s womb, lung respiration and/or heartbeat have not set in, and its length is at least 35 cm. Aborted foetuses are defined as products of conception separated from the womb, which are not born alive and have a length of less than 35 cm.⁶

In 1969, the medical consensus was that premature babies with a very low weight had no chance of survival. In 1992, Professor Diedrich Berg, a member of the board of the German Society for Gynaecology and Obstetrics, said: In the 1960s, there was no chance for babies weighing less than 1000 grams – neither in the East nor in the West.⁷And the director of the Erfurt Gynaecological Hospital, Professor Erich Wagner, emphasised that small premature babies had no chance of survival until the 1970s because modern ventilators were lacking, as were oxygen monitoring devices.⁸

To sum up: premature babies had little chance of survival in the 60s. The next question is: could premature babies be transported during that time?

Transport technology of the 60s

The GDR economy was determined by constant shortages. Patient transport in the 1960s was no exception. On 19.1.1966, Mr E. from Rostock wrote this petition to the city’s Health Department:

"On Friday, 7.1.1966, my wife suddenly got severe pains in her abdomen and collapsed on the stairs at home. My daughter-in-law, who is a nurse, only managed to get an ambulance to come and take my wife to the hospital after some quite energetic arguments. The fast, one might say almost reckless, ride in the unheated, poorly sprung ambulance car caused my wife such pain that my daughter-in-law, who had been riding along, had to ask the driver to slow down.

The admission to the surgical hospital lasted from 10.30 in the morning until 14.00. This seems like a very long time for a seriously ill person.

That same evening, my wife was transferred from this hospital to a gynaecological one – again in an unheated, poorly sprung car. After a thorough examination there, it was determined that an operation was necessary, and on 13 January, my wife was transferred to the University Medical Hospital. Here she was to be prepared for the operation (she has heart and circulatory problems).

This last transfer took place as follows: My wife was brought into the car in her nightgown and bathrobe on a stretcher. Then she waited for more patients to join her to be transported collectively. Finally, another journey in an unheated, badly sprung car began. It went through the whole city, with individual patients dropped off here and there. My seriously ill wife was the last to be taken to the hospital. She was greatly suffering from cold by the time she arrived. Presently, in addition to the pain in her abdomen, my wife also has a severe cough, which troubles her not a little.

I am now asking: is this what concern for human beings looks like? Must it be that old, worn-out cars are still being used today to transport seriously ill people?

Should it not be possible, if not all transport cars can be renewed at once, at least to install a heating system? And to improve the suspension of the cars so that the transport does not cause additional pain to the sick?

Considering the events described above, I am sure these conditions are not an isolated phenomenon. I would not believe myself that such a thing is possible if someone else told me so. I believe that I am acting in the interest of many sick people when I make the demand that this whole complex be thoroughly investigated and remedial action taken as quickly as possible."⁹

This entry shows the conditions at that time very clearly. All that was available were unheated cars with poor suspension. The facilities would wait years for new, modern ambulances. Even in 1979, the director of the Rostock Children’s Hospital, Professor Dr. Jürgen Külz, said in an interview for the Ostsee-Zeitung: Immediate solutions now need to be found for optimising the transport of prematurely born infants and sick newborns from the maternity hospitals of the entire catchment area to our hospital and for gradually improving the special paediatric care in the delivery room.¹⁰

Premature babies with a birth weight of less than 1500 grams could only