Action 14f13
Encyclopedia
Action 14f13, also called "Sonderbehandlung
("special treatment") 14f13", was a campaign of the Third Reich to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Also called "invalid" or "prisoner euthanasia", the campaign culled the sick, elderly and those deemed no longer fit for work from the rest of the prisoners in a selektion, after which, they were killed. The Nazi
campaign was in operation from 1941-1944 and later covered other groups of concentration camp prisoners, as well.
Heinrich Himmler
met with Reichsleiter
Philipp Bouhler
, head of Hitler's Chancellery
, to discuss his desire to relieve concentration camps of "excess ballast", meaning sick prisoners and those no longer able to work. Bouhler was Hitler's approved agent for implementation of the Action T4
euthanasia
program for the mentally ill
, disabled and inmates of hospitals and nursing homes deemed unable to work. The purpose of Himmler and Bouhler's agreement was to find an inconspicuous way to kill the prisoners. Though Aktion T4 was ostensibly shut down by Adolf Hitler
on August 24, 1941, it continued covertly until Nazi Germany
was defeated in 1945.
, the Oberdienstleiter Viktor Brack
to implement this new order. Brack was already in charge of the various front operations of T4.
The scheme operated under the Concentration Camps Inspector
and the Reichsführer-SS under the name "Sonderbehandlung 14f13". The combination of numbers and letters was derived from the SS record-keeping system and consists of the number "14" for the Concentration Camps Inspector, the letter "f" for the German word "deaths" (Todesfälle) and the number "13" for the means of killing, in this case, for gassing in the T4 killing centers.Natural deaths were recorded with the code number "14f1", suicide or death by accident with "14f2", "14f3" meant shot while trying to escape. The execution of Soviet prisoners of war in concentration camps were recorded as "14f14" and the forced sterilization of prisoners was recorded as "14h7". "Sonderbehandlung" was the common term for execution or killing.
and Hermann Paul Nitsche, and doctors Friedrich Mennecke, Curt Schmalenbach, Horst Schumann
, Otto Hebold, Rudolf Lonauer, Robert Müller, Theodor Steinmeyer, Gerhard Wischer, Viktor Ratka and Hans Bodo Gorgaß. To speed up the process, camp commandants made a preliminary selection list, like they had done in the T4 operation. This left just a few questions to be answered, such as personal information, date of admission to the camp, diagnosis of incurable disease, war injuries, criminal referral based on the criminal code of the Third Reich and any previous offenses. Under the operation's guidelines, names of ballastexistenzen ("dead weight" prisoners) were to be compiled and presented to the medical doctors for "withdrawal from service". This included any prisoner who had been unable to work for a long time or was substantially incapacitated and would not be able to return to work.
Prisoners swept up by the commandant in the preliminary selection had to report to the medical panel. There was no proper medical examination carried out, rather the prisoners were questioned about their participation in World War I
and about any war medals they might have received. Based on personnel and medical records, they then decided under what category to classify the prisoner. The final assessment of the prisoners was made using the information in the reporting form provided and was limited to the decision as to whether or not the prisoner would be steered toward "special treatment" 14f13. The report form and results were then sent for documentary registration to the T4 central office in Berlin.
Those prisoners being considered for the preliminary selection were sometimes encouraged by the camp administration to come forward if they felt sick or unable to work. They were led to believe they would go to a "recovery camp", where they would only have lighter work to do. Thus, many prisoners readily volunteered. However, after the gassings at the killing centers, when victims' belongings were sent back to the camp warehouse, despite the secrecy, the true reason for the selection became known, and even prisoners with serious illnesses stopped reporting to the infirmary.
The first known selection took place in April 1941 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp
. By summer, at least 400 prisoners from Sachsenhausen were "retired". During the same period, 450 prisoners from Buchenwald and from Auschwitz, another 575 prisoners were gassed at the Nazi Sonnenstein killing center
. There were 1,000 prisoners from Mauthausen concentration camp were killed at Hartheim Castle. Between September and November 1941, there were 3,000 prisoners from Dachau, as well as several thousand from Mauthausen and neighboring Gusen concentration camp gassed at Hartheim Castle. The same happened with prisoners from Flossenburg
, Neuengamme and Ravensbrück concentration camp
s. In the ensuing period, another 1,000 prisoners from Buchenwald, 850 from Ravensbrück and 214 from Groß-Rosen concentration camps were gassed at Sonnenstein Castle and Bernburg
. In March–April 1942, some 1,600 women were selected at Ravensbrück and gassed at Bernburg.
These "medical reviews" are described in an excerpt from existing letters from Dr. Friedrich Mennecke. During a selection at Buchenwald, Mennecke wrote to his wife;
(headed by Irmfried Eberl
), Schloss Sonnenstein (headed by Horst Schumann
) and Schloss Hartheim
(headed by Rudolf Lonauer and Georg Renno).
After the doctors' commissions had "invalided" the different concentration camps' prisoners, the camp administration had to provide them on request. They were transported either by the "Charitable Ambulance Company
“ or the Reichsbahn
directly to one of the killing centers.
There, the prisoners were examined for gold teeth by a prison doctor and labeled appropriately before being led into a gas chamber
, where they were killed by carbon monoxide
. After removing the gold teeth, which were sent to a central office in Berlin
, the corpses were incinerated in the on-site crematorium. Some corpses were examined further before incineration.
The killing was carried out by the same staff, using the same means as used previously with the mentally ill in Aktion T4. A few administrative details were changed in that the deaths were recorded by members of the respective camp administration and they also informed the relatives. A detailed description was given by Vincent Nohe to the Linz
Kriminalpolizei
in September 1945, then investigating the Nazi war crimes that had taken place near there. Nohe, who had worked as a "burner" in the crematorium at the Hartheim
killing center, was convicted at the Dachau-Mauthausen Trial in 1946 and sentenced to death for the murder of sick and incapacitated concentration camp prisoners. He was executed in 1947.
n police, August 1, 1936, those to be taken into "protective custody
" were "gypsies, vagrants
, tramps, the "work shy", idlers, beggars, prostitutes
, troublemakers, career criminals, rowdies, traffic violators, psychopaths
and the mentally ill."
Due to the defense industry's increasing need for workers, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate issued a decree on March 26, 1942, which was distributed to all camp commandants. (On March 16,1942, the CCI was incorporated into the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
as "Amt D" under SS-Brigadeführer Richard Glücks
. The decree was signed by Arthur Liebehenschel
, acting in Glücks' stead.)
A year later, the intensified war situation required further restrictions on selections to ensure that every able-bodied worker could and would be put to work in the defense industry. Thus, on April 27, 1943, Glücks presented a new circular decree with instructions to, in future, "retire" only those prisoners who were actually mentally ill.
After these guidelines were issued, only the Hartheim killing center was needed. Those at Bernburg and Sonnenstein were closed. The first phase of Aktion 14f13 was over.
Those being gassed at Hartheim now included forced laborers
from eastern Europe who were no longer able to work, as well as Soviet prisoners of war and Hungarian
Jews in addition to the concentration camp inmates. The last prisoner transport to Hartheim was on December 11, 1944, ending the operation. The gas chambers at Hartheim were dismantled and trace of their use removed, as much as possible. The castle was subsequently used as an orphanage.
The exact number of people killed under the Aktion 14f13 program is not certain. Scholarly literature on the subject puts the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000 for the period ending in 1943.
Sonderbehandlung
Sonderbehandlung is a German noun meaning special treatment in English, also existing as a verb: sonderbehandeln . While it can refer to any sort of preferential treatment, it is known primarily as a euphemism used by Nazi functionaries and the SS for murder...
("special treatment") 14f13", was a campaign of the Third Reich to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Also called "invalid" or "prisoner euthanasia", the campaign culled the sick, elderly and those deemed no longer fit for work from the rest of the prisoners in a selektion, after which, they were killed. The Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
campaign was in operation from 1941-1944 and later covered other groups of concentration camp prisoners, as well.
Background
In spring 1941, Reichsführer-SSReichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
met with Reichsleiter
Reichsleiter
Reichsleiter , was the second highest political rank of the NSDAP next only to the office of Führer. Reichsleiter also served as a paramilitary rank, for the Nazi Party and was the highest position attainable in any Nazi-Organisation.The Reichsleiter reported directly to Adolf Hitler, in whose...
Philipp Bouhler
Philipp Bouhler
Philipp Bouhler was a senior Nazi Party official who was both a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP...
, head of Hitler's Chancellery
Hitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers)
Die Kanzlei des Führers , also known as Privatkanzlei des Führers, was the Chancellery responsible for the Nazi Party and associated organizations and their dealings directly with Hitler...
, to discuss his desire to relieve concentration camps of "excess ballast", meaning sick prisoners and those no longer able to work. Bouhler was Hitler's approved agent for implementation of the Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
program for the mentally ill
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, disabled and inmates of hospitals and nursing homes deemed unable to work. The purpose of Himmler and Bouhler's agreement was to find an inconspicuous way to kill the prisoners. Though Aktion T4 was ostensibly shut down by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
on August 24, 1941, it continued covertly until Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
was defeated in 1945.
Organization
Bouhler instructed the head of the Hauptamt II ("main office") of the ChancelleryHitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers)
Die Kanzlei des Führers , also known as Privatkanzlei des Führers, was the Chancellery responsible for the Nazi Party and associated organizations and their dealings directly with Hitler...
, the Oberdienstleiter Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack , was a Nazi war criminal, the organiser of the Euthanasia Programme, Action T4, where the Nazi state systematically murdered disabled German people...
to implement this new order. Brack was already in charge of the various front operations of T4.
The scheme operated under the Concentration Camps Inspector
Concentration Camps Inspectorate
The Concentration Camps Inspectorate was the central SS administrative and managerial authority for the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Created by Theodor Eicke, it was originally known as the "General Inspection of the Enhanced SS-Totenkopfstandarten, after Eicke's position in the SS...
and the Reichsführer-SS under the name "Sonderbehandlung 14f13". The combination of numbers and letters was derived from the SS record-keeping system and consists of the number "14" for the Concentration Camps Inspector, the letter "f" for the German word "deaths" (Todesfälle) and the number "13" for the means of killing, in this case, for gassing in the T4 killing centers.Natural deaths were recorded with the code number "14f1", suicide or death by accident with "14f2", "14f3" meant shot while trying to escape. The execution of Soviet prisoners of war in concentration camps were recorded as "14f14" and the forced sterilization of prisoners was recorded as "14h7". "Sonderbehandlung" was the common term for execution or killing.
Selections, first phase
The operation began in April 1941. A panel of doctors began visiting concentration camps to select sick and incapacitated prisoners for "elimination". This panel included those already experienced from Aktion T4, such as professors Werner HeydeWerner Heyde
Werner Heyde was a German psychiatrist. He was one of the main organizers of Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program.-Education:Heyde completed his Abitur in 1920...
and Hermann Paul Nitsche, and doctors Friedrich Mennecke, Curt Schmalenbach, Horst Schumann
Horst Schumann
Horst Schumann , SS-Sturmbannführer and medical doctor, conducted cruel sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means of X-rays....
, Otto Hebold, Rudolf Lonauer, Robert Müller, Theodor Steinmeyer, Gerhard Wischer, Viktor Ratka and Hans Bodo Gorgaß. To speed up the process, camp commandants made a preliminary selection list, like they had done in the T4 operation. This left just a few questions to be answered, such as personal information, date of admission to the camp, diagnosis of incurable disease, war injuries, criminal referral based on the criminal code of the Third Reich and any previous offenses. Under the operation's guidelines, names of ballastexistenzen ("dead weight" prisoners) were to be compiled and presented to the medical doctors for "withdrawal from service". This included any prisoner who had been unable to work for a long time or was substantially incapacitated and would not be able to return to work.
Prisoners swept up by the commandant in the preliminary selection had to report to the medical panel. There was no proper medical examination carried out, rather the prisoners were questioned about their participation in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and about any war medals they might have received. Based on personnel and medical records, they then decided under what category to classify the prisoner. The final assessment of the prisoners was made using the information in the reporting form provided and was limited to the decision as to whether or not the prisoner would be steered toward "special treatment" 14f13. The report form and results were then sent for documentary registration to the T4 central office in Berlin.
Those prisoners being considered for the preliminary selection were sometimes encouraged by the camp administration to come forward if they felt sick or unable to work. They were led to believe they would go to a "recovery camp", where they would only have lighter work to do. Thus, many prisoners readily volunteered. However, after the gassings at the killing centers, when victims' belongings were sent back to the camp warehouse, despite the secrecy, the true reason for the selection became known, and even prisoners with serious illnesses stopped reporting to the infirmary.
The first known selection took place in April 1941 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
. By summer, at least 400 prisoners from Sachsenhausen were "retired". During the same period, 450 prisoners from Buchenwald and from Auschwitz, another 575 prisoners were gassed at the Nazi Sonnenstein killing center
Sonnenstein castle
The Sonnenstein castle is a castle in Pirna, near Dresden, Germany. It housed a mental hospital, which operated from 1811 to the end of World War II in 1945. During the War, it functioned as an extermination centre for the Third Reich Action T4 program...
. There were 1,000 prisoners from Mauthausen concentration camp were killed at Hartheim Castle. Between September and November 1941, there were 3,000 prisoners from Dachau, as well as several thousand from Mauthausen and neighboring Gusen concentration camp gassed at Hartheim Castle. The same happened with prisoners from Flossenburg
Flossenbürg
Flossenbürg is a municipality in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria in Germany. The state-approved leisure area is located in the Bavarian Forest and borders the Czech Republic in the east. During World War II, the Flossenbürg concentration camp was located here.- History :The...
, Neuengamme and Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
s. In the ensuing period, another 1,000 prisoners from Buchenwald, 850 from Ravensbrück and 214 from Groß-Rosen concentration camps were gassed at Sonnenstein Castle and Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
. In March–April 1942, some 1,600 women were selected at Ravensbrück and gassed at Bernburg.
These "medical reviews" are described in an excerpt from existing letters from Dr. Friedrich Mennecke. During a selection at Buchenwald, Mennecke wrote to his wife;
Weimar, Nov. 25, '41 8:58 a.m.
Elephant Hotel
First there were 40 forms to finish filling out from a 1st portion AryanAryanAryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
, on which my two other colleagues had already worked yesterday. Of these 40, I worked on about 15. ... Then came the "examination" of the pat.[ients], in other words, an introduction to the particulars & comparison with the notations in the files. We were not yet finished with these by noon because both my colleagues only worked in theory yesterday, so that I "post-examined" the ones who Schmalenbach (& I myself, this morning) had prepared & Müller, his. At 12:00 we first took a lunch break. ... Then we examined some more until around 4:00 p.m., in fact, I had 105 pat[ients], Müller 78 pat[ients], so that at the end, as 1st installment, 183 forms were done. As 2nd portion, now came a total of 1200 Jews, who will be entirely not first "examined", but rather with them, it's sufficient to pull from the files the reasons for arrest (often very extensive!) and transfer them to the forms. So, it's a purely theoretical job that takes us to Monday, certainly including benefit, perhaps even longer. Of this 2nd portion (Jews), today we did: I, 17; Müller 15. 5:00 sharp, we called it a day and went to dinner. ... The next few days will also go Just as I have described today, above – with exactly the same routine and the same work. After the Jews come about 300 Aryans as 3rd portion, who again will have to be "examined".
Killing centers
Only three Nazi killing centers (NS-Tötungsanstalt) were used for the gassing of the "invalided" prisoners, BernburgBernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
(headed by Irmfried Eberl
Irmfried Eberl
SS-Obersturmführer Irmfried Eberl was an Austrian Nazi war criminal who helped to establish, and was the first commandant of, the Treblinka extermination camp, where he worked from until his dismissal on . As a psychiatrist, Eberl was the only physician to command an extermination camp. In...
), Schloss Sonnenstein (headed by Horst Schumann
Horst Schumann
Horst Schumann , SS-Sturmbannführer and medical doctor, conducted cruel sterilization and castration experiments at Auschwitz and was particularly interested in the mass sterilization of Jews by means of X-rays....
) and Schloss Hartheim
Schloss Hartheim
Schloss Hartheim, located at Alkoven in Upper Austria, some 14 km. from Linz, Austria, became notorious as one of the Nazi Euthanasia killing centers, where the killing program Action T4 took place.The castle was built by Jakob von Aspen in 1600...
(headed by Rudolf Lonauer and Georg Renno).
After the doctors' commissions had "invalided" the different concentration camps' prisoners, the camp administration had to provide them on request. They were transported either by the "Charitable Ambulance Company
Charitable Ambulance
The Charitable Ambulance GmbH was a National Socialist subdivision of the Action T4 organization...
“ or the Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
directly to one of the killing centers.
There, the prisoners were examined for gold teeth by a prison doctor and labeled appropriately before being led into a gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
, where they were killed by carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
. After removing the gold teeth, which were sent to a central office in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, the corpses were incinerated in the on-site crematorium. Some corpses were examined further before incineration.
The killing was carried out by the same staff, using the same means as used previously with the mentally ill in Aktion T4. A few administrative details were changed in that the deaths were recorded by members of the respective camp administration and they also informed the relatives. A detailed description was given by Vincent Nohe to the Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei
is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
in September 1945, then investigating the Nazi war crimes that had taken place near there. Nohe, who had worked as a "burner" in the crematorium at the Hartheim
Schloss Hartheim
Schloss Hartheim, located at Alkoven in Upper Austria, some 14 km. from Linz, Austria, became notorious as one of the Nazi Euthanasia killing centers, where the killing program Action T4 took place.The castle was built by Jakob von Aspen in 1600...
killing center, was convicted at the Dachau-Mauthausen Trial in 1946 and sentenced to death for the murder of sick and incapacitated concentration camp prisoners. He was executed in 1947.
Scope of selections expanded, then narrowed
Over time, the selections increasingly included political or other disliked people, Jews and so-called asoziale. Pursuant to the general guidelines of the BavariaBavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n police, August 1, 1936, those to be taken into "protective custody
Protective custody
Protective custody is a type of imprisonment to protect a prisoner from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within prisoners, is a chief factor causing the need for PC units...
" were "gypsies, vagrants
Vagrancy (people)
A vagrant is a person in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income.-Definition:A vagrant is "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging;" vagrancy is the condition of such persons.-History:In...
, tramps, the "work shy", idlers, beggars, prostitutes
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, troublemakers, career criminals, rowdies, traffic violators, psychopaths
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
and the mentally ill."
Due to the defense industry's increasing need for workers, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate issued a decree on March 26, 1942, which was distributed to all camp commandants. (On March 16,1942, the CCI was incorporated into the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
The SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt was responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects for the Allgemeine-SS...
as "Amt D" under SS-Brigadeführer Richard Glücks
Richard Glücks
Richard Glücks was a high-ranking Nazi official. He attained the rank of a SS-Gruppenführer and a Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS and from 1939 until the end of World War II was the head of Amt D: Konzentrationslagerwesen of the WVHA; the highest-ranking Concentration Camps Inspector in Nazi...
. The decree was signed by Arthur Liebehenschel
Arthur Liebehenschel
Arthur Liebehenschel was a commandant at the Auschwitz and Majdanek death camps during World War II. He was convicted of war crimes after the war and executed.-Biography:...
, acting in Glücks' stead.)
It has been made known via a report from a camp commandant, that of the 51 prisoners retired for Sonderbehandlung 14f13, after a while, 42 of these prisoners again became "capable of work" and consequently didn't need to be sent. From this, it is evident that the selection of prisoners is not proceeding according to the stated regulations. The examinations panel may only choose such prisoners who match the regulations and above all, are no longer able to work.
In order to administer the work set up at concentration camps, the prisoner workforce must be retained at the camp. The camp commandants of the concentration camps are asked to focus particular attention to this.
The Chief of the Central Office
(signed) Liebehenschel
SS-ObersturmbannführerObersturmbannführerObersturmbannführer was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above Sturmbannführer as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time...
A year later, the intensified war situation required further restrictions on selections to ensure that every able-bodied worker could and would be put to work in the defense industry. Thus, on April 27, 1943, Glücks presented a new circular decree with instructions to, in future, "retire" only those prisoners who were actually mentally ill.
The Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police has decided that in the future, only mentally ill prisoners may be retired by the doctors' panel assembled for Action 14f13. All other incapacitated prisoners unable to work (those sick with tuberculosis, bed-ridden cripples, etc.) are categorically excluded from this operation. Bed-ridden prisoners shall be groomed for corresponding work that they can perform from bed.
In future, the order of the Reichsführer-SS is to be heeded closely. The fuel requirements for this purpose are therefore dropped.
After these guidelines were issued, only the Hartheim killing center was needed. Those at Bernburg and Sonnenstein were closed. The first phase of Aktion 14f13 was over.
Second phase
According to a command from April 11, 1944, new guidelines launched the second phase of Aktion 14f13. From then on, neither were forms filled out nor selections made by a doctors' panel . The selection of the victims to die became the sole responsibility of the camp administrations, as a general rule, the camp doctor. This did not, however, exclude the physically ill, who were no longer fit for work, from being killed. This was done within the camp itself or by transferring the prisoners to a camp that had a gas chamber, such as Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen or Auschwitz concentration camps.Those being gassed at Hartheim now included forced laborers
Forced labor in Germany during World War II
The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied...
from eastern Europe who were no longer able to work, as well as Soviet prisoners of war and Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Jews in addition to the concentration camp inmates. The last prisoner transport to Hartheim was on December 11, 1944, ending the operation. The gas chambers at Hartheim were dismantled and trace of their use removed, as much as possible. The castle was subsequently used as an orphanage.
The exact number of people killed under the Aktion 14f13 program is not certain. Scholarly literature on the subject puts the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000 for the period ending in 1943.
List of Nazi killing centers
- Grafeneck killing center
- Sonnenstein killing center
- Hadamar killing center
- Hartheim killing centerHartheim Euthanasia CentreThe Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was a Nazi killing centre that was part of their euthanasia programme, since also referred to as Action T4. It was housed in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz in Austria.- Statistics :...
- Bernburg killing centerBernburgBernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
- Brandenburg killing centerBrandenburg Euthanasia CentreThe Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der Havel State Welfare Institute The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der Havel State Welfare Institute The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der...
See also
- Charitable Ambulance GmbHCharitable AmbulanceThe Charitable Ambulance GmbH was a National Socialist subdivision of the Action T4 organization...
regarding the transportation of invalids in Action 14f13 - Glossary of Nazi Germany for terms used during the Nazi era
Sources
- Walter Grode, Die „Sonderbehandlung 14f13“ in den Konzentrationslagern des Dritten Reiches. Ein Beitrag zur Dynamik faschistischer Vernichtungspolitik Lang, Frankfurt am Main (1987) ISBN 3-8204-0153-9
- Stanislaw Klodzinski, Die „Aktion 14f13“. Der Transport von 575 Häftlingen von Auschwitz in das „Sanatorium Dresden“ in Götz Aly (Editor), Aktion T4 1939 – 45. Die „Euthanasie“-Zentrale in der Tiergartenstraße 4 Edition Hentrich, Berlin (1987) ISBN 3-926175-66-4
- Ernst KleeErnst KleeErnst Klee is a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he is best known for his exposure and documentation of the medical crimes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, much of which is concerned with the Action T4 forced euthanasia program.-Life and work:Klee was first trained as...
, "'Euthanasie' im NS-Staat. Die 'Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens'" S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1983) ISBN 3-10-039303-1 - Ernst Klee (Editor), Dokumente zur 'Euthanasie, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1985) ISBN 3-596-24327-0
- Ernst Klee, Was sie taten - Was sie wurden. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1986) ISBN 3-596-24364-5
- Thomas Schilter, Unmenschliches Ermessen Kiepenheuer, Leipzig (1998) ISBN 3-378-01033-9
- Eugen KogonEugen KogonEugen Kogon was a historian and a survivor of the Holocaust. A well-known Christian opponent of the Nazi Party, he was arrested more than once and spent six years at Buchenwald concentration camp. Kogon was known in Germany as a journalist, sociologist, political scientist, author and politician...
, Hermann LangbeinHermann LangbeinHermann Langbein was an Austrian who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francisco Franco...
, Adalbert Rückerl, Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1986) ISBN 3-596-24353-X
External links
- "Killing by starvation in the institutions and other previous crimes of psychiatry" 1999 speech by journalist Ernst KleeErnst KleeErnst Klee is a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he is best known for his exposure and documentation of the medical crimes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, much of which is concerned with the Action T4 forced euthanasia program.-Life and work:Klee was first trained as...
, translated from the original German