Personnel active in the Euthanasia Program also took part in the
extermination of the Jews in the East from about 1941 until the
liberation of the eastern territories. Some time in the second half of
1941 part of the personnel, who were until then executing the Euthanasia
Program in Germany, was sent to Lublin and put at the disposal of SS
Brigadefuehrer Globocnik in order to assist in the mass extermination of
the Jews, which was then common knowledge in the higher circles of the
NSDAP. Among the doctors who assisted in the extermination of the Jews
were Drs. Eberle and Schumann, both of whom had been previously active
in the Euthanasia Program in Germany. All of this Brack admitted in his
pretrial affidavit:
“The order to send these men to the East could only have been
given by Himmler to Brandt, possibly through Bouhler.” (_NO-426,
Pros. Ex. 160._)
The connection between the “Stiftung” (Charitable Foundation for
Institutional Care) and the extermination camps in Lublin was also known
to the lower employees of the euthanasia stations. (_NO-470, Pros. Ex.
332._) The witness Gorgass stated in his affidavit that Police Captain
Wirth told him, late in the summer of 1941, that he had been transferred
by the Foundation for Institutional Care (which was one of the code
names under which the Euthanasia Program operated) to a euthanasia
institute in the Lublin area. (_NO-3010, Pros. Ex. 503._) The SS judge,
Dr. Morgen, who investigated the Jewish extermination program in Lublin,
testified before the International Military Tribunal that Wirth, having
previously carried out the task of removing the incurably insane, was a
specialist in mass destruction of human beings. The office from which
Wirth obtained his orders was Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse, and among the
people who were connected with this operation was Blankenburg.
(_NO-2614, Pros. Ex. 504._) Brack admitted that Wirth was an official of
the Brandenburg euthanasia station. (_Tr. p. 7733._) Brandt visited
Brandenburg in the winter of 1939-40. (_Tr. pp. 7645-6._) The central
office for the Euthanasia Program was set up in Tiergartenstrasse 4, and
Blankenburg was Brack’s deputy in the Euthanasia Program. (_Tr. pp. 7563
and 7707._)
The defendant Brack reported to Himmler about these activities on 23
June 1942, as follows:
“On the instructions of Reich Leader Bouhler I placed some of my
men—already some time ago—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 Jew
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 * *
*.” (_NO-205, Pros. Ex. 163._)
The affidavit of Kurt Gerstein, which also mentions Wirth, gives a vivid
description of the terrible way in which the victims were killed by the
thousands by order of Globocnik. (_1553-PS, Pros. Ex. 428._)
In October 1941, Brack, the administrative head of the Euthanasia
Program, forwarded plans whereby Jews who were unable to work should be
exterminated by gas. He declared his readiness to send some of his
assistants and especially his chemist, Kallmeyer, to the East, where the
necessary gassing apparatus could be easily manufactured. Eichmann, whom
Hitler had charged with the extermination of the Jews, was in agreement
with these plans. Consequently, there were “no objections to doing away
with those Jews who are unable to work, by means of the Brack remedy”.
(_NO-365, Pros. Ex. 507._)
Kallmeyer, who was charged with the manufacture of the gassing apparatus
and equipment, had been trained for this task in the Euthanasia Program.
Previously he had been responsible for the proper operation of the gas
chambers of the different euthanasia institutions. (_Tr. p. 7743._)
According to Eichmann’s own estimate, four million Jews were killed in
extermination institutions. (_NO-2737, Pros. Ex. 505._)