the euthanasia consciousness

The nazis exploited film for the same purpose (to develop the euthanasia/genetic weeding consciousness), alongwith indoctrination of plans and processes in all jails, mental institutions, and evntually prison camps...The sequence was typical: the order to implement the biomedical vision came from the political leadership (In this case hitler himself), the order was conveyed to a leading doctor within the regime...who organized the structure for the project...

The occasion for initiating the actual killing of children, and of the entire euthanasia project, was the petition for the MERCY KILLING (gnadentod) of an infant named Knauer, who was deformed and blind, and supposedly feebleminded...subsequent recollections varied concerning who made the petition and the extent of the deformity, as the case quickly became mythologized... This test case (knauer) was pivotal for the two killing programs of the nazis, the killing of children and adults. The two programs were conducted separately, but overlapped considerably in personnel and in other ways...

All (killing of children) was to be understood as a responsible medical process, so that -- as brandt claimed was hitlers concern -- the parents should not have the impression that they themselves were responsible for the death of the child... brandt was authorized by hitler, who did not want to be publicly identified with the project, to proceed in the same way in similar cases; that is, to formalize a euthanasia program with the help of high ranking reich leader philip bouhler, chief of hitlers chancellery.

It seemed easier, prhaps more natural, or less unnatural, to begin with the very young: first newborns, then children up to three and four, then older ones...

It was decided the secret program was to be run from the chancellery though the health division of the reich interior ministry was to help administer it....an organization was created: the reich committe for the scentific registration of serious hereditary and congenital diseases....

midwives were required to make reports at the time of birth...district medical officers were responsible for accuracy...

the units where the killing of children was done were part of childrens institutions whose chiefs and prominent doctors were known to be politically reliable...Reich Committee Institutions...Special Psychiatirc Youth Departments.

The policy was to gain parental consent...those who showed reluctance received letters emphasizing the seriousness and permanence of their childs disability...telling them they should be grateful that there was care available...there were almost no reprieves of these decisions...should the parents cntinue to oppose the decision of the nazi state -- further steps -- such as threats of withdrawal of legal guardianship -- usually sufficed to convince the parents, but if not there were always the threats of special labor duties...the overal structure of the nazi euthanasia consciousness, especially concerning children, served to diffuse individual responsibility for any acts resulting in death of a child for racial cleansing....each participant was made to feel like no more than a small cog in a vast officially sanctioned medical machine...