Death and Deliverance: Euthanasia in Germany c. 1900-1945

404 Pages·1994·49.439 MB·English

by  Michael Burleigh

Death and
Deliverance
'Euthanasia' in Germany 1900-1945
Michael Burleigh

Ik'twccn iq^g and 1945 the Nazis systematically murdered as many as 200,000
mentally ill or physically disabled people whom they stigmatised as 'life unworthy
of life'. Thiscomplex and covert seriesofoperations was knownasthe'euthanasia'
programme. It provided many ofthe personnel and the technical expertise later
deployed in the 'Final Solution'.
This is the first full-scale study in English ofthe 'euthanasia' programme. It
begins by establishing the dire conditions which prevailed in asylums during and
after the I-'irst World War. Partly encouraged by government cost-cutting
concerns, but also by the need to improve their image, psychiatrists became more
receptive to occupational therapy and experiments in community care. However,
the former only served to underline the problem presented by chronic patients,"
while the latter raised the spectre of uncharted depths of mental illness in the
population at large. Many psychiatrists became receptive to drastic 'eugenic'
solutions long before 1933.
The advent ofthe National Socialist government brought further reductions in
thecareoftheasylum population. Many inmates werenow compulsorily sterilised
in the interests ofracial fitness; and while psychiatrists enthusiastically deployed
thenewsomatictherapiessuchasF.CTtotreatacutecases,manyofthemsubscribed
to the Nazis' policy ofkilling chronic or unproductive cases. There was thus no
conflict between psychiatric reform and extermination. As a result, hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children were gassed, starved or murdered with
lethal injections in a series ofever-widening programmes.
Uniquely, this book considers the role ofall those involved in these policies:
bureaucrats, doctors, nurses, health officials, lawyers, clerics, and also parents,
relatives,and the patients themselves. Usinga wealth oforiginal archival material,
it highlights many of the moral issues involved in a way that is profoundly
disquieting. The b(X)k concludes by showing the ease with which many of the
perpetratorsjihered back into German society after 1945.
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DEATH AND DELIVERANCE

DEATH
AND
DELIVERANCE
'Euthanasia ' in Germany
igoo—ig4S
c.
MICHAEL BURLEIGH
Readertn InternattonalHistory, lyondonSchoolofI'conomus
andPoltttcalScience
Cambridge
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by thePressSyndicateoftheUniversityofCambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, CambridgeC32 irp
40West 20th Street, New York, NY looii 4211, USA
10Stamford Road, Oaldeigh, Melbourne3166, Australia
©
CambridgeUniversityPress 1994
First published 1994
PrintedinGreatBritainbyRedwoodBooks,Trowbridge,Wiltshire
Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefrom the British Library
LibraryofCongresscataloguinginpublicationdata
Burleigh, Michael.
Death and deliverance: 'euthanasia' in Germany c. 1900-1945/
Michael Burleigh,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o 521 41613 2 (hardback)
I. Euthanasia- Germany History 20th Century, i. Title.
R726.B87 1994
179'.7 dc2093 48229 CIP
ISBNo 521 41613 2 hardback
ISBN 521 47769 7 paperback
CE
for Linden