Before the outbreak of World War II, the Nazis launched the T4 program in the country. Children and adults were killed in hospitals and nursing homes. Rambler learned more about this.
It all started with the Knauer case, when the families turned to Adolf Hitler himself for permission to euthanize. After the doctors concluded that the child was doomed to suffer, the boy was put to death with a “fatal injection”. Shortly thereafter, the physician Karl Brandt and the head of the private office, Philip Bowler, received a secret order “to deal with matters similar to the case of the younger Knauer.”
The program was carried out without any legislative justification and was top secret. Some of Hitler's associates only talked about her after an urgent completion in 1941. The participants in the process justified themselves by the impossibility of disobeying the order.
First, they destroyed patients in children's psychiatric hospitals up to 16 years old, and later infants with congenital deformities. Almost immediately, the register was expanded to include children under four years of age. German historians estimate that about 5,000 people died during the “child euthanasia” program. Perhaps the figure is higher.
However, the bloody idea appeared in the head of more than one Adolf Hitler. German doctors have also speculated about massive sweeps. 10 years before the campaign began, professor of psychiatry at the University of Freiburg, Alfred Hohe, wrote:
“The principle justifying murder must be applied to the terminally ill … The right to life must be earned and justified, and not recognized as a dogmatic postulate.”
At that time, euthanasia was spoken of as a mercy and a boon for the mentally ill. There was one more explanation for radical measures – an economic one. Hitler came to power in 1933 at the time of the crisis, so various campaigns to improve the welfare of the Germans (cheapening of medicine through herbal treatments, promotion of physical activity, inexpensive travel services, bank savings program) were successful. And the maintenance of hospitals was not included in the state plan.
In October 1939, Hitler wrote another letter, which concerned adults with disabilities. Namely, patients in psychiatric clinics and nursing homes. The list of unworthy people included people with schizophrenia, epilepsy, dementia, encephalitis and other diseases. Stateless people were also on the list.
The psychiatrists who chose people for destruction did not see the patients personally and were guided only by the data from the questionnaires collected from all over the country. At the same time, they began to use gas chambers under the guise of showers and exit chambers. It is believed that 70,000 people died as part of the T4 program.
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