| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 18.08.12 18:36l 44 Lines 1903 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 26910_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Aug 18
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<ON4HU<F6IQF<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<ZL2BAU<GB7YKS<XE1FH<N0KFQ<
KB0WSA
Sent: 120818/1625Z 26910@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.52
Aug 18, 1941:
Hitler suspends euthanasia program
On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic
murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end
because of protests within Germany.
In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler's Euthanasia
Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began
as the systematic killing of children deemed "mentally
defective." Children were transported from all over Germany to a
Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain
criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They had to be
"certified" mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working
for one reason or another. Jewish children already in mental
hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis, were
automatically to be subject to the program. The victims were
either injected with lethal substances or were led to "showers"
where the children sat as gas flooded the room through water
pipes. The program was then expanded to adults.
It wasn't long before protests began mounting within Germany,
especially by doctors and clergy. Some had the courage to write
Hitler directly and describe the T.4 program as "barbaric";
others circulated their opinions more discreetly. Heinrich
Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the
systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only one regret:
that the SS had not been put in charge of the whole affair. "We
know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless
uproar among the people."
Finally, in 1941, Bishop Count Clemens von Galen denounced the
euthanasia program from his pulpit. Hitler did not need such
publicity. He ordered the program suspended, at least in Germany.
But 50,000 people had already fallen victim to it. It would be
revived in occupied Poland.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
Outpost Version 2.6.0 c27
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
