T4 program. Triumph of German Eugenics
The Münster Lion
Before lighting history Another inhuman action of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is worth mentioning one fact that for various reasons they try not to particularly recall. For a long time in historiography, there was an opinion that the Germans in the situation with Hitler’s power were on the verge of mass insanity and were simply intoxicated by the new orders and prospects of the country's development. Autobahns were built, military production expanded, unemployment was eradicated, German territory grew due to new countries - all these bonuses seriously contrasted with the times following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Intoxicated by Hitler’s charisma, the Germans seemed simply unaware of the concentration camps, executions, and the Holocaust.
However, at least one episode of the history of the Third Reich destroys all this beautiful story about the "non-involvement" of the civilian population. The secret euthanasia program for people with physical and mental disabilities Т4 (Aktion Tiergartenstraße 4), launched in Germany in 1939, managed to cause discontent among the population in two years. Moreover, discontent was expressed in such a manner that Hitler ordered to cover the project in the country. This decree, of course, did not apply to the occupied territories - there, as soon as the Nazis got their hands on, they continued to shoot patients in psychiatric hospitals. So, could simple burghers resist the Gestapo, Hitler, and the insane killer doctors? So, it was possible to raise a wave of popular indignation by the inhuman conditions of the existence of Jews and prisoners of war in concentration camps?
Perhaps the real quintessence of a typical indifferent citizen of the Third Reich was Bishop of Munster Clemens August Count von Galen. In 1941, he delivered three sermons against the Gestapo (13, 20 of July and 3 of August), in which he was indignant at the arrests, confiscations and the T4 program. The sermons later became famous.
- the bishop read in the August sermon.
The German underground, including the White Rose, was adopted by its opposition slogans, which, as it turned out, hit the nail on the head - ordinary citizens were quite excited.
However, von Galen cannot be called a pacifist - he openly supported Hitler's aggressive policy, especially, as he expressed himself, against the communist plague in the east. The bishop was also silent when from 1934 of the year more than 500 thousand “unsuitable” citizens of various nationalities were forcibly sterilized in the country. The influence on the masses of von Galen (and the entire Catholic leadership of the country) was so great that even the Gestapo did not dare to touch the “Munster Lion”. The priest, who openly divided people into two grades, was able to safely wait for the end of the war, to become a cardinal in 1946, and in 2005 to be ranked as blessed.
The killing of compassion
German psychiatrists, eugenics, and simply indifferent nations to racial purity have been rubbing their hands impatiently since the end of the 30's, waiting for official permission for large-scale genetic cleansing in the country. As mentioned in previous articleGermans became ill with eugenic hysteria after the successful implementation of such programs in the USA and Scandinavia. The most unpleasant thing in this story is that only the Nazis actually discredited the doctrine of selection of the human race. The world community, having learned about the inhuman application of the principles of eugenics in the Third Reich, forever branded marginal science. There would be no eugenics in the Nazi program, it is likely that you and I would now live in a world where every 10 or 20 would be sterilized for medical reasons. And I won’t exaggerate: the Swedes refused to sterilize only in the 70 of the XX century. To the credit of the Soviet leadership, Stalin harshly mowed the first sprouts of eugenics in the country at one time, but I’ll tell you about this some other time.
A formal reason for organizing the mass killings of genetically objectionable citizens for Hitler was a letter from a kind-hearted German in which he asked for permission to kill his hopelessly sick son. They gave permission, and at the same time they untied the hands of a whole cohort of doctors, nurses and scientists, who were so burdened by the insane, the elderly with dementia, encephalitics and many other unfortunates. Hitler wrote in a document in October 1939:
What conclusions could be expected from doctors who have passed racial hygiene as an exam since 1936 in universities and advanced training courses? I must say that the medical community has been preparing the ground for the physical destruction of mentally ill people since the 1937 of the year, when they began to reduce the diet for the respective patients. In some hospitals, all 40 pfennigs per day were spent on a patient. At the same time, the official propaganda of the Nazis at the forefront of racial hygiene put precisely the economic effect of the destruction - the posters were full of relevant financial calculations. And the extensive racial purges within the Aryans did not come as a surprise to the German people. Back in the 1929 year, that is, before coming to power, Hitler broadcast in Nuremberg at a party congress:
In many ways, Hitler's decree on the deployment of the T4 program was also associated with the expectation of a large number of wounded from the fronts of World War II - extra bunks in the rear were vital. That is why the start date of euthanasia is 1 of September 1939 of the year, although the Fuhrer signed the order almost two months later. As part of the program, German doctors first worked out the killing of people in gas chambers and on automobile platforms. In Poland, in particular, one could see deadly vans with the inscription: "Imperial Coffee Gesheft."
The “brain center” of the T4 action was the branch of the Berlin Reich Chancellery at Tirgantenstrasse, 4, which is why the specific name of the program appeared. In fact, in most cases no examinations of patients were carried out - it was enough for three experts to write “inferior” on the basis of the patient’s questionnaire, and his fate was decided. Each doomed received the stamp of the Imperial Society of Medical Workers and Trustees, or RAG, which masked legalized euthanasia. By the way, euthanasia did not have any legal status. Hitler until the very end did not give justice permission to officially formalize the possibility of killing in the legal field of Germany.
Those sentenced to death were taken from hospitals in special vans of the Nonprofit Hospital Transport - Limited Liability Company (Gekrat), which were distinguished by tightly shaded windows. According to complex schemes, in order to confuse the locals, patients with intermediate stops were taken to Brandenburg, Pirn, Grafeneck and other places equipped with gas chambers. After the killing procedure, the bodies were cremated, and relatives wrote something like:
Many of these formulations did not suit and they began to dig deeper, bombarding the relevant departments with requests and complaints. Then, rumors began to circulate in the ministerial circles of the Third Reich about the wide popularity of the T4 program among the people, largely due to measures of excessive secrecy. Bishop von Galen added fuel, voicing the aspirations of millions of Germans:
Fear of the prospects of their own old age forced the burghers to raise their heads in a fair civil protest.
To be continued ...
- Evgeny Fedorov
- en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
- Sterilize, can not be pardoned. Racial hygiene in Swedish
Democracy in action. Forced sterilization in the USA
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