T4 EUTHANASIA PROGRAMJulian HardyUWRT 1103

“Life Unworthy of Life”

“THIS PROGRAM INVOLVED THE SYSTEMATIC AND SECRET EXECUTION OF THE AGED, INSANE, INCURABLY ILL, OR DEFORMED CHILDREN AND OTHER PERSONS BY GAS, LETHAL INJECTIONS, AND DIVERSE OTHER MEANS IN NURSING HOMES, HOSPITALS, AND ASYLUMS”-Nuremburg Medical Case

CHILDREN EUTHANASIA

THE DECREE Spring/Summer of 1939: Group of planners began to organize secret

killings of disabled children. Group was lead by Phillip Bouhler, Director of Hitler’s private chancellery,

and Karl Brandt who was Hitler’s attending physician. August 18th 1939: The Reich Ministry of the Interior put out a decree

requiring all physicians, nurses, and midwives to report newborn infants and children under the age of three who showed signs of mental or physical disability.

WHAT COUNTED AS A DISABILITY? Idiocy(especially blindness and deafness) Microcephaly(abnormally small head size) Severe or Progressive Hydrocephalus(water on the brain) All deformities(especially missing limbs) Paralysis

HOW IT WORKEDGerman doctors and midwives had to report all children in their care who had been born with Down’s syndrome, blindness, paralysis, deafness, and other physical and neurological disorders.

These reports were then reviewed by a panel of 3 “medical professionals” who determined if the children lived or died

Based on this decision, the children were transferred to institutions(A.K.A. killing wards)

KILLING WARDS

Hartheim Castle, near Linz (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Andras Tsagatakis

The Hadamar Institution( United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Kaufbeuren Euthanasia Center. Holocaust Research Team. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/>.

METHODS OF DEATH Pills Injections (sometimes directly in heart) Starvation Froze to Death

DEATH DOCTORS The Reich Committee selected young German physicians to kill the

children. The young doctors did not see anything wrong with killing the children. “Eliminating deformed children and mental patients was not so much a

phobic reaction to their presence, but the result of a culture of belief that genetic deformities were a burden on the nation”.

DEATH DOCTORSExperiments

Sold Organs

“Authorization”

CHILDREN PROGRAM FACTS Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 5,000 to 25,000 children were killed

throughout Germany, Austria, Poland , and other occupied territories. Killed children up to 17 years of age Many of the doctors were not charged or prosecuted for the crimes

committed

ADULT EUTHANASIA

HITLER’S PLAN Hitler decides to extend his Euthanasia program to disabled adults

September 1st 1939: Hitler signs secret authorization to protect physicians, medical staff, and administrators from prosecution.

WHEN DID WORLD WAR 2 START?

SEPTEMBER 1ST 1939

HMMMM?

YES, THE START OF WW2 WAS A COVER UP FOR THE EUTHANASIA PROGRAM SO IT CAN BE SEEN AS A “WARTIME MEASURE”

T4The Euthanasia campaign was also known as “T4”. This name is shortened for Tiergartenstrasse 4, which was the coordinating office for the program in Berlin(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Landesarchiv Berlin)

T4 PLANNING METHOD T4 Plans were actually developed using the same methods as the children’s

euthanasia program Surveys or questionnaires were sent to public health officials, nursing

homes, hospitals, mental intuitions, etc. Surveys asked all sorts of questions about health, but were said to be for

“statistical” purposes

STERILIZATION Nazi Party needed a way to stop the “spread” of disabilities Nazi Party creates the Law of the Prevention of Genetically Diseased

Offspring This law listed the different specifications for involuntary sterilization of

disabled people. The law was passed in July 1933 and put into effect in 1934

CONDITIONS THAT WOULD GET YOU STERILIZED Congenital Retardation Schizophrenia Manic Depression Genetic Blindness Genetic Epilepsy Deafness Severe Alcholism

NAZI PROPAGANDA

NAZI ORIGINAL THINKING

Find the Disabled Victims

Sterilize Them Kill Them

NAZI NEW THINKING

Find Disabled People

Kill Them

“More Efficient”

METHODS OF KILLING Gas Chambers Lethal Injections Starvation Drug Overdoses

HOW THE NAZIS COVERED UP THE DEATHS? Nazis would pick a common way of death like pneumonia, meningitis, or

strokes They would then send “condolence letters” to the families of the victims. From the mass piles of ashes from the victims, the Nazis would shovel a

random pile, put them in an urn, and then send them to the families

TRANSITION TO JEWS As Hitler began to blame Jews for Germany’s economic problems the vision

of the Euthanasia project began to shift The Nazi doctors began to separate “German or related blood” from the

Jewish people in the wards and institutions The Jews were then transferred to labor camps or death camps

THE END OF THE PROGRAM May 29th 1945 - 4 year old Richard Jenne was the last official victim of the

Nazi Euthanasia It is impossible to tell how many Europeans died during the Euthanasia

program

POST EUTHANASIA FACTS Between 270,000 and 400,000 adults perished in the T4 Adult Program Between 5,000 and 10,000 children died in the children's program Most physicians and SS soldiers fled the country when they found out they

could be charged for war crimes

T4 VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww800PzlJ6Y

SOURCES Björn M. Felder. ""Euthanasia," Human Experiments, and Psychiatry in Nazi-Occupied Lithuania, 1941-1944."

Holocaust and Genocide Studies 27.2 (2013): 242-275. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Kessler, Karl. “Physicians and the Nazi Euthanasia Program”. International Journal of Mental Health 36.1 (2007): 4–16. Web...

Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 1995. Print.

Evans, Suzanne E. Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust and People with Disabilities. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004. Print.

"Nazi Euthanasia Program." Nazi Euthanasia Program. Rutgers University. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/center-study-genocide-conflict-resolution-and-human-rights/nazi-euthanasia-program>.

"The Nazi Euthanasia (T4) Programme." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww800PzlJ6Y>.

"Euthanasia Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." Euthanasia Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/>.

60,000 Reichsmarks. 1938. Wikipedia. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4>.

PICTURE SOURCES The Sun. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01450/cold-kid-in-pants__1450252a.jpg>.

NBS System. Web. <https://www.nbs-system.com/wp-content/uploads/injection.jpg>.

Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--BLMCRSlH--/182f586fsk97ljpg.jpg>.

History. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust/pictures/holocaust-concentration-camps/gas-chamber-at-auschwitz>.

Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2014/06/holocaust.html>.