In Germany and occupied Austria, people with disabilities were the first to fall victim to National Socialist mass murder, propa- IHRA gated under the euphemistic term of “euthanasia”. For racist and economic reasons they were deemed unfit to live. The means and methods used in these crimes were applied later during the Holocaust— perpetrators of these first murders became experts in the death camps of the so-called “Aktion Reinhardt”. International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (Ed.) Over the course of World War II the National Socialists aimed to exterminate people with disabilities in the occupied territories of Mass Murder of People with Western Europe, and also in Eastern Europe. This publication presents the results of the latest research on Disabilities and the Holocaust these murders in the German occupied territories, as discussed at an IHRA conference held in Bern in November 2017. Edited by Brigitte Bailer and Juliane Wetzel Mass Murder of People with Disabilities and the Holocaust the and Disabilities with People of Murder Mass ISBN: 978-3-86331-459-0 9 783863 314590 us_ihra_band_5_fahne.indd 1 11.02.2019 15:48:10 IHRA series, vol. 5 ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 2 29.01.19 13:43 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (Ed.) Mass Murder of People with Disabilities and the Holocaust Edited by Brigitte Bailer and Juliane Wetzel ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 3 29.01.19 13:43 With warm thanks to Toby Axelrod for her thorough and thoughtful proofreading of this publication, and Laura Robertson from the Perma- nent Oce of IHRA for her support during the publication procedure. ISBN: 978-3-86331-459-0 ISBN (E-Book): 978-3-86331-907-6 © 2019 Metropol Verlag + IHRA Ansbacher Straße 70 10777 Berlin www.metropol-verlag.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten Druck: buchdruckerei.de, Berlin ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 4 29.01.19 13:43 Content Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust ........................................... 9 About the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) .................................................... 11 Preface .................................................... 13 Brigitte Bailer/Juliane Wetzel Opening Remarks . 15 Benno Bättig Opening Remarks . 18 Andrea Schweizer Foreword .................................................. 19 Yehuda Bauer Foreword .................................................. 25 Steven T. Katz Foreword .................................................. 32 Wichert ten Have IDEOLOGY—THE GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN CASES Regula Argast Swiss Eugenics and its Impact on Nazi Racial Hygiene ....... 37 Paul Weindling The Need to Name: The Victims of Nazi “Euthanasia” of the Mentally and Physically Disabled and Ill 1939–1945 ..... 49 ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 5 29.01.19 13:43 WESTERN EUROPE Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen Starvation in French Asylums During the German Occupation Reality and Misinterpretations .................................... 85 Cecile aan de Stegge Excess Mortality and Causes of Death in Dutch Psychiatric Institutions 1940–1945 ................. 97 EASTERN EUROPE Michal V. Šimůnek/Milan Novák Aktion T4 in Bohemia and Moravia and its Context, 1939–1941 ...................................................... 127 Filip Marcinowski/Tadeusz Nasierowski The Extermination of People with Disabilities in Occupied Poland The Beginning of Genocide ...................................... 135 Alexander Friedman Murders of the Ill in the Minsk Region in 1941 and their Historic Reappraisal in the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany ............................. 150 Björn M. Felder Starvation, Mass Murder, and Experimentation Nazi “euthanasia” in the Baltics 1941–1944 . 175 CONTINUITIES AND COMPARISONS Sara Berger “Murder was already their profession.” “Aktion T4” Staff in the “Aktion Reinhardt” Extermination Camps 203 ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 6 29.01.19 13:43 EDUCATION ON MASS MURDER OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND HOLOCAUST EDUCATION—SIMILARITIES, POSSIBLE SYNERGIES Florian Schwanninger Hartheim Castle Learning and Memorial Centre The difcult path to a place of Documentation, Commemoration and Education ................................. 213 Jan Erik Schulte Hadamar Memorial Museum—Gedenkstätte Hadamar ...... 231 omas Lutz Mass Murder of People with Disabilities and the Holocaust Some Remarks .................................................. 234 Otto Rühl Educating About the Mass Murder of People with Disabilities ..................................... 239 David Silberklang Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education, and Education on the Murder of People with Disabilities .................... 252 Authors .......................................................... 255 ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 7 29.01.19 13:43 ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 8 29.01.19 13:43 Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust e Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust (or “Stockholm Declaration”) is the founding document of the Interna- tional Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and it continues to serve as an ongoing armation of each IHRA member country’s commitment to shared principles. e declaration was the outcome of the International Forum convened in Stockholm between 27–29 January 2000 by former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson. e Forum was attended by the representatives of 46 governments including; 23 Heads of State or Prime Ministers and 14 Deputy Prime Ministers or Ministers. eir vision has remained intact, unaltered throughout the ensuing years, demonstrating its universal and enduring value. e members of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance are committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which reads as follows: 1. e Holocaust (Shoah) fundamentally challenged the foundations of civilization. e unprecedented character of the Holocaust will always hold universal meaning. Aer half a century, it remains an event close enough in time that survivors can still bear witness to the horrors that engulfed the Jewish people. e terrible suering of the many millions of other victims of the Nazis has le an indelible scar across Europe as well. 2. e magnitude of the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazis, must be forever seared in our collective memory. e seless sacrices of those who deed the Nazis, and sometimes gave their own lives to protect or rescue the Holocaust’s victims, must also be inscribed in our hearts. e depths of that horror, and the heights of their heroism, can be touchstones in our understanding of the human capacity for evil and for good. 3. With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to ght those evils. Together we must uphold ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 9 29.01.19 13:43 10 STOCKHOLM DECLARATION the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples, and the polit- ical commitment of our governments, to ensure that future genera- tions can understand the causes of the Holocaust and reect upon its consequences. 4. We pledge to strengthen our eorts to promote education, remem- brance and research about the Holocaust, both in those of our coun- tries that have already done much and those that choose to join this eort. 5. We share a commitment to encourage the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions. We will promote education about the Holocaust in our schools and universities, in our communities and encourage it in other institutions. 6. We share a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honour those who stood against it. We will encourage appro- priate forms of Holocaust remembrance, including an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance, in our countries. 7. We share a commitment to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust. We will take all necessary steps to facilitate the opening of archives in order to ensure that all documents bearing on the Holo- caust are available to researchers. 8. It is appropriate that this, the rst major international conference of the new millenium, declares its commitment to plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past. We empathize with the victims’ suering and draw inspiration from their struggle. Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and rearm humanity’s common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice. ihra_5_fahnen Nicole.indd 10 29.01.19 13:43 About the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) e International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance and promote Holo- caust education, remembrance and research worldwide and to uphold the commitments of the 2000 Stockholm Declaration. e IHRA (formerly the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, or ITF) was initiated in 1998 by former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson. Persson decided to establish an international organization that would expand Holocaust education worldwide, and asked President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to join him in this eort. Persson also devel- oped the idea of an international forum of governments interested in discussing Holocaust education, which took place in Stockholm between 27 and 28 January 2000. e Forum was attended by twenty-three Heads of State or Prime Ministers and fourteen Deputy Prime Ministers or Minis- ters from