Edeltraud F. Fellendorf, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Edeltraud F. Fellendorf
INFANT MURDER 1/5/2010 11:43:04 AM
By Cindy Rodriguez, Commander, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Today Mom would like me to tell you about Frau K., one of her neighbors in Berlin. Frau K. gave birth to a child (a boy) whose spine hadn't fully closed and one of his arms was formed only up to the elbow; he had no forearm or hand. Even though the baby appeared to be alert and crying, the midwife that delivered the infant convinced Frau K. the child would be better off dead. She assured Frau K. the infant would not survive, and it would be better for her to kill the child immediately before Frau K. got attached to him. The midwife then disposed of the baby by sticking a large needle through his brain.
Mom told this story to me as a child, and it’s included in her memoirs. What Mom didn’t know until recently was that Hitler had passed a directive in 1939, Action T4, authorizing the euthanization of the disabled; this included children. This was done under the guise of racial hygiene and to reduce the state’s cost of caring for such individuals during a time of war when all finances needed to be shifted to arming the country (Friedlander, 1997, p. xi).
In fact, the Reich Committee for Scientific Research of Serious Illness of Hereditary and Protonic Origin was specifically created to carry out the “murder of disabled infants and children" (O’Niell, 2000). What’s particularly disturbing is that Hitler knew such a program could not be started in a time of peace so he waited until he could justify it during a time of war. It was also carried out in secret. Only Hitler’s personal chancellery, the Chancellery of the Fuhrer of the Nazi Party (KdF), would oversee the program from its headquarters in Berlin. Because it was relatively small, it “could direct the killings without involving too many people and without becoming too visible” (Friedlander, 1997, pp. 39-40).
The confidential decree that targeted children (ages 3 and under) was known as “The Requirement to Report Deformed etc. Newborn,” and ordered midwives and physicians to document infants with abnormalities. It specifically mentions “all deformities, especially missing limbs, severely defective closure of the head and the vertebral column” (Friedlander, 1997, p. 45).
Frau K.’s little boy didn’t have a chance.
"The children's killing program continued even after the war had ended, until discovered by the Allies” (O’Niell, 2000).
*****************************************
What's so interesting about Mom's account is that research shows these euthanizations were to have taken place in hospitals and designated institutions by doctors and nurses. Now it looks like the program was expanded to include infants delivered at home, and even midwives had the authority to terminate a child without seeking prior approval.
