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German Bishop's Attack on Nazis' 'Mercy Deaths' Spreads Thru Reich [sic]

Publication Date
Friday, October 10, 1941
Historical Event
German Bishop Condemns The Killing Of People With Disabilities
This database includes 143 articles about this event
Tags
Gannett full page downloadable
Deportation and Mass Murder
Resistance
Anti-Nazi Protest and Activism
Eugenics and People with Disabilities
Article Type
News Article
Newspaper
The Asbury Park Press/The Evening Press/Asbury Park Evening Press
Location
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Page Section and Number
11
Author/Byline
AP
Image Text
German Bishop's Attack on Nazis' 'Mercy Deaths' Spreads Thru Reich BERLIN. (AP) - The spreading practice of "mercy killing,' advocated by certain Nazi quarters, has come into the spotlight in Germany. An officially approved film, "Ich Klage An,' ("I Accuse") made the question of killing mental defectives, invalids and the incurably sick. because they are "unproductive" under the Nazi concept, one of public debate. At the same time the outspoken bishop of Muenster, Count Clemens August von Galen, has made an expose of Nazi "mercy deaths" and denounced the practice. Some months ago the Lutheran bishop, Theophil Wurm, of Wuerttemberg, also attacked "mercy death" teaching in a addressed to Adolf Hitler. letter, von Galen, who unhesitatingly speaks his mind and of late has even defied the Gestapo (secret police), warned that if the principle "killing unproductive fellow creatures" is recognized. then even the lives of crippled war veterans and the e aged aren't safe. "I have been assured that in the ministry of the interior and in the office of the Reich's leader of physicians (health director) Dr. Leonardo Conti, no secret is made of the fact that a great number of insane in Germany already have been deliberately killed and in the future are to be killed." he declared as recently as Aug. 3 in a sermon at St. Lamberti's church, Muenster, Westphalia. The film, which received widespread and extensive press notice, had its premiere in the presence of Dr. Conti. It is a story of a doctor and his young wife who is wracked by an incurable disease. Unable to find the means to check her illness, the doctor takes the life of his suffering wife with an overdose of poison upon learning she has only two months to live. Audience Decides Verdict The film deals at length with the court trial of the doctor on a charge of murder but ends without the verdict, leaving that to the audience. The course of the evidence is an appeal made to the human side of the case and a suggestion of a change in the present German law which would, for example, permit medical commissions to decide whether a persons should legally be given a mercy death. The film undoubtedly was designed to do the necessary spade work. There is reliable information as to how many thousands of Gerre mans already have been given a mercy death, apparently thru painless gas. Catholic bishops, in a letter read in all churches last June in which they warned that "Christianity was at stake in also made a fleeting generalized' reference to mercy killing. "There are sacred obligations of conscience." their letter said, "from SHOP Place in Town" Asbury Park "FRESH ALWAYS" 16 49c . . . 16 49c SPONGES . ... 16 59€ CANDY• . . 16 59€ COCOANUT FINGERS . . 16 49€ .. lb. C 49. CANDY- TRY IT! 16 29€ BUTTERCREAMS 16 49€ 16 49c 16 39€ BRITTLE 16 49€ COCOANUT PEAKS 16 49€ Orders Taken- printing; be A. Siegel, Samuel Cochairmen committee on Goldin, Ostrov. memory introduced, Bulbeinia L. donated persons office Compensation manager. L. to C. of which no one can free us and which we must fulfill even if it costs us our own lives. Never under any circumstances may a human being, aside from war and justified selfdefense, kill an innocent person.' Bishop von Galen elaborated that statement in his sermon, now making the rounds of Germany in chain letter fashion. "For several months." the bishop said, "we hace heard reports that patients who have been ill for a long time and perhaps appear to be incurable have been forcefully removed from sanatoriums and asylums for the insane by orders from Berlin. Body's Quickly Burned "Regularly then, after a short time, a relative received notice that the person had died, the body had been cremated, and the ashes could be delivered. A suspicion, bordering on certainty, exists generally that these numerous and unexpected cases of the death of the insane don't happen of themselves but are intentionally brought about, that the teaching is being followed which maintains that one may destroy the lives of so-called 'persons unworthy to live.' and so kill innocent persons if thinks their lives are no longer of use to the nation and state.' This was a reference to the cardinal Nazi principle that the nation is everything and the individual nothing. "Only what is of use to the nation may be a biding guide for what we do or don't do," Dr. Conti recently said. The letter, quoting the bishop's letter, continued: is a frightful teaching which would justify the murder of the innocent, which fundamentally permits the violent killing of invalids no longer able to work, cripples, incurably ill and those weakened with old age. 'According to reliable information, lists are now being made up in sanatoriums and asylums in the province of Westphalia of such patients who as so-called "unproduc. tive countrymen,' are to be taken away and in a short time deprived of their lives. The first transport left the institution at Marienthal near Muenster in the course of this week (July 31). "No. 211 of the Reich's penal code still has the force of the law which prescribes: 'Whoever intentionally kills a person shall, if he carried out the act with deliberation, be punished with death because of murder.' In order to protect those who premeditatively kill those poor sick persons, members of our families, from this legal punishment, the sick who are intended for death are transported from their homeland to a distant institution. "As the cause of death then, any kind of sickness is given. Because the body is immediately cremated, relatives and also the police later can no longer establish whether the sickness really existed and what was the cause of death." Filed Fruitless Complaint The bishop then outlined how, upon learning of the Marienthal cident, he filed a complaint with the state's attorney and the police president in Muenster. His letter asked "for the protection of threatened countrymen by action against an official intending murder." The bishop said he had received no information that the police or the state's attorney had interfered. "The first transport of innocent persons condemned to death has left Marienthal," he continued. "and, according to what I hear, 800 patients already have been taken from the sanatorium at Warsten." Going into the reasons given for the "mercy deaths," the bishop said that "according to the judgment of some doctor, according to the opinion of some commission, they have become 'unworthy to live.' because, according to these judgments, they belong to 'unproductive countrymen.' One judges that they no longer can produce goods, they are like an old machine which no longer runs: they are an old horse which has become incurably lame; they are like a cow which no longer gives milk." "What does one do with such old machines?" the letter continued. "They are scrapped. What does one do with a lame horse, with such unproductive cattle?--No, I won't carry the comparison to the end "But concerned here are no machines or horses or cows whose only purpose is to serve mankind, to produce goods for man. One may destroy them, slaughter them as soon as they are no longer able to fulfill their destiny. But concerned here are human beings, our creatures, our brothers and sisters. Unfortunate human beings, sick human beings- -unproductive human beings, for all I care. But have they thereby forfeited their right to live? "Have you, have I. the right to live only so long as we are productive, so long as we are regarded as productive by others? * * * If it is once conceded that men have the right to kill 'productive fellow creatures' and if at at first affects only poor helpless insane personsthen fundamentally the murder of unproductive persons is given free rein, the murder of incurably sick persons and cripples unable to work, invalids of industry and the war, of us all when we become old and weak with age and therewith unproductive. it is only necessary to issue a secret decree that the method tested on the insane also is to be extended to other unproductives, that this also used in incurable pulmonic maxi patients, aged invalids, and soldiers seriously injured in the war! "Then none of our lives is safe any more: Some kind of commission can put you on a list of 'unproductives' who, according to their decision. have become unworthy to live. And the police won't protect you, no court will avenge the murder and mete out the justified punishment to murder! Who then can still trust his doctor! It isn't to be imagined what the letdown in morals and what general mutual mistrust will be carried even into families if this frightful teaching is tolerated, accepted and commanded." Matawan Club Planning Show (Special to The Press) KEYPORT A flower show in miniature will be held Oct 21 at the next meeting of the Matawan Junior Women's club. it was announced Tuesday evening at the regular business meeting in the club rooms in Matawan. Mrs. Evans Hyrne will have charge of the show, with prizes to be awarded to the display adjudged the best by a local florist. Mrs. Everett Carlson was appointed chairman of the committee in charge of rummage sale to be Oct. 23, 24 and 25 on West Front street, Keyport. A report on the drama conference was given by Miss Geraldine Brown, who announced that the little theater tournament has been scheduled for April 25. The following were appointed as a committee to select a play to be presented by the local group: Mrs. Evans Hyrne, Miss Mabel Fowler. Mrs. Clyde Egginson and Miss Madeline Cadoo. The resignation of Miss Adele Croes as fine arts chairman was accepted and Miss Geraldine Brown was named to succeed her. Miss Croes will serve as assistant to Miss Brown. Miss Brown's chairmanship of the legislation and citizenship committee was taken over by Miss Kathryn Dunham. Announcement was made that the Matawan group will enter in the flower contest at the junior fall conference at the Berkeley-Carteret hotel in Asbury Park Oct. 18. The first drawing in the merchandise club will be held at the next meeting. The hospitality committee will be: Mrs. Charles Davison, Mrs. Harold Dorl. Miss Frances Dell, Miss Annette Disbrow and Miss Edith Disbrow. Miss Mildred Seidler will entertain at the home department meeting on Oct. 14. Jamison Is Speaker KEYPORT- A talk on socialized medicine as practiced in New York was given by Dr. W. F. Jamison, Asbury Park. at the regular meeting of Keyport Kiwanis club Tuesday evening at the Ye Cottage inn. West Front street. Harry Seamen, John J. Haley and Anthony Granata, were selected delegates to the three-day convention of the New Jersey district of Kiwanis clubs in Atlantic City next week. Attendance prizes were won by Roland V. Trailby and Everett Laurison and the special prizes by Carl Bitter, Charles E. Stultz and Laurison. FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE AT LOW COST, USE THE PRESS
History Unfolded Contributor
Lael F.

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Learn More about this Historical Event: German Bishop Condemns The Killing Of People With Disabilities

Bibliography

Aly, Götz, Peter Chroust, and Christian Pross. Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: "Euthanasia" in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

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German Bishop's Attack on Nazis' 'Mercy Deaths' Spreads Thru Reich [sic]
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