Read Online Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder by Gitta Sereny - Free Book Online

and America had for some considerable time had a law which permitted them to carry out euthanasia – ‘mercy-killings’ – on people who were hopelessly insane or monstrously deformed. He said this law was going to be passed in Germany – as everywhere else in the civilized world – in the near future. But that, to protect the sensibilities of the population, they were going to do it very slowly, only after a great deal of psychological preparation. But that, in the meantime, the difficult task had begun, under the cloak of absolute secrecy. He explained that the only patients affected were those who after the most careful examination – a series of four tests carried out by at least two physicians – were considered absolutely incurable so that, he assured me, a totally painless death represented a real release from what, more often than not, was an intolerable life.” *
    “What was your first reaction, your first thought when Kriminalrather Werner said these things?”
    “I … I was speechless. And then I finally said I didn’t really feel I was suited for this assignment. He was, you know, very friendly, very sympathetic when I said that. He said he understood well that that would be my first reaction but that I had to remember that my being asked to take this job showed proof of their exceptional trust in me. It was a most difficult task – they fully recognized it – but that I myself would have nothing whatever to do with the actual operation; this was carried out entirely by doctors and nurses. I was merely to be responsible for law and order.”
    “Did he specify what he meant by law and order?”
    “Yes. I would be responsible for maintaining the maximum security provisions. But the way he put it, almost my main responsibility would be to ascertain that the protective regulations regarding the eligibility of patients would be adhered to, to the letter.”
    “But the way you are telling about it, now, you were obviously not ordered to do this. You were given a choice. Your own immediate reaction, quite properly, was horror. What made you agree to do it? ”
    “Several times during this talk, he mentioned – sort of by the way – that he had heard I wasn’t altogether happy in Linz. And then, he said, there was this disciplinary action pending against me. That would of course be suspended if I accepted this transfer. He also said I could choose either to go to an institute in Saxonia, or one in Austria. But that, on the other hand, if I chose to refuse the assignment, no doubt my present chief in Linz – Prohaska – would find something else for me to do.”
    “And that decided you, did it?”
    “The combination of things did; the way he had presented it; it was already being done by law in America and Russia; the fact that doctors and nurses were involved; the careful examination of the patients; the concern for the feelings of the population. And then, it is true, for months I had felt myself to be in the greatest danger in Linz from Prohaska. After all, I already knew since March 13, 1938, that it was simpler to be dead in Germany than anywhere else. I was just so glad to get away from Linz.”
    “So what happened?”
    “I reported to Tiergartenstrasse 4, I think to SS Oberführer Brack who explained what my specific police duties would be.” (When Stangl said this, and for some time after, it seemed significant that he, at that point a police officer of comparatively minor formal rank, should have been interviewed and instructed by SS Oberführer Victor Brack, who was one of the top officials of the Führer Chancellery. Since then, however, I have learned from Dieter Allers, former chief administrative officer of T4, that Brack interviewed and instructed personally all personnel assigned to T4 – “He even interviewed the chars,” said Allers.)
    “I said I’d try to do it, and that I would like to stay in Austria where I would be nearer my family. He said that, to be effective in