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- Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs.uiuc.edu!sparc0b!divine
- From: divine@cs.uiuc.edu (Dwight Divine IV)
- Subject: Re: Holocaust Almanac: T4 Personnel & Concentration Camps
- Message-ID: <BzFsp2.69z@cs.uiuc.edu>
- Keywords: 14f13,Bouhler,T4
- Sender: news@cs.uiuc.edu
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- References: <1992Dec17.090004.9049@oneb.almanac.bc.ca>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 04:05:26 GMT
- Lines: 27
-
- Excuse me if this has already be debated to death in this group, but
- didn't the German Euthanasia movement begin long before the Nazis come
- to power? I have heard that as early as 1920, certain prominent
- German intellectuals and scientists were proposing the killing of
- those they deemed 'worthless', and that gassings and cremations in
- psychiatric hospitals began years before the Nazis. Could someone
- give a brief overview of the development of the German Euthanasia
- programs (perhaps the "highlights" and watersheds the movement
- experienced, the methods by which it won support among intellectuals
- or scientists as well as popular support (if it did), etc.)? Also,
- could someone recommend good works on this issue.
-
- I confess that I worry that something similar may happen in the not
- too distant future in this country. All the familar forces are coming
- into play again: eugenics, encouragement of suicide and mercy killing,
- etc. Leaving aside questions about whether persons should be allowed
- to choose suicide, I don't think we will be successful in limiting
- mercy killing to those who wish it, or even to those who are
- terminally ill. I think reviewing what happened in Germany might make
- us all a little more aware of how it can _always_ "happen again."
-
- Thanks very much to all who respond. Also, please feel free to
- respond by attacking the positions advanced here, if you feel them to
- be in error, as well as to recommend works which oppose these
- positions (as if I needed to ask for opposition :) ).
-
-
-