The first program created was the T4 program. The T4 program was set up in order to quickly and efficiently euthanize the both developmentally and physically disabled. The Germans believed, them to be inferior to the general Arian population and could, therefore, be deprived of life.
The Germans had two justifications for this program. One justification was that of mercy. This justification stripped the condemned, of their “inherent dignity,” since they are being treated as animals instead of human beings.
The other justification for the T4 program was of cost effectiveness. It was presented as a way of protecting German Pensioners. They were told, that these two populations were a drain on societies recourses, and the cost of lifetime care would come out of their pensions. This justification, further stripped the condemned, of any remaining shred of “inherent dignity.” If the state believed otherwise, they would not have carried out a program of mass euthanasia, as a way to save money on the cost of lifetime care.
The Germans also carried out a program of mass genocide, known as the final solution. The
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Retribution is often commonly misunderstood as revenge. Retribution means that the punishment fits the crime. This means that the severity of the punishment fits the severity of the crime committed. Therefore, the most heinous crimes warrants the most severe punishment. The problem with this argument is that death penalty, no longer resembles a judicial execution. The death penalty, by design is so sterile and clinical, it no longer looks or feels like an execution. Further, by focusing on providing the condemned, with a quick and painless death, instead of punishing a heinous crime, the death penalty cannot serve as retribution. Therefore, the state is no longer conducting the deprivation of life, pursuant to prong one of its police
The phrase “Final Solution” referred to their plan to annihilate the Jewish population. This plan stated that all European Jews would be killed by shooting, gassing, or any way necessary (Final Solution). The article “The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution,” documented that on January 20, 1942, the Nazis and Germans met to tell the non-Nazi Leaders what the Final Solution was, and that they were responsible for helping to get the Jews transported to the camps. The Final Solution was not the beginning for the elimination. This was already being accomplished by mobile killing squads that would shoot any Jewish men, women, or children. Later, on July 22, 1942 the gassing chambers were finished in the extermination or death camps. Camouflaging the chambers as large showers, the Jews would think they were going to bathe, when they were actually being gassed to death
Hitler and his right hand man, Himmler, came up with a plan called The Final Solution. The Final Solution was a plan to eliminate all of the Jews in europe. Approximently 6 million Jews were kiilled and 5 million other people that were on Hitler's Undesirable List were also killed.
Three thousand twins entered Auschwitz between 1940 and 1944. Only two hundred and fifty pairs of twins ever had the smell of freedom again. Why did this unfortunate event occur? It occurred because the Nazis party was in control and Adolf Hitler was the Fuhrer and he wanted a perfect race. "Right, left", what kind of a man could send people to their death with a flick of a cane, without one scent of remorse or one inkling of guilt? -his name was Josef Mengele. (Nazi304) Hitler gave Mengele all the resources he could and this is the main reason why he went to Auschwitz, because the of the availability of the victims he could do his work on. The stories and pictures of Auschwitz tell a gruesome tale of death and torture. Josef Mengele performed horrific experiments on twins, justified by official Nazis party policies to try and create the "perfect human being". To this day, he serves as a warning signal of the evil, man is capable of doing by trying to do good for one's own race with the exclusion of others.
Brandt’s first duties started out by performing abortions on women who were deemed as unfit to reproduce or if their fetus was seen as defective. The reasoning for this was to make a more perfect union, but many of the Nazis found this plan to be too slow. To quicken the purification process, they created the T-4 Euthanasia Program. This program was for mass killing of innocent people who were distinguished as incurable or defective. On September 1, 1939, Brandt was named co-head of the program along side Philipp Bouhler. Here is where Brandt became a part of medical history.
The Nazis believed that the disabled were a burden to society because they needed care and were considered an insult to their idea of a perfect race. About 375,000 people were sterilized against their will due to their disabilities. “In the autumn of 1939, Adolf Hitler secretly authorized a medically administered program of “mercy death” code-named “Operation T4,” in reference to the address of the program’s Berlin headquarters at Tiergartenstrasse 4. Between 1940 and 1941 approximately 70,000 Austrian and German disabled people were killed under the T4 program” (People with Disabilities). In total, a staggering amount of 250,000 disabled people died during the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of people died for their uncontrollable
Some of the people had a positive viewpoint. ONe such person was Fritz Lawz, who was a professor of race hygiene at the university of Munich (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). There were also authors that expresssed their strong agreement to the program. One such author was Karl Bindings who partnered with Adolf Hoche to write “The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life”(“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). Throught the propaganda some families became strong supporters of the program. One such family was the family of the blind Gerhard Herbert Kretschmar, who was born with one leg and part of one arm missing. Gerhard was called an idiot by his father and his family requested his killing to Hitler. Hitler approved and Gerhard became known as the Knauer Child and was a catalyst of euthanasia (“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). Some people had a negative viewpoint of the program, like Kurt Gerstein. Kurt was part of the Nazi party, but left after his sister-in-law as killed through the T-4 Program. He used his sorrow to preach at churches of the horrible doings of the Nazi’s. He had no success (Hogan #36). Others, like Samuel Beckett made fun of Hitler’s standards saying that “An Aryan must be blonde like Hitler, think like Gorig, handsome like the Goebbels, virile, like Rӧhn- and named Rosenberg.” With all these viewpoints many were left confused and no actions were being taken to stop the program. It continued
“The Final Solution” was the horrible plan to kill all the Jews, all thanks that it didn’t happen goes to the soliders that fought then. Mass Genocide probabally will never happen again because of what when down in Germany almost 70 years ago.
Furthermore also children from many other institution were brought to Vienna by telling the parents of the children they are going to get better in Vienna, not knowing that they would never see their child again. They were taken to be tormented by the euthanasia programs. Any child that became weak or was near death was taken away and given a lethal injection of “luminal”.
The T4 Program; also known as the T4 Euthanasia Program, was created to help rid Germany of anyone that was considered to be undesirable according to the Nazi Army that was at that time ran by Adolf Hitler. Hitler had his own views on the people he wanted Germany to contain and some just didn’t match what he thought was appropriate for the “master race.” The program began in 1939, at this time it was focused towards specific groups. The group they first tested the program on was anyone that was considered handicapped physically ...
The Final Solution was the Nazi plan in Germany during World War II to get rid of the European Jewish population through genocide. In January of 1942, this policy was instituted and planned out at the Wannsee Conference. It resulted in the murder of two thirds of the European Jews, better known as The Holocaust. Both ...
The capital punishment has been cited as a reasonable sentence by those who advocate for retribution. This is essentially when it comes to justice so that people take full responsibility for their individual actions. Studies have proved that the decision to take away life of a person because they committed a certain crime serves to perpetuate the crime in question. It also serves to enhance the progress of organized and violent crime. It has been noted that various flaws in the justice system has led to the wrong conviction of innocent people. On the other hand, the guilty have also been set free, and a plethora of several cases has come up when a critical look at the capital punishment has been undertaken. Killers hardly kill their victims deliberately, but they probably act on anger, passion, or impulsively. In this regard, it is not proper to convict them exclusively without
The camps were divided into four basic categories: the four killing centers, the official concentration camps, the official reception and holding center, and a unique fortress town at Theresienstadt.2 Obviously, the killing centers had the greatest death rate. They "were only killing centers – they had no other function. The prisoners there did not die on the way to death—they were killed".3 The four killing centers were Chlemo, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Chlemo did not have crematories; they used the woods for mass graves. Belzec used diesel-run gas chambers, but they took a long time and were not very efficient. Sobibor also made use of gas chambers and mass graves. The most efficient of all the killing centers was Treblinka. Treblinka took note of the other camps mistakes and became quite an efficient killing center. Treblinka was able to destroy one million humans in a matter of twelve months.4 The official concentration camps were divided into labor/extermination complexes and...
Does taking another’s life actually avenge that of another? The disciplinary act of capital punishment, punishment through death, has been a major debate in the United States for years. Those in support of capital punishment believe that it is an end to the reoccurrence of a repeat murderer. The public has, for many years, been in favor of this few and pro-death penalty. Yet as time goes on, records show a decrease in the public and the state’s support of the continuation of capital punishment. Those against capital punishment believe it is an immoral, spends taxpayers’ money improperly, and does not enforce a way to rehabilitate criminals and/or warn off future crimes.
Capital punishment is a method of retributive punishment as old as civilization itself. Both the Greeks and the Romans invoked the death penalty for a wide variety of offenses. Socrates and Jesus were perhaps the most famous people ever condemned for a capital crime in the ancient period. Hammurabi's Code, a code of laws developed by the king of one of the first empires, dates back from the third or second millennium before Christ. This code claims that retribution, an eye for an eye and a life for a life, is justice. In Anglo-American law the death penalty has been a customary response to certain kinds of offenses. The movement in America to have the death penalty declared unconstitutional received paramount attention during the landmark case of 'Furman v. Georgia,' rendered on June 29, 1972, which declared the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment. No executions took place between 1967 and 1977 (Bedau, 1992). However, after a supreme court decision in 1975 'Gregg v. Georgia', which stated capital punishment did not violate the Eighth Amendment, executions commenced again under state supervision. Should capital punishment be continued? Retribution is a ju...
On the first of September, 1939 World War II began. Hitler is in power of Nazi Germany and is wanting to cleanse the German people of racially unsound elements. He enacts a program that will aim to eliminate the so called “lives unworthy of life” called the T4 program (History Place). Over the next six years throughout Germany, many people are experimenting with and euthanized to help Nazi Germany reach a “pure” state. Was this program that was enacted ethical and what has happened since then to stop something like this from happening again? What kind of medical advances and data did we achieve from it and is it ethical today to use what they learned in today’s medical trials?