Child euthanasia in Nazi Germany

Social Darwinism came to play a major role in the ideology of Nazism, where it was combined with a similarly pseudo-scientific theory of racial hierarchy in order to identify the Germans as a part of what the Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race.

To maintain or improve the Nordic-Germanic race, therefore, the laws of eugenics or the (biologistically oriented) "racial hygiene" would have to be strictly observed, that is, the promotion of the "genetically healthy" and the elimination of the "sick".

This form of eugenics was eventually the basis of the National Socialist genetic health policy which was elevated to the rank of state doctrine.

In 1929 Hitler said at the Nazi Party Conference in Nuremberg, "that an average annual removal of 700,000-800,000 of the weakest of a million babies meant an increase in the power of the nation and not a weakening".

[...] If, nevertheless, it turns out that the newborn baby is a weak and misbegotten child, the medical council, which decides on citizenship for the community, should prepare a gentle death for it, say, using a little dose of morphine [...] .

[3]In 1935 Hitler also announced at the Nuremberg Nazi Party to the Reich Medical Leader Gerhard Wagner that he should aim to "eliminate the incurably insane", at the latest, in the event of a future war.

The Nazi euthanasia killings may be broadly divided into the following phases: According to the latest estimates about 260,000 people fell victim to the "War Against the Sick".

The head of Main Office II and thus Hefelmann's superior was the Oberdienstleiter, Viktor Brack, one of the leading organizers of Nazi euthanasia.

One German historian, Udo Benzenhöfer, argued that the child's name could not be disclosed because of Germany's privacy laws relating to medical records.

But because actively assisting death was still punishable in Nazi Germany, Catel advised the parents to submit an appropriate request to Hitler via his private chancellery.

[10]To the recollections of his boss, Hefelmann's deputy, Richard von Hegener, added: As early as about half a year before the outbreak of the war, there were more and more requests from incurably sick or very seriously injured people who asked for relief from their suffering, which was unbearable to them.

Soon afterwards, Dr. Brandt told us that Hitler had decided, following this presentation, to grant such requests if it was proven by the doctor attending the patient as well as the newly formed health committee, that the suffering was incurable.

It was pointed out that it is quite normal that in maternity hospitals under certain circumstances for euthanasia to be administered by the doctors themselves in such a case, without calling it such, any more precise term is not used.

At the same time, Hitler had ordered that all requests of this nature that were addressed to the Reich Ministry of the Interior or the Office of the Reichspresident, were only to be handled by his Chancellery.

[13]The matter was initially discussed with an inner circle comprising Hefelmann and Hegener, head of the KdF's Central Office II, Viktor Brack and the person responsible for mental hospitals in Division IV (Health and Social Welfare) of the Reich Interior Ministry, Herbert Linden.

The primary agents behind the front group were Hefelmann and Hegener from Office IIb of the KdF, who, at Hitler's request were not to appear publicly, nor was the only representative of a governmental authority, Linden from the Reich Interior Ministry.

The district doctors sent the completed registration form to the National Committee where Office IIb of the KdF with its two medical laymen, Hefelmann and Hegener, screened out cases that they considered should not be sent to a "special children's ward", i.e. which meant that they were not eligible for euthanasia.

[20] The health authority responsible and the proposed "special children's ward" received a notice from the National Committee of its decision and assignment.

[21] As early as the first half of 1941 the age of the children was specified as up to 16 years in order to prevent mentally or physically disabled young people being gassed as victims of a "summary method" within the framework of the Action T4.

[24] A circular dated 1 July 1940 Ref: IVb-2140/1079 Mi, which was published in the ministerial journal of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior, informed the Ministry that the "National Committee": had now established a youth psychiatric department in the Görden State Institute near Brandenburg a.H. that employed under scientific direction all therapeutic options available based on the latest scientific findings.

He made clear once again that the placing of sick children in asylums: prevents the neglect by the family of other healthy children [...] The National Committee for the Scientific Registration of Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses has appointed outstanding experts on the relevant sphere of medical specialisation to carry out its duties [...] The National Committee still has funds available to intervene in those specific cases where the parents may not be in need of help, but may find it difficult to shoulder the cost of institutional care themselves.

[28]Local doctors were instructed to oversee the reporting task laid on the midwives, to support the work of the National Committee in every way and, if necessary, put the necessary pressure on the parents.

For example, there was close collaboration between the head of the "special children's ward" in the Eichberg State Mental Hospital, Walter Schmidt [de], and the director of the University of Heidelberg's Psychiatric Clinic, Carl Schneider.

The Children's Ward Am Spiegelgrund in Vienna earned a similar notoriety, as the primary institution of Heinrich Gross, who served as its head for two years during Nazi occupation.

Gross performed unauthorized autopsies on the brains of his child victims and, between the years 1954 and 1978, published 34 works dedicated to 'cases of congenital and early onset mental disorders'.

In the 1950s, Gross donated partial corpses of approximately twenty Spiegelgrund victims to the Neurological Institute of the University of Vienna, which formed the basis of at least two publications.

The names, ages and countries of origin were recorded by Hans Meyer, one of the thousands of Scandinavian prisoners released to the custody of Sweden in the closing months of the war.