Euthanasia Prologue To The Holocaust

Euthanasia got its modern connotation beginning in the late nineteenth century (Dowbiggin 1). The Great Depression caused a major spike in discussion concerning suicide and controlled dying (Dowbiggin 33). Suicide rates rose about four percent at the beginning of the Great Depression, but slowly began to decrease across the entire decade. Several important figures killed themselves, which alerted several people to the need to talk about suicide and methods people killed themselves (Dowbiggin 34). Voluminous topics of euthanasia lead towards a conversation about Hitler, and the way he sterilized and euthanized people, bringing the negative connotation into the discussion (Singer 201). What some fail to see is that in the medical community, the

Hitler took this hatred he possessed for the Jews and his pursues of Aryan supremacy to an extensive degree. Between 1939-1945 Hitler took action, extermination, or death camps were established for the sole purpose of killing men, women, and children. Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis during World War II, The Nazis also imprisoned and killed people who opposed their regime on grounds of their ideology; Roma (Gypsies); Germans who were mentally impaired or physically disabled; homosexuals; and captured Soviet soldiers. Heinous crimes inflicted upon the prisoners within the concentration camps and during Hitler’s reign were intense beyond belief. So called camp doctors would torture and inflict incredible suffering on Jewish children, Gypsy children and many others. Patients were put

Doctors of the Holocaust For the doctors of the Holocaust killing became the prerequisite for healing. The Nazi doctors at the death camps tortured men, women, and children. The doctors made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, and removed organs and limbs. For a doctor, phenol injections were the most literal example of the entire healing-killing reversal.

In the 1930’s in Germany, people of all ethnicities were faced with hateful laws, which were prejudice and discriminating. Hitler’s idea was to exterminate as any people that did not fit the superior German race. People who didn’t fit Hitler's expectations were treated with no respect and were condemned of what they owned. As a result, people lived in poverty and were soon moved to different concentration camps. Inside of the concentration camps people suffered from intense hunger, extreme sorrow for family members that were killed by Nazi Soldiers or died from diseases in the camp, forced labor, and further agony.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler Authorized a medical administered program of “mercy death” was the code name for Operation T4. This program gave physicians full control over their patients and they would judged whether their patients were considered “incurable”. Institutions such as schools for the deaf and even teachers of the deaf students would turn in deaf members to the German community, they would then force sterilization and also some would be part of medical experiments. Children that were born with any kind of disability were killed by starvation or even lethal

This technique was used mainly to kill young children, but some adults were also mercilessly killed this way as well. Some of the types of persecution inflicted upon the disabled and the Jews was starvation and gassings. Jews were starved in the camps, eating a little soup and bread a day (Wiesel). The food was not fit for all the work they were doing all day. One major thing that separates the disabled Germans experience was that they were forced to sterilization. “...Hitler with overseeing the radical restructuring of Poland along ethnic lines… compulsory sterilization” (Law or the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary

As World War II drew closer and countries began to feel the drums of war grow louder a man by the name of Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party had already taken control of Germany’s government and was set on taking over the world, for a thousand year reign. Some of Hitler’s beliefs consisted of him thinking that the Germans should have more “living space” and that only the people with German blood or Aryan blood should inhabit Germany. Adolf wanted to rid Germany of the mentally and physically disable, because they were seen as weak and brought shame on his “perfect race.” Not only that,

“In April 1940, Hitler decreed that operation T4 would begin, namely the euthanasia of the mentally ill and the handicapped; this was the first chapter of the Nazi genocide.Sterilization and euthanasia were used to maintain the purity of the ‘community of people’, while extermination of the Jews - although itself seen as a process of racial purification - was essentially a fight against an enemy who was perceived as a threat to the survival of Germany and the Aryan race” (Minerbi, Alessandra).

They had the support of German scientists, who assumed that the humans could be improved by restricting the reproduction of the “inferior” race(s). German physicians, starting in 1933, were hired and allowed to perform sterilizations, operations that made it completely unattainable, for those who had the surgery, to have children. Unimaginable things happened to many innocent people, the people who were captured and put into camps unwillingly.

During the of the world war 2 in the 1939 until the year of 1941 Germany was under the empowerment of Adolf Hitler. The german military had a command to gather the minorities and collect them in concentration camps, in which they were harshly tortured . The torture included skinning them alive , had them undress and shoved into gas rooms believing they would be treated with a shower which they would experience death , and german scientist had the opportunity to experiment on the victims .

He made a lot of people can not understand the worst thing. Here is a shocking and evil things that the Nazis made a list: frozen, Twins, tuberculosis, phosgene, transplantation experiments, water, poison, and artificial insemination. Such as: transplant experiments: the Nazis wanted to know if a person 's joints and limbs to another. This test caused a lot of deaths. TB: Some Nazi doctors wanted to see if someone has a natural immunity to tuberculosis, to take advantage of the vaccine. Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer implant tuberculosis bacteria straight into the victim 's body. He is responsible for those people who died. Phosgene: 52 prisoners Nazi uniform phosgene in trying to find an antidote compound. Deliberate Nazi gas victim, causing terrible irritation in the lungs. Many prisoners have been malnourished, suffered further complications after exposure test, and the cause of many deaths. Freezing point: Nazi doctors conceal the icy water up to five hours in a crock victims find a way to treat an article in the German pilot to a powerful jet of cold water. Victims are either naked or wearing a suit pilot in the water cover. Other people on the outside into the freezing cold. Gemini: the infamous Dr Josef Mengele twins experiment in learning a variety of skills born secretary, and find a way to quickly take advantage of the German race. Menger inspection exercise prisoner in Auschwitz. He tried 1,000 pairs of twins. About 200 survived the text. When the twins are

The larger task to kill disabled adults was both easier and more complex. It was easier because only the institutionalized disabled were to be included. However, it was more challenging because there was a far larger number of adults and they could not be enticed to commit themselves. Thus, all efforts made to gather all of the disabled would have breached the wall of secrecy surrounding the killings and would have caused popular unrest in the middle of the war. In any event, the number of institutionalized adults judged disabled was sufficiently large to satisfy the killers; the rest could be dealt with after victory.The system of selecting the disabled victims was the same as before. Hitler and his men would receive information from hospitals and psych wards regarding patient's diagnosis (Biesold

Euthanasia is a term derived from a Greek word meaning "happy or fortunate in death." It is most commonly used now to denote the "merciful" infliction of death [either actively or passively] to avoid torment in fatal and incurable disease, usually by consent of the patient or his family.

10), was tantamount to murder. The word "euthanasia," which in Greek means "the good death" (10), was simply used as an excuse to try and justify the mass executions committed by the German military. Involuntary euthanasia occurs when a patient's life is terminated even though he or she did not initiate the request, and most importantly, did not want to die. This reprehensible form of murder is illegal in all democratic societies today and would remain so under all currently proposed euthanasia legislation. Voluntary euthanasia, on the other hand, is a patient-driven action. The patient makes an informed decision and requests, in writing, a physician's assistance in carrying out that decision. In many cases, the physician takes a secondary role, with the patient actually completing the act that will end the suffering.

The Nazis adopted the racial policy which consisted of eugenics and racial segregations or racial discrimination (The Killing Machine, 2009). The purpose of this policy was to keep their own race free from abnormalities and illnesses and to keep the Aryan raced close to other inferior races (The Killing Machine, 2009). According to the Projetalandin organization (2009), the Nazis initiated force sterilizations of the heredity ill and carried out euthanasia or emergency killings on mentally and physically disabled Germans. Another element was initiated to suppress and persecute all non-Aryans especially the Jews. And it was later developed to the policy of racial expulsion where the Jews were forced to emigrate. In 1941, there was a large scale of executed and murdered Jews which was in connection with the war of extermination against the Soviet Union (The Killing Machine, 2009).