![]() ![]() The earliest actions of liquidation of mentally ill patients, the Nazis carried out in hospitals in Gdańsk Pomerania, which later became part of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. Pomerania (Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia) None of these sites appear on the "List of German institutions for the mentally ill dated 28 August 1941".įor obvious reasons we did not include the interesting case of „wild euthanasia” realized in the hospital for the mentally ill in Meseritz-Obrawalde in 1943-1944 because the hospital was located in the Alt Reich.ġ. In our list we also not include the reported incidents in the hospital in Kobierzyn near Krakow, in Otwock, in Warsaw, or in Tworki. If we did the majority of hospitals in occupied Europe would enter the list of institutions covered by the „euthanasia” program. We also did not take into account any events releated to the high morality associated with poor supply – of drugs or food. Secondly, some of these actions had already been implemented on the basis of which the parent program was the "final solution of the Jewish question." It should be remembered that Warsaw's psychiatrists society strongly promotes the thesis which equalizes the weight of events that happened in psychitric institutions especially in Warheland and General Government.įirst, in none of General Government hospitals were applied direct forms of extermination - as in gassing in mobile or stationary gas chambers, shooting and killing with injections of poison or lethal dose of sedatives or hypnotics. From the list of cases we ruled out the events that had nothing to do with the liquidation actions. Overview of the liquidation of the mentally ill actions on the Polish territory (1939-1945)Īfter our research over Nazi „euthanasia” in Poland we take into consideration only those liquidation actions, using direct forms of killing, and the nature of which coincides with the Nazi program of social engineering implemented in occupied Poland. Hence the title Lebensunwerten Lebens - life unworthy of life - has become a key term used later in Nazi terminology against persons covered by Action T4. The theories presented there came to the conclusion that some human beings (mentally or terminally ill) are „social balast” and they are not wholesome human existence but are „empty shells” and should be "killed out of mercy" (German: Gnadentod). The outline of a program had been created before the advent of the Nazis in the published flagship work Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensuwerten Lebens (1920) by a lawyer Karl Binding and psychiatrist Alfred Hoche. At this time the very first time in history were also developed and implemented extermination programs, which aimed to eliminate those terminally and mentally ill. ![]() It was a time that was marked by organized terror concentration camps, gulags, ideologically motivated murder on an industrial scale, ethnic cleansing, etc. The twentieth century was a unique century, dissimilar to any other period in the history of mankind. Overview of Nazi „euthanasia” program in occupied Poland (1939-1945) No part of this text and photos below may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the authors. ![]() The entire version of the academic text (with citations and full historiographical apparatus) is included in the mentioned book, which you can buy from on-line bookshop of Auschwitz-Birkaneu Museum web-page. Please remember that this is only the transcript. ![]() Because many people were interested in our presentation and after the lecture asked us for some information, we decided to post almost the entire text of the lecture, and most of the slides from the presentation. It was a shortened version of our article from the book "Man To Totalitarianism: From Simple Formulas to the Final Solution, "published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and International Youth Meeting Centre in Oswiecim in 2012. 28-30, 2013) we presented lecture "Nazi Euthanasia Programme in Occupied Poland". KILLING OF MENTAL PATIENTS IN POMERANIAĭuring the conference, "Nazi Euthanasia in European Perspective" (Berlin, Kleisthaus, Feb.Nazi Euthanasia Programme in Occupied Poland 1939-1945. ![]()
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