T4 EUTHANASIA

PROGRAM
Julian Hardy
UWRT 1103

Life Unworthy of Life

THIS PROGRAM INVOLVED THE

SYSTEMATIC AND SECRET EXECUTION OF
THE AGED, INSANE, INCURABLY ILL, OR
DEFORMED CHILDREN AND OTHER
PERSONS BY GAS, LETHAL INJECTIONS,
AND DIVERSE OTHER MEANS IN NURSING
HOMES, HOSPITALS, AND ASYLUMS
-Nuremburg Medical Case

CHILDREN
EUTHANASIA

THE DECREE
Spring/Summer of 1939: Group of planners began to organize secret

killings of disabled children.

Group was lead by Phillip Bouhler, Director of Hitlers private chancellery,

and Karl Brandt who was Hitlers attending physician.

August 18th 1939: The Reich Ministry of the Interior put out a decree

requiring all physicians, nurses, and midwives to report newborn infants

and children under the age of three who showed signs of mental or
physical disability.

WHAT COUNTED AS A
DISABILITY?
Idiocy(especially blindness and deafness)
Microcephaly(abnormally small head size)
Severe or Progressive Hydrocephalus(water on the brain)
All deformities(especially missing limbs)
Paralysis

HOW IT WORKED
German doctors and midwives had to report all children in their care
who had been born with Downs syndrome, blindness, paralysis,
deafness, and other physical and neurological disorders.

These reports were then reviewed by a panel of 3 medical

professionals who determined if the children lived or died

Based on this decision, the children were transferred to

institutions(A.K.A. killing wards)

KILLING WARDS
Hartheim Castle, near Linz (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of
Andras Tsagatakis

The Hadamar Institution( United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Kaufbeuren Euthanasia Center. Holocaust Research Team.
Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

METHODS OF DEATH
Pills
Injections (sometimes directly in heart)
Starvation
Froze to Death

DEATH DOCTORS
The Reich Committee selected young German physicians to kill the

children.

The young doctors did not see anything wrong with killing the children.
Eliminating deformed children and mental patients was not so much a

phobic reaction to their presence, but the result of a culture of belief that
genetic deformities were a burden on the nation.

DEATH DOCTORS
Experiments

Sold Organs
Authorization

CHILDREN PROGRAM FACTS

Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 5,000 to 25,000 children were killed

throughout Germany, Austria, Poland , and other occupied territories.

Killed children up to 17 years of age

Many of the doctors were not charged or prosecuted for the crimes

committed

ADULT
EUTHANASIA

HITLERS PLAN
Hitler decides to extend his Euthanasia program to disabled adults

September 1st 1939: Hitler signs secret

authorization to protect physicians, medical staff, and administrators from

prosecution.

WHEN DID
WORLD WAR 2
START?

SEPTEMBER 1
1939

ST

HMMMM?

YES, THE START OF WW2

WAS A COVER UP FOR THE
EUTHANASIA PROGRAM SO
IT CAN BE SEEN AS A
WARTIME MEASURE

T4
The Euthanasia campaign was
also known as T4. This name is
shortened for Tiergartenstrasse
4, which was the coordinating
office for the program in Berlin
(United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, courtesy of
Landesarchiv Berlin)

T4 PLANNING METHOD
T4 Plans were actually developed using the same methods as the childrens

euthanasia program

Surveys or questionnaires were sent to public health officials, nursing

homes, hospitals, mental intuitions, etc.

Surveys asked all sorts of questions about health, but were said to be for

statistical purposes

STERILIZATION
Nazi Party needed a way to stop the spread of disabilities
Nazi Party creates the Law of the Prevention of Genetically Diseased

Offspring

This law listed the different specifications for involuntary sterilization of

disabled people.

The law was passed in July 1933 and put into effect in 1934

CONDITIONS THAT WOULD

GET YOU STERILIZED
Congenital Retardation
Schizophrenia
Manic Depression
Genetic Blindness
Genetic Epilepsy
Deafness
Severe Alcholism

NAZI PROPAGANDA

NAZI ORIGINAL THINKING

Find the
Disabled
Victims

Sterilize
Them

Kill Them

NAZI NEW THINKING

Find Disabled
People

Kill
Them

More Efficient

METHODS OF KILLING
Gas Chambers
Lethal Injections
Starvation
Drug Overdoses

HOW THE NAZIS COVERED

UP THE DEATHS?
Nazis would pick a common way of death like pneumonia, meningitis, or

strokes

They would then send condolence letters to the families of the victims.
From the mass piles of ashes from the victims, the Nazis would shovel a

random pile, put them in an urn, and then send them to the families

TRANSITION TO JEWS
As Hitler began to blame Jews for Germanys economic problems the vision

of the Euthanasia project began to shift

The Nazi doctors began to separate German or related blood from the

Jewish people in the wards and institutions

The Jews were then transferred to labor camps or death camps

THE END OF THE PROGRAM

May 29th 1945 - 4 year old Richard Jenne was the last official victim of the

Nazi Euthanasia

It is impossible to tell how many Europeans died during the Euthanasia

program

POST EUTHANASIA FACTS

Between 270,000 and 400,000 adults perished in the T4 Adult Program
Between 5,000 and 10,000 children died in the children's program
Most physicians and SS soldiers fled the country when they found out they

could be charged for war crimes

T4 VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww800PzlJ6Y

SOURCES
Bjrn M. Felder. ""Euthanasia," Human Experiments, and Psychiatry in Nazi-Occupied Lithuania, 1941-1944."

Holocaust and Genocide Studies 27.2 (2013): 242-275. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
<https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Kessler, Karl. Physicians and the Nazi Euthanasia Program. International Journal of Mental Health 36.1 (2007):

416. Web...

Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: U of North

Carolina, 1995. Print.

Evans, Suzanne E. Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust and People with Disabilities. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004.

Print.

"Nazi Euthanasia Program." Nazi Euthanasia Program. Rutgers University. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/center-study-genocide-conflict-resolution-and-human-rights/nazi-euthanasiaprogram>.

"The Nazi Euthanasia (T4) Programme." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww800PzlJ6Y>.

"Euthanasia Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." Euthanasia Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org. Holocaust

Education & Archive Research Team. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/>.

60,000 Reichsmarks. 1938. Wikipedia. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4>.

PICTURE SOURCES
The Sun. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01450/cold-kid-inpants__1450252a.jpg>.

NBS System. Web. <https://www.nbs-system.com/wp-

content/uploads/injection.jpg>.

Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--

BLMCRSlH--/182f586fsk97ljpg.jpg>.

History. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-

holocaust/pictures/holocaust-concentration-camps/gas-chamber-at-auschwitz>.

Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2014/06/holocaust.html>.