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T4: The Nazis’ Euthanasia Solution

This Rock Volume 19, Number 2   February 2008     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Europe’s Crisis of Faith By Russell Shaw   How to Make the Case for Marriage (Using Non-religious Language) By Mary Jo Anderson   Family Day in Italy: A Case Study   She Needs a Father, Not a Sperm Donor By Donald DeMarco   The Bishop vs. the Nazis: Bl Clemens von Galen in World War II Germany By Joanna Bogle   From Bishop Von Galen’s Sermon against Euthanasia   T4: The Nazis’ Euthanasia Solution   God in Search of Man By Patrick C. Beeman   A Dim Memory of Eden: Original Monotheism   Further Reading   Damascus Road A Lifetime of God-Moments By Christina King   By the Book Got Wine? By Jim Blackburn   Eyes to See North and South By Michael Schrauzer   Truth be Told Bishops, Barbarians, and the Battle for Gaul By Matthew E. Bunson   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

He who is bodily and mentally not sound and deserving may not perpetuate this misfortune in the bodies of his children. —Hitler, Mein Kampf

Beginning in 1939, the National Socialist regime begin systematically killing disabled children in "specially designated pediatric clinics" via starvation and overdose. By the end of World War II, an estimated 5,000 infants and children had been murdered by the Nazis. The program, code-named T4, was extended to adults beginning in 1940. Physicians working for the T4 program examined medical files (seldom the institutionalized patients themselves) and marked for death disabled and mentally ill adults, in most cases without the knowledge or consent of family members. Those selected for extermination were rounded up, processed, and directed into a facility for a "disinfecting shower." Instead, the victims were gassed to death via carbon monoxide. Their bodies were cremated and the ashes sent to families with an official death certificate listing a fictitious cause of death.

By 1941 the program had become public knowledge, in part because of the opposition from German clergymen, including Bishop von Galen. Hitler officially halted the adult killings, but the child program continued. In 1942 the adult killings resumed in secret and continued until the end of the war, with an ever-expanding range of victims, including the elderly, hospitalized war victims, and foreign laborers. In all, an estimated 200,000 people were executed as part of the Nazi "mercy killing" agenda.

(Source: The United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org)