Charitable Ambulance
Encyclopedia
The Charitable Ambulance GmbH (known as "Gekrat", a shortened version of its full German name, Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH) was a National Socialist subdivision of the Action T4
organization. The euphemistically named company transported sick and disabled people to the Nazi killing centers to be murdered under the Nazi eugenics
program and was known for the gray buses it used.
, Brandenburg concentration camp, Schloss Hartheim
, Schloss Sonnenstein, Bernburg
and Hadamar Clinic
. It also handled some administrative tasks. When family members wrote to hospitals where their loved ones had been sent, that mail was forwarded to Gekrat, which did not answer inquiries, but did allow institutions to provide limited information in reply. This information was provided only as a means for the Nazis to continue receiving payment for room and board. Reinhold Vorberg headed the central office for transportation. Hermann Schwenninger was registered as the chief executive.
After 1941, Gekrat also handled transportation for the Action 14f13
program, which eliminated sick prisoners and those no longer able to work from Nazi concentration camps by bringing them to the killing centers, where they were sent to the gas chamber
s and killed.
There is a monument to those killed by Action T4 and Action 14f13. Designed in the shape of one of the old buses, one monument is stationary and the other one is moved to different locations where people were killed in the T4 program.
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"...
organization. The euphemistically named company transported sick and disabled people to the Nazi killing centers to be murdered under the Nazi eugenics
Nazi eugenics
Nazi eugenics were Nazi Germany's racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the Aryan race through eugenics at the center of their concerns...
program and was known for the gray buses it used.
Background
Gekrat was created to transport the victims to the Nazi killing centers Grafeneck CastleGrafeneck Castle
The Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre housed in Grafeneck Castle was one of Nazi Germany's killing centres as part of their euthanasia programme...
, Brandenburg concentration camp, 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...
, Schloss Sonnenstein, 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...
and Hadamar Clinic
Hadamar Clinic
The Hadamar Euthanasia Centre was a psychiatric hospital in the German town of Hadamar, used by the Nazis as the site of their T-4 Euthanasia Programme, which performed mass sterilizations and mass murder of "undesirable" members of Nazi society, specifically those with physical and mental...
. It also handled some administrative tasks. When family members wrote to hospitals where their loved ones had been sent, that mail was forwarded to Gekrat, which did not answer inquiries, but did allow institutions to provide limited information in reply. This information was provided only as a means for the Nazis to continue receiving payment for room and board. Reinhold Vorberg headed the central office for transportation. Hermann Schwenninger was registered as the chief executive.
After 1941, Gekrat also handled transportation for the Action 14f13
Action 14f13
Action 14f13, also called "Sonderbehandlung 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...
program, which eliminated sick prisoners and those no longer able to work from Nazi concentration camps by bringing them to the killing centers, where they were sent to the 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...
s and killed.
After 1945
Vorberg fled to Spain in 1961, but was extradited back to Germany in March 1963. After a trial lasting 20 months, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for complicity in the murder of many thousands of people.There is a monument to those killed by Action T4 and Action 14f13. Designed in the shape of one of the old buses, one monument is stationary and the other one is moved to different locations where people were killed in the T4 program.
Sources
- 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, 11th edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main (2004) ISBN 3-596-24326-2 - Thomas Vormbaum (Editor), „Euthanasie“ vor Gericht. Die Anklageschrift des Generalstaatsanwalts beim OLG Frankfurt/M. gegen Dr. Werner Heyde u. a. vom 22. Mai 1962 Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin (2005) ISBN 3-8305-1047-0