Nazi 'Mercy Killings' Exposed
25th November 1940: An American journalist, still nominally a 'neutral' in Germany, probes the sudden increase in unusual death notices in the newspapers
Pioneering American journalist William L. Shirer had been reporting from Germany since 1934. Along the way, he had sidestepped Nazi censorship and broadcast several significant stories, including the French Armistice in Ju…
ne and the first RAF bombing of Berlin in August.
In September 1940, he had noticed a growing number of unusual death notices appearing in the German newspapers.
[ T]hese notices have sounded highly suspicious. Does sudden death come naturally after “ weeks of uncertainty ” ? And why are the bodies cremated first and the relatives told of the deaths later? Why are they cremated at all? Why aren’t the bodies shipped home, as is usually done?
At the end of November 1940 Shirer was preparing to leave Germany. He had received a tip-off that the Gestapo were preparing espionage charges against him. Investigative journalism was not welcome in Nazi Germany. The consequences could well have been fatal for Shirer.
On the 25th November, he was able to record his findings in his diary:
Berlin, November 25
I have at last got to the bottom of these “ mercy killings.” It’s an evil tale.
The Gestapo, with the knowledge and approval of the German government, is systematically putting to death the mentally deficient population of the Reich. How many have been executed probably only Himmler and a handful of Nazi chieftains know. A conservative and trustworthy German tells me he estimates the number at a hundred thousand. I think that figure is too high. But certain it is that the figure runs into the thousands and is going up every day.
A few days ago I saw the form letter which the families of the victims receive'
It reads:
“We regret to inform you that your ----- , who was recently transferred to our institution by ministerial order, unexpectedly died on ----of ------ .
All our medical efforts were unfortunately without avail. “ In view of the nature of his serious, incurable ailment, his death, which saved him from a lifelong institutional sojourn, is to be regarded merely as a release.
“ Because of the danger of contagion existing here, we were forced by order of the police to have the deceased cremated at once.
This is hardly a reassuring letter, even for the most gullible of Germans, and some of them, upon its receipt, have journeyed down to the lonely castle at Graffeneck, it seems, to make a few inquiries. They have found the castle guarded by black-coated S.S. men who denied them entrance.
Shirer was able to expose the Nazi Aktion T4 programme when he returned to the USA in December 19401, although the Nazi title was not yet known.
Beginning in 1939, on the direct orders of Hitler, newly born disabled infants had been ‘euthanised’. In September 1940, the programme had been extended to adult residents in sanatoriums, whether mentally or physically disabled.
Shire was only able to speculate about the reasons behind the mass killings; he believed the most likely reason was:
For years a group of radical Nazi sociologists who were instrumental in putting through the Reich’s sterilization laws have pressed for a national policy of eliminating the mentally unfit. They say they have disciples among many sociologists in other lands, and perhaps they have. Paragraph two of the form letter sent the relatives plainly bears the stamp of this sociological thinking:
“ In view of the nature of his serious, incurable ailment, his death, which saved him from a lifelong institutional sojourn, is to be regarded merely as a release.”
The Aktion T4 programme of mass murder was a direct precursor to the mass murder of Jews and other racial groups in the Holocaust. Some of the same key individuals were involved in pioneering the use of starvation, injections, and eventually gas chambers to kill the disabled. They would soon develop these methods to begin mass murder on an industrial scale.
