Tiergartenstrasse 4, Berlin.
Pre-war 'photo of the urban villa at address Tiergartenstrasse 4, Berlin. Headquarters of a vaguely defined "racial hygiene" institute, this house was, between 1939 and 1941, the nerve centre of an abominable programme dedicated to the extermination of German adults and children suffering from disabilities deemed by the Nazis to render them unsuitable to breed, and uneconomic for the Volk to support. Aktion T4 was preordained by a "voluntary euthanasia" directive dated as early as 1934, but Hitler did not feel that the imposition of a compulsory programme would not be politically opportune except in war conditions. When war came, the programme was initiated by a personal written order from the Fuhrer - a rare event. In line with this oddity, the order was issued through Reichlieter Phillip Bouhler, head of Hitler's party/political chancellary. Bouhler became administrative head of the programme. Murders - conservatively numbered in the 10,000 - 20,000 range in the 1939-1941 period - were carried out in a number of centres masquerading as care facilities. A number of execution methods were tried, but that favoured was disposal by means of small gas chambers, dressed up as shower units. Hitler ordered the termination of T4 in 1941, following unprecedented public protest, in particular, by Roman Catholics headed by the Cardinal Archbishop of Munster. The Lutherans were pretty unhappy with the whole business as well. Too many Germans (albeit congenitally handicapped ones) turning up dead in suspiciously similar circumstances. Not that this made much difference; there is every indication that the murder of the disabled continued in less formal circumstances. Also, T4 provided an ideal proving and training ground for future Holocaust practitioners. Among those to graduate to the murder "big league" was the former secret policeman (KRIPO and GESTAPO) Christian Wirth, Inspector of Aktion Reinhard death camps, along with several lesser killers (Franz Stangl to name but one). Having been destroyed in the war, the site of Tiergartenstrasse 4 is currently occupied by a suitably brutalist office block. Best regards, JR.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/german-forces/36714/tiergartenstrasse-4-berlin.
