“During the war nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums in which
euthanasia was practiced as described elsewhere in this
judgment, came under Frick’s jurisdiction. He had knowledge that
insane, sick and aged people, ‘useless eaters’, were being
systematically put to death. Complaints of these murders reached
him, but he did nothing to stop them. A report of the
Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission estimated that 275,000
mentally deficient and aged people, for whose welfare he was
responsible, fell victim to it.”
As stated in the indictment, the defendants involved in the euthanasia
program sent their subordinates to the eastern occupied territories to
assist in the mass extermination of Jews. This will be shown by abundant
evidence, including the following excerpt from a letter from the
defendant Brack to Himmler in 1942 from which I quote a paragraph:
“On the instructions of Reichsleiter Bouhler I placed some of my
men at the disposal of Brigadefuehrer Globocnik to execute his
special mission. On his renewed request I have now transferred
additional personnel. On this occasion Brigadefuehrer Globocnik
stated his opinion that the whole Jewish action should be
completed as quickly as possible so that one would not get
caught in the middle of it one day if some difficulties should
make a stoppage of the action necessary. You yourself, Reich
Leader, have already expressed your view, that work should
progress quickly for reasons of camouflage alone.”
Protesting the lawless slaughter which even Himmler sought to
“camouflage”, the Bishop of Limburg in 1941 foresaw that such insane
carnage spelled the downfall of the Third Reich. (_615-PS._) He wrote:
“And if anybody says that Germany cannot win the war, if there
is yet a just God, these expressions are not the result of lack
of love for the Fatherland but of a deep concern for our people.
* * * High authority as a moral concept has suffered a severe
shock as a result of these happenings.”