The disabled in Nazi Germany

How did the Nazi’s see disabled people? The Nazis took Darwin's ideas of natural selection and applied them to the human world and society The Nazis claimed that the social and economic problems that Germany experienced in the 1920s and early 1930s were due in part to the weakening of the population created by an unfair burden e.g the disabled Nazi propaganda in the form of posters, news-reels and cinema films portrayed disabled people as "useless eaters" and people who had "lives unworthy of living“ . One famous Nazi propaganda film, Ich Klage An (I Accuse), told the story of a doctor who killed his disabled wife. The film put forward an argument for "mercy killings". Other propaganda, including poster campaigns, portrayed disabled people as freaks.

What was the fate of disabled people in Nazi Germany? After the propoganda came action A widespread and compulsory sterilisation program took place. This began in 1933, as soon as the Nazis came to power. It should be noted, however, that Nazi Germany wasn't the only regime to practise the forced sterilisation of disabled people

How did the Nazis kill disabled people? Under a secret plan called the 'T4 Program’, disabled people in Germany were killed by lethal injection or poison gas. The T4 Program saw a string of six death camps - called "euthanasia centres" Two of the most notorious centres were at Hartheim Castle in Austria and Hadamar, which is near Wiesbaden in Germany. The latter supported a staff of approximately 100 people. To conceal its real purppose, it also operated as a normal crematorium. Hitler ordered the suspension of the program in 1941 after opposition from groups within Germany, including Catholic churchmen. However, killings were restarted the following year in a more secretive way, and continued until the end of World War Two. In total, an estimated 275,000 disabled people are believed to have been killed by the Nazis

Was there any opposition to this? There was some opposition from the Catholic church in Germany other opposition to the Nazis was inevitably of a more secretive nature. One person who resisted the Nazi persecution both of disabled people and Jews was Otto Weidt, who employed and protected blind and deaf people in his workshop in Berlin Interestingly, one of the most famous oppositions to Hitler's general aims came from a disabled person - an assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944 by Claus Von Stauffenberg. He had lost his right hand, three fingers of his left hand and his right eye in combat. Von Stauffenberg had access to Hitler on a daily basis at the War Office in Berlin but, as a disabled war hero, he was above suspicion. He left a bomb under a table in the map room that Hitler was due to visit His only injuries were cuts to his hands and damaged eardrums. Von Stauffenberg was court-martialled and shot, along with other conspirators.

Were there any exceptions to the Nazi policies towards disabled people? There is some evidence that the Nazis, showing a strange irrationality towards disability, killed thousands, At the same time venerating a small group of disabled war heroes to whom they offered sheltered employment. The idea of helping disabled war heroes appealed to a popular Nazi idea: "the triumph of will over adversity". Clearly, to the Nazis, not all disabled people were the same.

Did the extermination of disabled people pave the way for the larger extermination programs? Almost certainly. Extermination centres and poison gas installations built to look like shower stalls were an eerie precursor to concentration camps, as several authors have noted. As well as transferring the basic killing procedures and technology, there is also evidence that personnel from the T4 killing program moved to other killing duties after the 1942 Wannsee Conference where 'The Final Solution' is thought to have been planned.

Quiz

Q1) What was the first step in the persecution of the disabled people? The Germans did not want to seem too harsh towards the disabled people because they feared they would lose the support of the German people. Therefore they sterilised them in order to stop them reproducing and passing on their disability.

Q3)Source question: What does this poster say about how the German people were persuaded to dislike the disabled? This Poster is showing that for 5.50marks a whole German family could be fed, while it would take the same amount of money to take care of a disabled person.

Answer To show the German people that the disabled were holding Germany back People were shown a happy healthy family that was denied resources because they were spent on one person. Shows the man in a dark suit which is related to bad