When Hitler came to power in 1933, a central goal was to identify and eliminate Germany’s 600,000 Jews – a goal that was rapidly expanded to target the entire European Jewish population. A question that had eluded historians for decades was how did the Nazis obtain lists of Jews –…
Eduard Pernkopf’s Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy has been called “a tainted beauty.” The atlas consists of 800 exquisite watercolor paintings of human anatomy, and is considered a “masterpiece,” “a work of lasting scientific importance” that has been used by doctors and researchers around the world. But the…
In 1937, an estimated 400 mulatto children of racially mixed African-Aryan marriages — derisively referred to as “Rhineland Bastards” — were forcibly sterilized, some were subjected to medical experiments, others mysteriously “disappeared” (Pencak-Schwartz. Holocaust Forgotten . . . 2012). Prof. Eugen Fischer director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Heredity…
“Eugenic Extermination” “Children’s euthanasia” a murderous program, unique in the history of mankind, that targeted infants, children, and young adults as the means for actualizing a social Darwinist vision of society. By systematically murdering children, scientists sought to eradicate pathological phenotype — “eugenic extermination.” Not until 2000 did historians document 30…
The Steinhof hospital in Vienna was a complex of 34 pavilions. From 1940 to 1945, thirteen of the hospital’s pavilions had been emptied by the T4 “euthanasia” murders. These were used for a reformatory and a children’s psychiatric clinic, “Am Spiegelgrund” The children included those selected by T4 categories, as well…
The adult killing program, coded Aktion T4, (named for the address of the “Reich Charitable Foundation for Curative and Institutional Care” headquarters at 4 Teirgartensstrasse in Berlin) targeted handicapped German adults living in mental institutions and nursing homes. The entire German healthcare system — public health officials, public and private…
In 1942 Viktor Brack — director of T4 murder operation — wrote a letter to Heinrich Himmler stating, I am of the opinion that out of approx. 10 million European Jews at least 2–3 million men and women will be fit for work and should be kept alive. . ….
Jews and other devalued and dehumanized groups were regarded as fitting “material” for medical and biological experiments that were forbidden under Germany’s Guidelines for Human Experimentation (1931) (details above). These included handicapped persons and numerous ethnic and groups who were expelled from German society. Foremost among these were Jews, who…
Ravensbrück was a concentration camp built exclusively for women. . It was designed to terrorize, brutalize, humiliate, torture & murder. During its six year operation, from 1939–1945, an estimated 132,000 women were imprisoned there; only 15,000 are estimated to have survived. Ravensbrück was built after six major concentration camps were already in operation…
Ravensbrück operated under strict SS rules noted for its regimentation, terrorization, brutality and humiliation. The policy was strictly enforced by specially trained female SS guards; many of who were vicious and capable of horrific sadistic brutality. The new female guard had a specific status in the SS hierarchy; like SS…
Pervasive violence, brutality and murder, combined with hard labor, overcrowding, disease, and starvation systematically limited the number who survived Ravensbrück. The coercive hierarchy of the camp encouraged the guards to brutalize and terrorize prisoners. Paradoxically, women conscripted to work as slave laborers considered themselves lucky; they avoided being “selected” and transported…
Bonding between women was of utmost importance for their survival in the camp. The women at Ravensbrück formed close bonds (mostly) within their ethnic groups, creating surrogate “families” who nurtured one another and protected the weak and vulnerable. Women who had strong moral, political and/ or religious beliefs bonded with…
