Niebla en agosto (2016) y la sombra del pasado (2018). Aktion T4: el plan de eutanasia nazi para la eliminación de las personas con discapacidad

El ascenso al poder del nacionalsocialismo en Alemania y sus consecuencias ha sido una fuente inagotable para la inspiración de producciones cinematográficas. Sin embargo, el programa Aktion T4 más conocido por plan de eutanasia nazi, no había sido tema principal de una película hasta fechas recientes. Niebla en agosto (2016) y La Sombra del pasado (2018) son dos cintas que abordan los métodos empleados para el control y eliminación de las personas con discapacidad o, mejor dicho, de aquellas personas que no cumplían los cánones de la raza aria y además eran una carga económica para el estado alemán. Las leyes de esterilización, primero, el programa de eliminación de bebés nacidos con alguna clase de discapacidad y, por último, el programa Aktion T4 que seleccionaba y ordenaba el asesinato de las personas ingresadas en instituciones son las tres fases de un calculado plan de exterminio. Psiquiatras, personal de enfermería y otros médicos y sanitarios fueron los diseñadores, colaboradores y ejecutores de ese crimen contra la humanidad que fue, sin duda, un ensayo para el posterior genocidio judío. Todavía hoy se reclama en Alemania verdad, justicia y reparación para las casi 300.000 personas víctimas de esos crímenes olvidados.

Eugenia na Alemanha nazista: o racismo como política de estado

Revisamos a ideologia nazista, essa de cunho nacionalista, anticomunista e antissemita. A estranha hierarquia das raças e busca da pureza e supremacia do sangue ariano que foram ideias lançadas de forma retórica por Hitler no seu livro Mein Kampf – Minha Luta –. O programa Aktion T4 de assassinatos de pessoas doentes ou indesejáveis peça fundamental no aparato estatal do III Reich que colocou em prática as ideias eugênicas da pseudociência de Galton. Os estertores finais do Reich que deveria durar mil anos. O artigo, portanto, abre ao leitor o cenário perverso e cruel da eugenia nazista num dos mais sombrios períodos da nossa recente história.

The controversial Third Reich history of Hans Creutzfeldt: was he a supporter or just another adept of the “hand washing policy”?

ABSTRACT Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy whose initial description is associated with two German authors, Alfons Maria Jakob and Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt. As polemic as the issue about the Creutzfeldt’s merit in the first description of the disease, is his history during the Third Reich. Some evidence pointed to the idea that he was essentially against the Nazi ideology, though some did not. He was an official member of the SS, but his own wife was convicted by a Nazi court. Some authors have argued that Creutzfeldt helped save many patients during Aktion T4 operation, but, in fact, he could have done more. Even during the post-war period, he sent a letter to authorities reporting the name of a Nazi physician who worked as a medical reviewer at the euthanasia court, but he did not proceed any further when his letter initially failed to start an investigation.

Dziekanka/Tiegenhof – stan wiedzy o funkcjonowaniu zakładu podczas II wojny światowej

The article presents the state of research on the history of the mental institution known as Dziekanka during World War II. New information discovered by German authors and increasing knowledge about the course of Aktion T4 makes it possible to verify erroneous findings and contributes new elements to the overall picture. For instance, it is demonstrated that not all of the murdered patients lost their lives as part of Aktion T4, or that – despite the claims of certain Polish authors – Tiegenhof was also a site where treatment and research did take place. The paper offers an overview of literature concerned with Dziekanka/Tiegenhof, discusses extermination of its patients, the individuals responsible and the connection with Aktion T4, as well as the significance of the institution in the Warthegau province; the question of the number of victims is also addressed.

Dezentrale „Euthanasie“ in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Niedernhart. Untersuchung am Beispiel ausgewählter Krankenakten.

Wild “Euthanasia” in the care and nursing home Niedernhart. An analysis based on medical recordsThis paper deals with medical records from the Upper Austrian care and nursing home Niedernhart. Under the National Socialist regime, especially after “Aktion T4” was discontinued in August 1941, thousands of people were medically treated in this institution and many of them died. In line with the current state of research, this paper does not question that people were intentionally killed by the director of the institution, Dr. Lonauer, and some of his staff, but rather examines whether targeted killing of patients can be proven by scrutinizing medical records. Twelve of these documents are reviewed in detail.

Lebensunwertes Leben: Roots and Memory of Aktion T4

What the Nazis called Aktion T4 was a euthanasia program, officially started on August 18th, 1939. The registration operations for individuals with physical or mental handicaps were followed by forced sterilization and transfer to clinics organized to kill. In this article, I try to explain the mechanisms that allowed the memory of Aktion T4 to be preserved and passed from one generation to the next; memories of the “merciful death” of approximately 70,000 “lives unworthy of life,” that find themselves embedded in family records and family history. In the first section, I summarize the discussion that resulted from the theories of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Even if those theories do not in any way allude to the consequences that we have witnessed decades after their publication, they started a debate about the value of life and the legitimacy of human intervention in the selection of hereditary character traits, as well as the concept of race and the different methods and forms of theories and eugenics that were later adopted in Europe and in the United States. In the case of Germany, translated into Rassenhygiene, those concepts flowed into the Nazi project of purification of the German people. Through interviews with families who had a relative interned in one of the program's clinics spread across the Reich territory between 1939 and 1945, I investigate the evolution and passage of memories stored within the family sphere, paying attention to the generational steps and processes of trauma. These stories are born from a complicated process of reconstructing these memories via interviews. Their recollections were full of painful silences and negations, similar to the thought process which led the victims to live in a condition that they could not understand, and separated them from the world before they were each made to face a solitary death, far from any contact with their families. The trauma that I analyze concerns actions that had been carried out by previous generations; in the majority of cases, younger generations were not aware of the destiny of their murdered relatives and therefore tried to rebuild the stories of people who they never had the opportunity to meet. I examine the problematic relationship of those being interviewed with the end-of-life issue and also the sense of guilt which is generated by the awareness of crimes that were committed. Aktion T4 was not a crime committed outside the national borders, nor a crime that extended beyond the private sphere to the “others.” Instead, it existed within the most central and intimate place of Nazi culture: the family.