Hitler's Unwanted Children III

"Patently Ridiculous that Psychiatrists Caused the Holocaust"

NADA STOTLAND: President of the American Psychiatric Association

Hitler's Unwanted Children

Sally M. Rogow

cont. from page 22

Pediatric Killing Wards

The university professors, scientists and physicians who planned the euthanasia murders were handsomely rewarded with generous research grants, university appointments and unlimited authority (Burleigh, 1994; Friedlander, 1994). Young newly graduated physicians did the killing on the children's wards, but they were encouraged and supported by psychiatrists like Dr. Werner Villinger who was a well known professor of Psychiatry at the University of Breslau. Villinger was known for his work on the psychological and social problems of children and youth and his. Participation on the

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Reich committee persuaded the young doctors that there was nothing wrong with killing children. Dr. Hans Heinze, psychiatrist and chief administrator of Brandenberg- Goerden, opened the first children's killing ward in 1940. The physicians who did the killing were trained at Goerden and learned how to administer injections of poisons. Twenty-one additional pediatric killing wards were opened in other hospitals and institutions. Jewish and Gypsy children were killed in many of the same institutions, notably Hadamar (Mitscherlich and Mielke, 1947).

The physicians who supervised the killing wards were rewarded with career advancement, university posts and extra bonuses of 250 Reichsmarks (RMs). Their duties enabled them to avoid military service. Nurses also received monthly supplementary payments (25 RM). (Burleigh, 1994). The 400 physicians and nurses who administered death were the backbone of the killing programs (.Burleigh,1994; Kogon et al,1993; Gallagher, 1990).

The physicians on the killing wards were for the most part young and ambitious and had little experience or knowledge of the children in their care. Nevertheless they had almost complete authority over the selection of child victims. They were so eager to meet quotas that they ignored their own guidelines and made random arbitrary choices.(Burleigh, 1994; Aly, 1993). Children with cerebral palsy, Downs' syndrome, or blindness were singled out for "mercy killing". If Helen Keller had lived in Germany she would not have survived. Parents were never informed that their child was dying until death was imminent and too late for them to visit (Burleigh, 1994).

In some jurisdictions, officials from the institutions drove around the countryside to the smaller homes and picked out frail children and those with mental handicaps for transfer to the killing institutions. Dr. Leonard Glassner from the Austrian institute at Valduna jokingly referred to this procedure as "taking up a collection on the street" (Kogon et al, 1993, p.33).

Infants were routinely murdered despite the advice of the older psychiatrists who cautioned that diagnoses of severity made in infancy were questionable (Burleigh,1994).

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Ernst Wentzler murdered hundreds of babies in his Berlin clinic.

Children as young as three years of age were killed in gas chambers at Eichberg and Hadamar (Aly 1993).

Children who lived in the hospitals and institutions knew about the killings. A nurse at Kalmenof-Idstein testified to the awareness of the ten year old children on her ward.

"Everyone talked about it, even the children talked about it. They were all afraid to go to the hospital. They were fearful that they would not come back. It was a general rumor. The children played a coffin game. We were astonished that the children understood." (Friedlander,1994, p.170)

The "mercy deaths" were neither quick nor merciful; they were long, drawn- out and painful. Child victims suffered pneumonia and other debilitating illnesses before they died (Burleigh, 1994).

Experiments on Children

Children with cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions or Downs syndrome were used as subjects of "scientific" experiments by physicians and their students. Many a doctoral dissertation was based on the experiments performed on living conscious children. Their blood and spinal fluids were drawn and replaced with air so that clear x-rays could be taken of their brains. Children were injected with drugs, sugar and other chemicals to test their reactions. Generous research grants were given to support this kind of research. Dr. Heinze, one of the planners of child euthanasia, performed experiments on many children before he killed them (Friedlander, 1994).

After the experiments were completed, the children were "disinfected" (killed) (Burleigh, 1994). Brains and other body organs were removed and sent to university research laboratories. Dr. Julius Hallevorden, a neuropathologist, collected brains and boasted of the wonderful material he had obtained from "defectives." (Aly, 1994). (His collection of children's brains was used until 1990, when the samples were buried in the Munich cemetery).

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Parent permission was never obtained for these experiments and parents were not informed of the real cause of their children's deaths.

Children and Young People In The Adult Euthanasia Program

The "experts" on the Adult Euthanasia Reich committee were in a hurry to complete the process of extermination. They selected their victims from the questionnaires that directors of hospitals and institutions were required to file on every patient (Burleigh, 1994).

A few directors attempted to protect patients by not filling out the forms. These efforts were futile. When the Reich committee did not receive the completed questionnaires, they sent a commission of medical students and secretaries to the institution to complete and collect the questionnaires. Dr. Rudolph Boeck, chief physician of the Neuenettslau institution protested that the commission carried out its duties in a manner "contradictory to all accepted medical practice" and did not examine even one of the 1800 patients (Kogon et al, 1993, p.22).

Patients selected for the adult program (including children) were taken by bus to transit institutions for temporary stays before being transported to the killing institutions.

A few directors at the transit institutions attempted to prevent further transfer by claiming the patients were good workers. A few public health physicians tried to prevent transfers to killing wards. Professor Walter Creutz, Health official in the Rhineland resisted Nazi policies with other colleagues and called a secret meeting to work out a strategy of sabotage. They saved lives by labeling their patients fit for work, releasing them, calling their relatives to take their family members home and even hid them in the woods on days that the transport buses were scheduled (Gallagher, 1990). After the war, a court in Dusseldorf found that 3,000 to 4,000 lives were saved by physicians who gave false reports on their patients. (Kogon et al, 1993). A number of judges in the courts responsible for legal guardianship attempted to countermand orders to transfer children under their legal guardianship without success (Burleigh, 1994). A few directors of

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special schools also refused to comply. Heinrich Hermann, a Swiss citizen who was director of an institute for the deaf refused to comply with Nazi policies. Children were transferred from religious homes and asylums to the killing wards in gray buses with darkened windows. Those who lived near the institutions with killing wards were aware of what was taking place. The sisters who lived and taught at the Ursberg Home for children with mental handicaps stood by with tears in their eyes as they stood by helplessly while the SS men hustled children onto the transport buses that would take them to Grafeneck and Hadamar. A sister of the Ursberg Home wrote, Some of the patients hung on to the nuns for dear life. It was terrible. They felt what was happening. It was especially terrible with the girls. They knew instinctively that there was something bad going on. They cried and screamed. Even the helpers and the doctors cried. It was heartbreaking. (Gallagher, 1990, pp. 109-110).

Government officials claimed that parents willingly consented to the euthanasia of their children, but parental consent was rarely obtained (Klee, 1986). When parents received the official letters informing them of their children's deaths they accused the hospitals and institutions of neglect or deliberately causing death. The death notices were form letters.

As you have certainly already been informed your daughter, ______was transferred to our establishment by ministerial order. It is out painful duty to inform you that your daughter died here on _________of influenza, with an abscess on the lung.Unfortunately all efforts made by the medical staff to keep the patient alive proved in vain. We wish to express our sincere condolences at your loss. You will find consolation in the thought that the death of your daughter relieved her from her terrible and incurable suffering.

According to instructions from the police, we were obliged to proceed immediately with the cremation of the body. This measure is intended to protect the country from the spread of infectious diseases, which in time of war pose a considerable danger. The regulations must, therefore be strictly adhered to. Should you wish the urn to be sent to you-at no charge-kindly inform us and send us the written consent of the cemetery authorities. If we do not receive a reply from you within a fortnight, we shall make arrangements for the burial of

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the urn. Please find enclosed two copies of the death certificate to be presented to the authorities. We suggest that you keep them in a safe place. Heil Hitler (Kogen et al, p. 29)

The letters of condolence were signed by the physicians at the euthanasia facilities using pseudonyms to avoid contact with grieving parents. The cause of death that was listed was false and sometimes a false date were noted in the file. All files were kept at the T4 headquarters, but towards the end of the war, they were sent to the Hartheim institution to be destroyed by a shredder.

Hundreds of grieving parents accused the hospitals and institutions of neglect. Many went to the institution to find out the real cause of their child's death. At Grafeneck, the old castle was guarded by black-coated SS men who refused to let relatives enter. Newly painted signs had warnings to "Keep Away" "Danger of Pestilence" (Aly, 1993).

Grief-stricken and frustrated, parents appealed to the courts and tried to bring legal actions against the hospitals and institutions. In response, Hitler issued a legal decree 1941 preventing parents from bringing legal actions against institutions (Majer,1994).

Parents found another way of protesting and placed obituary notices in local papers to attract public attention.

AFTER THE CREMATION HAD TAKEN PLACE WE RECEIVED FROM GRAFENECK THE SAD NEWS OF THE SUDDEN DEATH OF OUR BELOVED SON AND BROTHER, OSKAR REID, INTERNMENT OF THE URN WILL TAKE PLACE PRIVATELY AT X CEMETARY UPON ITS ARRIVAL (Shirer, 1947, p. 572).

AFTER WEEKS OF ANXIOUS UNCERTAINTY WE RECEIVED THE SHOCKING NEWS ON SEPTEMBER 18 THAT OUR BELOVED MARIANNE DIED OF GRIPPE ON SEPTEMBER 15 AT PIRNA. NOW THAT

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THE URBN HAS BEEN RECEIVED, THE BURIAL WILL TAKE PLACE PRIVATELY ON HOME SOIL (SHIRER, P.572).

Shirer drew attention to the wording of these notices, "After " the cremation had taken place, we received the sad news....and noted that the Germans had become used to reading between the lines in their heavily censored newspapers. Relatives were warned not to talk publicly about the deaths of their children. It took courage to publish these death notices in the hopes of attracting public attention to the murder of their relatives (Shirer, 1946)

After the war thousands of cases were brought before the German courts (Burleigh, 1994). Parents of children who were sent to institutions because of delinquency or rebellious behavior were most in shock. Their children had no physical illnesses or disabilities. The mother of a teen-aged boy who was murdered in Kalmenof-Idstein testified before the court in 1947.

"One day my son took his savings and ran away to Frankfurt, where the police arrested him. Just After that, he was sent to Mulheim for observation. Four weeks later I was informed he was to be sent to Idstein for an examination of his mental state. Then I said that he was not insane. Three or four weeks afterwards perhaps, the child was released and sent home. In two weeks they came back to get him and send him to Mulheim for observation, and then eight days later to Idstein. Perhaps eight days later I received a telegram telling my son had died on the 11th of December at 4:30 in the afternoon" (Aziz, p.128).

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The End of Secrecy

People who lived near the institutions and hospitals knew that people were being murdered inside. In spite of extensive efforts to maintain strict secrecy, rumors and suspicion spread rapidly. The gray buses with their curtained or painted windows and the smoking chimneys did not go unnoticed by the local populations. In the small town of Apsberg, the people of the town stood and wept as they watched people the buses carry away people they knew (Gallagher, 1990).

Every few days the buses arrived at the gates of Hadamar, an institution named after the small town in which the institution was located. Children who lived near Hadamar were overheard to tease one another with the words. "You're not quite bright, they'll put you in the oven at Hadamar". (Mitscherlich and Mielke, p. 108). The children referred to the buses as "killing crates" (Kogon et al, 1993). The people of Hadamar saw the steady arrival of the buses and the smoke pouring out of the chimneys; they could smell the strange odors in the air. Friends and neighbors sympathized with parents and joined the protest. the protest. Peasant women refused to sell fruit to staff who worked in the institutions (Freidlander,1994).

Protests were written by representatives of the churches, public administrators and private persons (Kogon et al 1993). The Nazi government responded by attempting to tighten secrecy and punish protesters. Pastor Paul Gerhard Braune (director of the Hoffnungstaler hospitals and vice president of the Central Committee of the Protestant Home Mission) protested that the " mass methods used so far have quite evidently taken in many people, who are to a considerable degree of sound mind." (Mitscherlich and Mielke p. 107). Braune was arrested by the Gestapo. The head of the institution at Stetten, Dr. Schlaich, called for a law that would give families the right to voice their opinions concerning the fate of their loved ones (Mitscherlich and Mielke, p.111). He was ignored. Protests continued to mount. Prominent religious leaders who protested were removed form their positions and some like Bernard Lichtenberg, Provost of St. Hednig's Cathedral in Berlin were arrested. Lichtenberg was persistent in his

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protests and sent copies of his letters to the Chancellory. The elderly priest was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison and was transferred to Dachau 1943. He died of heart failure on the train to Dachau. Dr. Meltzer, director of the church run institution in Saxony ( property of the church's Inner Mission) was removed from his position (Nuremburg documents, NO 3817). In a famous sermon, the Bishop of Munster, Clemens Count von Galen protested the "mercy killings." and hundreds of copies of his sermon were dropped by British airplanes flying over Germany.

By 1941, the killings had caused so much unrest that Herr Schlegelberger, Secretary of State in the Reich Ministry of Justice warned that "Confidence in the German medical profession, especially the administration of mental institutions, is being severely shaken" (Peukert, 1987, p.113). Even .Heinrich Himmler, referring to the institution at Grafeneck, acknowledged the public unrest and said, "The public temper is ugly and in my opinion there is nothing to do but to stop using this particular institution" (Peukert, 1987, p. 113).

Hitler made a show of yielding to public pressure and ordered Karl Brandt to "stall" the adult euthanasia" program. The gas chambers were dismantled and reassembled at Belze, Maidenek and Treblinka. Overall however, the protests simply drove the killing operations into deeper secrecy and the killings continued as "wild euthanasia" (Burleigh, 1994). Child euthanasia was never interrupted. The last child was killed on May 29, 1945, 21 days after Germany lost the war. The equipment for the gas chambers was moved to the death camps in 1941, but the killings continued with starvation, poisons and shootings. After 1941, the killing operations were less centralized and killings took place in residential schools and smaller facilities. Many killing ward physicians were later sent to administer the slaughter in the death camps (Friedlander, 1994).

The Nazis extended their extermination policies to the countries they occupied. Children in Austria, Poland and other conquered nations did not escape the euthanasia programs. One of the largest euthanasia centers outside of Germany was the Steinhof

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children's wing at the Speigelgrund hospital in Austria. The wartime staff of the hospital were almost all Nazi Party members and the case histories in the hospital vault reflect the variety of child victims, children who stuttered or had a harelip or any other minor deformity were killed. They were killed by starvation or poison or left outdoors to freeze.

Only in Holland did physicians as a group refuse to cooperate. Dutch physicians had the foresight to resist before one step was taken and they acted unanimously (Cranford,1992)

Jewish children living in hospitals and institutions were all murdered. Older Jewish children and young adults were sent to Theirientstadt. At one point there were over a thousand Jewish blind people living there. Jewish blind ex-servicemen were not allowed to keep their guide dogs. Leo Hass painted a chronicle of their lives in Therienstadt and smuggled his drawings out of the camp with the help of Czech policemen.

Commentary

After the war virtual silence surrounded the slaughter of unwanted children. There were very few published accounts of child murders. Most of the physicians and nurses who played major roles in the euthanasia programs continued in their positions as if nothing unusual had taken place. Although many records had been destroyed, sufficient evidence remained and the facts cannot be denied. Court records, and accounts of parents and guardians fill in the blanks. Unwanted children were victims of Nazi prejudice and racism and exterminating them was one of Hitler's priorities. Chaos and confusion were everywhere and parents were helpless to protect their children. As control was increasingly centralized, even the guardianship courts responsible for children's welfare were robbed of jurisdiction or influence. Bit by bit the full story coming to light and proving once again, that vulnerability is not caused by disability; it is nurtured by every act whereby a human life is devalued. Dependence on government funding and failure of professional groups to resist Nazi policies made schools and institutions vulnerable to Nazi policies. The refusal to fund

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schools and programs developed during the Weimar years combined with the corruption of educational leadership that destroyed humane schools and progressive educational and treatment programs. The total infiltration of educational and social institutions made total social control possible. No child or family was safe from intrusion. Leadership of educational institutions was placed in the hands of ambitious fanatics, Nazi bureaucrats, chosen for their faithfulness to the party line, rather than their competence as educators.

Bernard Rust was a failure as a teacher and was dismissed from a secondary school in Hanover for a serious offence in 1930. It is noteworthy that the pattern of corruption of schools and destruction of Christian schools were far less successful in rural districts, where people knew and trusted one another (Samuels and Thompson, 1949).

Among the 250,000 to 350,000 people who were murdered in the Nazi euthanasia programs, at least one fourth were children and young adults. More than 5,000 infants and young children were murdered in pediatric wards. This number does not include the children who were murdered in smaller residential facilities and treatment homes and those who were included in the adult euthanasia program.

The rebuilding of rehabilitative education in Germany has been a long process and Germany never regained its prominence or its leadership in the field. Although today services have been restored, German children and young people with disabilities continue to struggle for community acceptance. There are echoes of the Nazi past taking place in Germany, where people in wheelchairs have been abused by neo-Nazi bully boys. "Under Hitler, you would have been gassed." they were told (The Boston Globe, 1993) More than 1,000 German citizens with disabilities have reported harassment, physical and verbal abuse. Group homes have been attacked and children attending a church camp at a seaside resort were made to leave the beach (Gallagher, 1990). Parents continue to protest discrimination against their children in the schools. In most European countries advocacy groups and associations have been organized by people with disabilities, but these 33 organizations are not as activist in Germany as they are in other countries. The Catholic and Protestant churches have set up many monuments in remembrance of children who lost their lives. Nevertheless, this chapter of Nazi inhumanity has largely been neglected. Friedlander (1994) traced the continuity between the euthanasia programs and the Holocaust. Nazi victimization of vulnerable people was unique in its organization, its mercilessness and its bureaucratic efficiency and serves as a lasting reminder of the perils of making value judgments on human life and of separating science from humanity.



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The total infiltration of educational and social institutions made total social control possible. No child or family was safe from intrusion. Leadership of educational institutions was placed in the hands of ambitious fanatics, (Nazi) bureaucrats, chosen for their faithfulness to the party line, (existing paperwork, programs etc.) rather than their competence as educators.