History 3427E Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Philipp Bouhler, Viktor Brack, Leonardo Conti
10 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
History 3427E
Lecture
Euthanasia 10/27/2016 12:28:00 AM
“ Life Unworthy of Life”
Ordinary Men Assignment
- summary piece
- don’t want an analysis or the validity of the argument
- 8 pages long
Euthanasia: program of murder
- 1938-39 murder mentally and physically disabled, these were the first to
go
'Euthanasia" of Children
- Knauer Baby: Winter 1938-39
→ child is missing an arm and leg, possibly blind and or death and
thought to be developmentally delayed
→ doctors that exam the child argue about if child is mentally
challenged or not
→ father wrote to Hitler, saying this child is born deformed and will
be a burden on us and society, and will never be a member of
folksgiminshaft, and asked for permission to have child murder (put to
sleep)
→ letter gets through to Hitler
→ dispatches Phillip Bouhler to examine child and see if this father
is valid
→ decided that child should be murdered which results in the
start of the Euthanasia program
- “Reich Committee for the scientific registration of seriously hereditarily and
congenitally based illness”
→ This committee carries out the Euthanasia
→ Dr. Leonardo Conti: Party Health Minister
→ Philip Bouhler and Viktor Brack: Chancellery
→ Dr. Karl Brandt: Hitler’s Physician
→ Clear that neither Hitler or his officials think that Germans are
ready for this program so they keep it secret
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Sets precedent for T-4 program
→ The adult Euthanasia program
→ The child Euthanasia program and the adult one never converge
Registration
- Physicians required to report:
1. Idiocy as well as mongolism
2. Microcephaly
3. Severe or progressive hydrocephalus
4. All deformities, especially missing limbs, severely defective closure of
the head and vertebral column
5. Paralysis
→ 3 pediatricians assess this case with a plus or minus, plus means that the
child was accepted into the program and subsequently murdered and the
minus means that the child was excluded and lived for a while
→ never examine children in person, only look at registration report
→ financial incentive is included to doctors
→ parents can report their child (struggling financially or emotionally)
- don’t realize necessarily that it was euthanasia
-Most common method of murder was starvation followed by overdoses of
luminal
→ they both look natural so it wasn’t suspicious
- the nurses and doctors who carry out operations get 25$ a month
- One institution, the staff was invited the wine cellar every 50 deaths
- All staff volunteered for position
- Once someone commits to the program they are stuck in it ( difficult to get
out of it)
- Last patient to die was 29 may 1945
→ occurred after the war has ended
- This program that allows for the T-4 program to occur
'Euthanasia’ of Adults: T4
- 1939 begins
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Don"t want an analysis or the validity of the argument. 1938-39 murder mentally and physically disabled, these were the first to go. Child is missing an arm and leg, possibly blind and or death and thought to be developmentally delayed. Doctors that exam the child argue about if child is mentally challenged or not. Father wrote to hitler, saying this child is born deformed and will be a burden on us and society, and will never be a member of folksgiminshaft, and asked for permission to have child murder (put to sleep) Dispatches phillip bouhler to examine child and see if this father is valid. Decided that child should be murdered which results in the start of the euthanasia program. Reich committee for the scientific registration of seriously hereditarily and congenitally based illness . Clear that neither hitler or his officials think that germans are ready for this program so they keep it secret.
