The T4 Program The German government established, under the Reich Chancellery, the Euthanasie Programme under the direction of Philip Bouhler and Dr. Karl Brandt. The headquarters of the operation were at Tiergartenstrasse 4, Berlin and the code name for the program was derived from that address—T-4.

Cemetery at Hadamar where victims of “euthanasia” at the Hadamar “euthanasia” killing center were buried. This photograph was taken toward the end of the war. Hadamar, April 1945 (NARA Photo). Background Between December 1939 and August 1941, about 50,000 to 60,000 Germans—children and adults—were secretly killed by lethal injections or in gassing installations designed to look like shower stalls. It was a foretaste of Auschwitz. The victims were taken from the medical institution and put to death.... (Never to Forget, New York: HarperCollins, 1976:131.)

"The first mass-murder by the Nazis was organized from 1940 onwards on this spot, the Tiergartenstraße 4 and named "Aktion T4" after this address. From 1939 to 1945 almost 200,000 helpless people were killed. Their lives were termed "unworthy of living", their murder called "euthanasia". They died in the gas chambers of Grafeneck, Brandenburg, Hartheim, Pirna, Bernburg and Hadamar, they died by execution squad, by planned hunger and poisoning. http://www.irren-offensive.de/t4.htm

This poster reads: "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime. People, that is your money. Read 'New People'."

Hartheim Castle, a "euthanasia" killing center where the physically and mentally disabled were killed by gassing and lethal injection. Hartheim, Austria (USHMM Photo).

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". The propaganda stressed the high cost of supporting disabled people, and suggested that there was something unhealthy or even unnatural about society paying for this. 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.

Buses used to transport patients to Hadamar euthanasia center Buses used to transport patients to Hadamar euthanasia center. The windows were painted to prevent people from seeing those inside. Germany, between May and September 1941.

The Holocaust and disabled people: Timeline • January 1933 The Nazi party (NSDAP) takes power in Germany. • 14 July, 1933 "The law for the prevention of progeny with Hereditary Disease" calls for the sterilization of all people with diseases that the Nazis thought of as hereditary, i.e. mental illness, learning disabilities, epilepsy, blindness, deafness. Even alcoholism is covered by the law. • Also in 1933 The Third Reich starts to issue propaganda against disabled people. The term "useless eaters" is used to highlight their burden on society.

Timeline cont….. • 1940 - 1941 An estimated 70,000 disabled people are killed under the T4 Program. Most of these are large-scale killings using poison gas - a forerunner of the killing program of Jews, which became known as 'The Final Solution'. • August 1941 Cardinal Galen publicly reveals the facts of the T4 killing program in a sermon delivered at St Lamberti Church in Munster. Hitler orders the suspension of the program as a result of growing public concern, plus pressure from the church and the judiciary. • 1941 - 1945 Killings of disabled people continue in secret. Death is by lethal injection or starvation, as the poison gas installations are removed from killing centers.

• 1941 A propaganda film entitled Ich Klage An (I Accuse) highlights the idea of a "mercy killing". A woman who has MS is killed by her doctor husband, who uses the Nazi arguments to justify such killings. • 1942 The Wansee conference transfers staff from the Euthanasia Program to Operation Reinhard - planning the deportations and killing of millions of Jews. • 1945 Allied troops liberate Auschwitz, and the details of Nazi genocide finally come to light.

The roots of the Nazi gas chambers are to be found in the testimony of Richard v. Hegener, employee of the "Chancellery of the Führer": Originally one has taken into consideration to kill the single incurable persons ... by injections or overdosed sleeping pills. But this consideration ... has been called impracticable from the technical point of view ..., by the majority of the consulted doctors. Therefore it was proposed ... to kill the persons being eligible simultaneously in a bigger crowd somehow. After many consultations ... hearing the chemist of the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt too, one decided to install a room in a number of conveniently located sanatoriums. The room should be filled with carbon monoxide gas then ... (Ludwigsburg Archive, file Hea-Hep)