Adolf Hitler was the reason behind one of the darkest times in the history of Europe. His beliefs of race purifications and creating a perfect Aryan race, led to mass genocide that to this day leaves many in shivers. The Holocaust, one of the most prominent and horrifying events in history, did not just target the Jews. It did not spare anyone who did not fit into his 'perfect 'Aryan race agenda, be it the adults, the children or even people with disabilities.
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Nazi euthanasia program aka ‘AKTION T4’
This program began its trials in the 1930s with children. As per Hitler’s ideology, children with severe disabilities were liabilities and nothing but a burden emotionally and financially. The test was tried on several disabled children, where the physician of the child would inform the government authority and they would then kill the child with a lethal injection, physical abuse, gassing or starvation.
This was one of the most horrifying programs of Hitler’s Third Reich. According to History, this was implemented on, 25 July 1939. The idea behind this was to exterminate the ‘defected’ so they cannot pass their genes further. By 1941, this program had executed 5000 children, with no intention of stopping.
In addition, when the parents asked about their kids they were told that the children were sent in for ‘Special Selections’ to give them advanced medical treatment. These parents trusted the doctors implicitly and had no idea that they would never see their children again.
Not just children
After starting with the children, the Riech community went on a grotesque rampage and exterminated anyone who had disabilities. Patients admitted in asylums and hospitals who were seen as non-functioning were described as ‘life only as burden’ and hence were killed.
As per Holocaust Encyclopedia, Germany occupied Poland and was ‘cleansed’ (i.e. murdered) around 30,000 patients in 1941 to make space for ‘ethnic’ German settlers.
These innocent patients suffered horrifying fates where they would be beaten to death, shot, or gassed. All these atrocities were performed by the SS guards to ‘preserve’ the economic and social ethnicity of the supposedly put Aryan race. This mass genocide killed around 275,000 to 300,000 innocent people.
Karl Brandt, Hitler’s personal physician, started this program. He not only performed sinister live human experiments but also massacred disabled person’s bodies in order to study their brain and their disability. He was hanged on the 2 June 1948 on the charges of war crimes.
Read more:
⋙ Horrors of the Holocaust: This is how queer prisoners were treated
⋙ These vigilante teenage sisters were known for luring Nazi soldiers to their death
⋙ The disturbing truth of Auschwitz’s experiment on twin children
