Archive/File: places/germany/euthanasia/euthanasia.04 Last-Modified: 1994/08/25 Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,alt.usenet.kooks From: sbradley@scic.intel.com (Seth J. Bradley) Subject: Re: The consistency of the denier mind (was re: Bacque) Message-ID: <1994Jun27.053932.5481@scic.intel.com> Sender: news@scic.intel.com Organization: Intel Corporation References: <2ul53n$ggl@mary.iia.org> <1994Jun27.005754.2851@scic.intel.com> <2ulh48$1vu@mary.iia.org> Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 05:39:32 GMT Lines: 1003 In article <2ulh48$1vu@mary.iia.org> bergf@mary.iia.org (Friedrich Berg) writes: >American and British bombing of civilians? The US Strategic Bombing >Survey Medical Branch Report has a number of photos of Germans burned alive >in some of the large communities in Germany--I dont suppose the colonel >noticed anything like that. Perhaps I should send you some. As to I'm quite sure that it did indeed happen. Has anyone in this group claimed that atrocities weren't committed against German civilians? Has anyone claimed that no German POW's were mistreated? In what war did a large-scale invasion take place without atrocities? You're the one making denials here, not us. I'd be happy to respond with Nazi propaganda material which attempted to justify the slaughter of her own citizens in the infamous T4 operation. "Life not deserving of life" was the phrase used. Many, many 1000's perished in that abomination. Not even the very poor excuse that they were enemies could be given. The only responses to T4 that I could conceive of are "its all lies" or "it was justified". Which is it, Mr. Berg? In either event, here's some info on it for you to peruse. Afterwards, you can continue to state that the Nazis were innocent, and let the Internet judge for themselves: --------- NAZI GASSINGS OF GERMANS IN GERMANY In this article I will discuss the precursor to the gassing of the Jews - namely the gassing of "incurable" persons in Germany which started in the winter of 1939-40. There are a number of reasons I think this topic is important to understand: (a) this "small-scale" gassing (only about 100,000 in one and a half years) led to the large-scale gassing of the Jews and there were many lessons learned in the earlier program which made the latter program so effective; (b) many of the Nazis involved in this "pilot" program later set up the gassing in the concentration camps; (c) this "euthanasia" program can be tied directly to Hitler himself; (d) the medical profession in Germany was thoroughly corrupted by the killings in the "euthanasia" program and thus were led to willingly participate in the extermination of the Jews; (e) the killings became common knowledge both INSIDE Germany and OUTSIDE by the end of 1941; and (f) there is a long paper trail for all of the above - and it leads all the way up to Hitler himself. To summarize: Prior to Auschwitz and the other death camps, the Nazis established a policy of direct medical killing: that is killing arranged within medical channels, by means of medical decisions, and carried out by doctors and their assistants. The Nazis called this program "euthanasia." Since, for them, this term camouflaged mass murder, I have throughout this book enclosed it within quotation marks when referring to that program. The Nazis based their justification for direct medical killing on the simple concept of "life unworthy of life" (lebensunwertes Leben). While the Nazis did not originate this concept, they carried it to its ultimate biological, racial, and "therapeutic" extreme. Of the five identifiable steps by which the Nazis carried out the principle of "life unworthy of life," coercive sterilization was the first. There followed the killing of "impaired" children in hospitals; and then the killing of "impaired" adults, mostly collected from mental hospitals, in centers especially equipped with carbon monoxide gas. This project was extended (in the same killing centers) to "impaired" inmates of concentration and extermination camps and, finally, to mass killings, mostly of Jews, in the extermination camps themselves. (From: The Nazi Doctors, by Robert Jay Lipton) As always, since there is no fact that the net-Nazis cannot misinterpret and no quote that they cannot take out of context, I have included (reasonably) COMPLETE quotes, court transcripts, and letters rather than just the appropriate sentences or paragraphs. (For the net-Nazis who have gotten this far, Arthur Butz's response to all the evidence presented here is: "Despite Brack's testimony, it is difficult to believe that euthanasia was practiced in German hospitals by a method of gassing 20 or 30 persons at a time with carbon monoxide." I hope the readers of this article will decide this question for themselves.) This "euthanasia" project was under the PERSONAL direction of Philipp Bouhler, chief of Hitler's Chancellery (i.e., his personal office), and of Dr. Karl Brandt, Hitler's personal physician. And the order for the killing came directly in a handwritten note from Hitler himself: Berlin, 1 September 1939 Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M. D., are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death. [signed] A. Hitler By the way, the above date is incorrect. The actual date was sometime in October but was backdated to the date of the invasion of Poland. He must have assumed that the excitements and perils of war would muffle possible criticism, distract attention, and make incurably handicapped lives less sacrosanct in Germany and beyond. (From: "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken" by Arno J. Mayer) First of all, what does "incurable" mean? Questionaires were distributed to psychiatric institutions as well as hospitals and homes for chronic patients and were to be filled out for the following groups of patients: INSTRUCTION SHEET To be followed in filling out the questionaires All patients are to be reported who 1. suffer from the diseases enumerated below and who within the institution can be occupied not at all or only at the most mechanical work (picking, etc.): Schizophrenia, Epilepsy (indicate if exogenous, war-related or other causes), Senile disorders, therapy-resistant paralysis and other Lues [syphilitic] diseases, Retardation from whatever cause, Encephalitis, Huntington's chorea and other terminal neurological conditions; or 2. have been continuously in institutions for at least 5 years, or 3. are in custody as criminally insane; or 4. do not possess German citizenship or are not of German or related blood, giving/designating race [b] and nationality. [b] German or related blood (German-blooded), Jew, Jewish Mischling 1st or 2nd class, Negro Mischling, Gypsy, Gypsy Mischling, etc. Why was gassing used rather than injection or some other means of "mercy killing"? Hitler himself is said to have decided upon the use of carbon monoxide gas as the killing method, on the so-called medical advice of Dr. Heyde. The decision followed upon an experiment conducted in early 1940 at Brandenburg, then being converted from a prison into a killing center. Killing by injection (using various combinations of morphine, scopolomine, curate, and prussic acid [cyanide]) was directly compared with killing by means of carbon monoxide gas. Karl Brandt, "a very conscientious man [who] took his responsibility very seriously," requested the experiment; and he and Conti [the Reich Minister for Health!] administered the injections themselves "as a symbolic action in which the most responsible physicians in the Reich subjected themselves to the practical carrying through of the Fuehrer's order." The four or six injected patients ("six at the most") "died only slowly," and some had to be injected again. In contrast, the gas worked perfectly. The first Nazi gas chamber has been constructed under the supervision of Christian Wirth, of the SS Criminal Police, lent to the T4 staff. [The code name for this "mercy killing" program was "T4" since its main office was at 4 Tiergartenstrasse, the address of the Chancellery.] The arrangement included a fake shower room with benches, the gas being inserted from the outside into water pipes with small holes through which the carbox monoxide could escape. Present were two SS chemists with doctoral degrees, one of whom operated the gas. The other, August Becker, told how eighteen to twenty people were led naked into the "shower room": through a peephole he observed that very quickly "people toppled over, or lay on the benches" - all without "scenes or commotion." The room was ventilated within five minutes; SS men then used special stretchers which mechanically shoved the corpses into crematory ovens with contact. The technical demonstration was performed before a select audience of the inner circle of physicians and administrators of the medical killing project. Having been shown the technique, Dr. Irmfried Eberl, newly appointed head of the Brandenburg institution, took over "by himself and on his own responsibility." Both Brack and Brandt [the first assistant of Bouhler] expressed their satisfaction with the experiment, the latter stressing that "only doctors should carry out the gassings." I have referred to those initial gassings as both experiments and demonstrations, since later testimony - for instance, Brandt's remarkable statements at the Nuremberg Medical Trial - make clear that they were both. Brandt said that the original plan was to kill people by injecting narcotics, until it was realized that these would cause loss of consciousness but that death would not occur for some time. An alternative suggestion was made by a psychiatrist (presumably Heyde) to use carbon monoxide gas (which, in turn, led to the demonstration just described). Brandt recalled not liking the idea because he felt that "this whole question can only be looked at from a medical point of view," and that "in my medical imagination carbon monoxide had never played a part." Killing by gas, that is, made it much more difficult to maintain a medical aura. Brandt was able to change his mind when he recalled a personal experience of carbon monoxide poisoning in which he lost consciousness "without feeling anything," and realized that carbon monoxide "would be the most humane form of death." Yet he remained troubled because that method required "a whole change in medical conception," and gave the matter extensive thought "in order to put my own conscience right." He brought up to Hitler the difference of opinion about the two methods, and later remembered the Fuehrer asking, "Which is the more humane way?" "My answer was clear," Brandt testified - and other leading physicians in the program agreed. (From: The Nazi Doctors, by Robert Jay Lipton) And, since the population of greater Germany at the time was about 85,000,000, that meant that a lot of people had to be put to death. And so 6 gas chambers were built in different parts of Germany to carry out these "mercy killings": Six institutions in different parts of Germany began to "process" mental patients, each with its own geographic radius of activity: Grafeneck in Wurttenberg; Hadamar in Hessen; Brandenburg and Bernburg in central Prussia; Sonnenstein in Silesia; and Hartheim near Linz. The staff of Grafeneck eventually was sent to Hadamar, and that of Brandenburg was transferred to Bernburg. Between January 1940 and August 1941 the operatives of these institutions put to death about 70,000 patients by individual gassing, and they are estimated to have ended another 20,000 lives by lethal injections and overdoses of drugs. The corpses were cremated. The closest kin or guardians were sent notices of the passing away of their infirm relatives or wards, with invented and perfunctory explanations as to the cause of death. (From: "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken" by Arno J. Mayer) And even though these "mercy killing" were supposed to remain secret it soon became common knowledge because of the numbers involved. Clergy even railed against this in their sermons: Have you, have I the right to live only as long as we are productive, as long as [some official or commission] certifies us to be productive? Once you establish and apply this principle that "unproductive" human beings may be killed, then woe to all of us when we grow old and infirm! If you allow individuals to be killed because they are unproductive, then woe to all invalids who exerted, sacrificed, and wasted their energy and healthy bones in the production process! Once you permit fellow creatures who are unproductive to be eliminated by brute force, then woe to those of our brave soldiers who will return home heavily wounded, crippled, or disabled. At bottom, to grant common mortals the right to kill "unproductive" fellow humans -- even if for the moment only the unfortunate and defenseless mentally ill are targeted -- is to license the murder of all unproductive individuals: the incurably sick; the invalids of work and war; and all of us who in our infirm old age will be unproductive. Archbishop Clemens August Count von Galen excerpt from sermon of August 3, 1941 Lamberti Church, Munster And some even sent letters to Berlin protesting these "mercy killings": The Bishop of Limburg Limburg/Lahm, 13 August 1941 To the Reich Minister of Justice Berlin Regarding the report submitted on July 16 by the Chairman of the Fulda Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Dr. Bertram, I consider it my duty to present the following as a concrete illustration of destruction of so-called "useless life". About 8 kilometers from Limburg in the little town of Hadamar, on a hill overlooking the town, there is an institution which had formerly served various purposes and of late had been used as a nursing home. This institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by concensus of opinion, the above-mentioned euthanasis has been systematically practiced for months - approximately since February 1941. This fact is, of course, known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden because death certificates from the Hadamar-Moenchberg Registry are sent to the home communities. Several times a week busses arrive in Hadamar with a considerable number of such victims. School children of the vicinity know this vehicle and say: " There comes the murder-box again." After the arrival of the vehicle, the citizens of Hadamar watch the smoke rise out of the chimney and are tortured with the ever-present thought of depending on the direction of the wind. The effect of the principles at work here are that children call each other names and say, "You're crazy; you'll be sent to the baking oven in Hadamar." Those who do not want to marry, or find no opportunity, say, "Marry, never! Bring children into the world so they can be put into the bottling machine!" You hear old folks say, "Don't send me to a state hospital! When the feeble-minded have been finished off, the next useless eaters whose turn will come are the old people." All God-fearing men consider this destruction of helpless beings a crass injustice. And if anybody says that Germany cannot win the war, if there is yet a just God, these expressions are not the result of a lack of love for the Fatherland but of a deep concern for our people. The population cannot grasp the fact that systematic actions are carried out which in accordance with paragraph 211 of the German Penal Code are punishable with death. High authority as a moral concept has suffered a severe shock as a result of these happenings. The official notice that N. N. died of a contagious disease and, therefore, his body had to be burned, no longer finds credence, and official notices of this kind which are no longer believed have further undermined the ethical value of the concept of authority. Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said, are trying to suppress discussion of the Hadamar occurrences by means of severe threats. In the interest of public peace, this may be well intended. But the knowledge, and the conviction, and the indignation of the population, cannot be changed by it; the conviction will be increased with the bitter realization that discussion is prohibited by threats, but that the actions themselves are not prosecuted under penal law. I beg you most humbly, Herr Reich Minister, in the sense of the report of the Episcopate of 16 July of this year, to prevent further transgressions of the Fifth Commandment of God. [signed] Dr. Hilfrich I am submitting copies of this letter to the Reich Minister of the Interior and to the Reich Minister for Church Affairs. [Initialed by the above] And views such as this actually had an effect (although not to stop the killing - but to only drive it underground). What follows is a letter From Heinrich Himmler (the head of the SS) to SS Colonel Victor Brack (the first assistant of Bouhler): Top Secret 19 December 1940 SS Standartenfuehrer Victor Brack Staff Leader at Reichsleiter Bouhler's Office Berlin W 8 Dear Brack, I hear there is great excitement on the Alb because of the Grafeneck Institution. The population recognizes the gray automoblie of the SS and think they know what is going on at the constantly smoking crematory. What happens there is a secret and yet is no longer one. Thus the worst feeling has arisen there, and in my opinion there remains only one thing, to discontinue the use of the institution in this place and in any event disseminate information in a clever and sensible manner by showing motion pictures on the subject of inherited and mental diseases in just that locality. May I ask for a report as to how the difficult problem is solved? Heil Hitler! [initialed] H.H. Britain was even using these "mercy killings" for propaganda purposes (the RAF dropped copies of Archbishop von Galen's sermon among German troops). And the gassings were even mentioned in the New York Times (Dec. 7, 1941): MANN BIDS REICH BREAK NAZI YOKE Author Warns German People to Act Before Ever-Growing World 'Hatred Engulfs You' In an appeal to the people of Germany to break away from their Nazi leaders, Thomas Mann, German author, broadcast a warning yesterday over the British radio in a German-language transmission admonising them to make the break while there is still time before the "ever-growing gigantic hatred engulfs you." ..... How are things with you? Don't you think we abroad know just as well as you do? Degeneration and misery are spreading. Your young men, including boys of 16, are unscrupulously sacrificed to the Moloch of war, hundreds of thousands of them - millions - there is no home in Germany which is not mourning for a husband, a brother or a son. Collapse is near. Your troops in Russia lack doctors, nurses, medical supplies. In German hosiptals the severely wounded, the old and feeble are killed with poison gas - in one single institution two or three thousand, a German doctor said. .......... Thus the "euthanasia" program had to be "officially" called off: Von Galen's sermon was widely disseminated by word of mouth, by handbill, and by fliers scattered by England's Royal Air Force. It encouraged prominent Catholic bishops of other cities to come out against euthanasia. Several prominent Protestant pastors and laymen spoke up as well. The secret was out. On August 24, 1941, Hitler called off the wholesale euthanasia. He could not afford to have the morale of the Wehrmacht undermined by doubts about the fate of wounded war heroes. Nor did he want to provide grist for the enemy's propaganda mill. Besides, there was no way of silencing von Galen and other clerics without creating popular martyrs. But to stop the sweeping killing operation inside the Reich was not to put an end to T4 althgether. Within Germany the euthanasia program continued on a reduced scale. Operation 14 f 13, its most characteristic extension, shifted its focus from asylums for the mentally ill and homes for the physically handicapped to concentration camps. Himmler prevailed on Bouhler to detach some of the euthanasia doctors to sort out all camp inmates who were physically and psychologically disabled. This selection started some time around mid-1941. Bouhler's physicians traveled to the different camps to administer medical examinations that were even more cursory than those administered heretofore. Before long, these doctors were charged with weeding out inmates who were unfit to work. The euthanasia doctors signed thousands of death warrants, though exactly how many is unclear. Between mid-1941 and mid-1943 close to 4,500 inmates were taken from Mauthausen, Gusen and Dachau to Hartheim for gassing. About 830 inmates from Buchenwald suffered the same fate at Sonnenstein. Before the war was over the doctors of 14 f 13 selected many more inmates in these and other camps, most of them to be killed at Hartheim. (From: "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken" by Arno J. Mayer) And this was about the time that the gas chambers were beginning to kill Jews in Poland! In a very prophetic statement Himmler had said in December 1940 that "If operation T4 had been entrusted to the SS, things would have happened differently," because "when the Fuehrer entrusts us with a job, we know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless uproar among the people." And that is exactly what happened! In October 1941, Brack and Eichmann decided to use these [gassing] vans for Jews in general who were "incapable of working." Three were installed at the first pure extermination camp at Chelmno/Kulmhof (using personnel from Soldau), where they killed mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, typhus victims, Soviet POWS, and the insane. In a replica of the T4 procedure, victims were told they would shower while their clothing was being disinfected. SS officers wore white coats and carried stethoscopes. Prisoners had their valuables registered, then followed a "To the Bath" sign, up a ramp and into the van. When no more noise was audible from the van, it was driven to the woods nearby where the Jewish Kommandos unloaded the corpses into mass graves. (Because of noxious gases, a crematorium was later installed.) Chelmno/Kulmhof, in reclaimed German teritory, was the first of the extermination camps in the General Government, followed by Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, all of which still more closely resembled "euthanasia" killing centers in the use of stationary gas chambers and T4 personnel. (From: The Nazi Doctors, by Robert Jay Lipton) As mentioned previously, this "euthanasia" program was not the first the Nazis carried out. As will be discussed later in the testimony of Karl Brandt, the first "mercy killings" were done in early 1939 through the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Diseases. Midwives were required to report at birth, and doctors were required to report up to age three, children who were suspected of having serious hereditary diseases, idiocy and mongolism, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, malformations of all kinds, or paralysis (including spastic conditions). Three outside medical experts then made their life-or-death judgments based only on these reports (and not on personal examinations or even the medical reports of the children). Before being killed, children were generally kept for a few weeks in the institution in order to convey the impression that they were being given some form of medical therapy. The killings were usually arranged by the director of the institution or by another doctor working under him, frequently by innuendo rather than specific order. It was generally done by means of luminal tablets dissolved in liquid, such as tea, given to the child to drink. This sedative was given repeatedly - often in the morning and at night - over two or three days, until the child lapsed into continuous sleep. The luminal dose could be increased until the child went into coma and died. For childred who had difficulty drinking, luminal was sometimes injected. If the luminal did not kill the child quickly enough - as happened with excitable childrenw ho developed considerable tolerance for the drug because of having been given so much of it - a fatal morphine-scopolamine injection was given. The cause of death was listed as a more or less ordinary disease such as pneumonia, which could even have the kind of kernel of truth we have noted. (From: The Nazi Doctors, by Robert Jay Lipton) It is estimated that around 5000 children were put to death in this way.
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