Germar Rudolf on the Euthanasia in the Camps (Sonderbehandlung 14f13)

Germar Rudolf: Lectures on the Holocaust: Controversial Issues Cross-Examined. 4th, revised edition. pp. 174-175.

(L=listener, R=Rudolf)

L: Then there is the huge topic of euthanasia in the concentration camps, which during the Third Reich had the bureaucratic acronym “special treatment 14 f 13.” These killings did not require a decision by the RSHA, but merely of the physician in charge of the camp. Furthermore, according to the prevailing notion, this kind of murder of “life unworthy of living” was exactly the starting point for the murder of camp inmates unfit for labor, and later the wholesale murder of the European Jews.

R: Euthanasia is a broad subject which we cannot thoroughly cover during these lectures. It is true, however, that during the war inmates permanently unfit for labor were subjected to special treatment by euthanasia. But an order to all camp commanders of March 26, 1942 specified that “every inmate worker must be maintained for the camp” (1151-PS), so that temporarily unfit inmates were not covered by this. A little more than a year later, on April 27, 1943, Himmler issued an order stipulating that frailness and physical infirmity can no longer be reasons for such a special treatment (NO-1007):

“The Reichsführer SS and Head of the German Police has decided in principle that in the future only mentally ill prisoners may be processed by the medical boards created for Program 14 f 13. All other prisoners unfit for work […] are in principle exempt from this program. Bedridden prisoners should be assigned work that they can perform in bed.”