[mobglob-discuss] Re: [pr-x] psychiatric murders 1939-1945

[Liz]

A yearly commemoration of people murdered will be held on December 28. The
first was held this year in Holland and a few other places. The plan is to
build for next year. The following is the speech given at this years
memorial in Holland by a woman named Mira who is also coordinating an elist
devoted to the memorials.
If interested: psych-mass-murder-memorial at yahoogroups.com
-------------------------------------
Commemoration of people
murdered by psychiatrists between 1939 - 1945
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today in different places around the globe the people murdered
by psychiatrists in the years 1939 through 1945 are being
commemorated.
In the Netherlands some of us are surely sighing:
commemorating again? Does every group of murdered people have
to be commemorated? The answer is yes, because not remembering
is repeating.
But this group, what does it have to do with us? Some people
will wonder. The murdered people were Germans and Austrians.
The murderers were Germans and Austrians.
Yes, the murdered people were Germans and Austrians, but they
were not murdered because they were Germans and Austrians.
They were murdered because they deviated from norms set by
doctors, norms for behavior, belief, intelligence, social
skills, physical perfection, and financial functioning. When
Jews, Romas, dark-skinned people, or homosexuals were
murdered, some people could think, “Fortunately I’m not
Jewish, Roma, dark-skinned, homosexual” or whatever. But
nobody could think, “Fortunately I’m not feeble,” because
feebleness can happen to anybody. Nor did the ideology of the
murderer-doctors stop at the borders of German-speaking
countries. All of us would have been potential victims of the
mass murder program. That is why we, too, are commemorating
the murders today. Not remembering is repeating.
Who were the people we are commemorating today? Unfortunately,
we don’t know their names. How many were they? According to
Fredric Wertham, himself a German psychiatrist who emigrated
to the United States in 1922, there were at least 275,000 in
Germany alone, counting only the so-called psychiatric
patients. I could not find a source telling me how many were
murdered in Austria, only that entire psychiatric hospitals
were emptied. A different source reveals that also in occupied
France 40,000 people in institutions were killed by
psychiatrists. Large numbers like that could obscure from us
that we are talking about individuals, robbed of life because
the psychiatrists of their day considered that medically
necessary. Those individuals we are commemorating today,
because not remembering is repeating.
Who were their murderers? Scores of their names are known. They were revered
scientists and doctors, professors of universities, managers of psychiatric
hospitals, men and women. In their private lives they were
considered kind, gentle people. They had the best of
intentions. Many had published material that to date is still
quoted in text books studied by aspiring young doctors. Not
remembering is repeating.
Several misconceptions exist about the murders, often based on
what we would like to believe. One such misconception is that
the psychiatrists did what they did involuntarily, that they
were somehow compelled by Hitler, under threat of penalty. The
opposite is true.
Psychiatrists lobbied Hitler for permission to carry out their
so-called “euthanasia program”. It was a logical consequence
of their sterilization program in which from 1934 400,000 men,
women and children in Germany were involuntarily rendered
sterile, sometimes because of the most trivial conditions. The
sterilization stopped in 1939. It was only a small step from
sterilization to murder. Incidentally, the activities of the
top physician of that sterilization program, Ernst Rüdin, were
sponsored by the Rockeffeler Foundation in the United States,
not by the nazis.
Although the idea existed already, notably in England and the
United States, the mass murder program was designed in a
scientific book written in Leipzig, Germany, in 1920. The
authors were the attorney Karl Binding and the psychiatrist
Alfred Hoche, both professors. Binding and Hoche argued that
the human race should be purified by removing deviant people
from it. They recognized that occasionally a non-deviant
person might accidentally be included in the procedure, but
they felt that that risk was justified considering the benefit
of a future society without deviant people in it.
Binding and Hoche’s philosophy become immensely popular both
inside and outside of Germany. Professors and department heads
of the medical faculties of Berlin, Heidelberg, Bonn, and
Würzburg organized conventions to persuade legislators and
judges. The American Psychiatric Association proposed adopting
the program in the United States, where involuntary
sterilization continued even after  1945. The British
“Eugenics Society” which was founded before the German mass
murder program and to this day still exists endorsed it.
Binding and Hoche had not yet heard of Adolph Hitler. On the
contrary, it was Hitler who would be strongly influenced by
the beliefs that were the fashion in the psychiatry of his
day.
Psychiatrists were not compelled to participate. One,
Gottfried Ewald, is known to have refused. He was asked to
leave the planning commission, but otherwise he was not
molested by other psychiatrists or by the nazis.
A second misconception is that the murderers were exceptions,
a minority of medical thugs, and their crimes sporadic or
cases of over-zealousness. Impossible. For every murdered
person all sorts of formalities were completed, registrations,
questionnaires in four copies, this commission and that
commission, this decision and that decision, rubber stamp from
here and signature from there. Not one of the murdered people
was killed casually. To guard against perversion of the
process of selection psychiatrists were not allowed to decide
about the dwellers of their own institutions. Today in this
country this principle still applies. We call it the
“independent psychiatrist” who is “not the own therapist”.
The mass murders were based on ideology. In 1941 in a
psychiatric hospital called Hadamar staff assembled to
celebrate the death of the 10,0000st victim. His naked body
was ceremoniously shoved into the cremating oven. There was
music and each member of staff received a bottle of beer as a
present.
A third misconception is that most psychiatrists themselves
did not know about it or participate. In fact, only renowned
psychiatrists were invited to join the effort. The architects
of the mass murder program were distinguished psychiatrists.
The selection of candidates for murder was done by
psychiatrists, scores, if not hundreds of them, who manned all
those committees. The murders were physically committed by
psychiatrists. Psychiatrists ordered the erection of the gas
chambers and crematoria at the psychiatric hospitals
Grafeneck, Brandenburg, Hartheim, Sonnenstein, Hadamar, and
Bernburg. Psychiatrists themselves opened the gas valves,
while other psychiatrists observed the asphyxiating people
through a little window in the side of the gas chamber.
Psychiatrists of institutions that had no gas chamber
willingly cooperated with transporting their dwellers to other
institutions, where there were gas chambers. Or they killed
the dwellers with psychotropic drugs, either by injection or
by
mixing them through the food. Other dwellers were intentionally starved to
death on so-called scientific diets. Particularly thousands of children were
murdered by psychoactive drugs and starvation.
A forth misconception is that the murders were committed in sympathy for the
supposed suffering of the victims. This claim was successful
at several of the trials that were later brought against some
of the mass murderers. Aside from the fact that the murders
were far from humane, aside from the fact that the dwellers
had not asked to die, there was no question of only severely
ill or handicapped people being murdered. The criteria were
constantly expanded and included: children with malformed
ears, children who wet their beds, elderly people who weren’t
as fit as they once had been, blind and deaf people, people
who occasionally had epileptic seizures, veterans of the first
World War who had lost a limb in the line of duty, and people
who, not having a demonstrable impairment, were called
“schizophrenic.” Some people had no impairments at all, but
were incarcerated, if they were adults, because of
homelessness or unemployment, and if they were children,
because of problems in the home. Especially the elderly were
often not incarcerated at all. Psychiatrists visited the
families’ homes and persuaded the family to send Grandma or
Granddad to an institution where there was expert care. That
care was murder.
Jewish people were not included in the mass murder program.
They were considered not good enough for the “treatment”. They
were, however, later allowed to be deported to the
concentration camps, where the same fate awaited them.
In 1941 some psychiatrists were transferred from their
psychiatric hospital to work in the concentration camps.
During the trial of one such psychiatrist, he was asked, “how
could you have gone from selecting psychiatric patients to
selecting regular people?” Apparently the prosecutor did not
understand what the prosecuted did understand. He answered,
“There’s no difference.”
A fifth misconception is that the psychiatrists’ aims were
purely medical. In their books, articles, speeches, and
letters, they repeatedly stressed the economic benefits of the
mass murder program. The nation would be spared the cost of
caring for non-productive people. The murdered people would
leave their belongings, homes, clothes, and utensils behind. A
number was stamped on the chests of people with gold teeth so
that after being gassed, their bodies would be easily
identified. In a later trial, it was testified that a thousand
bodies were needed for every gram of gold. The bodies
themselves had economic value. Soap could be produced from the
fat, bags from skin, mattresses from hair, and of course, the
brains were very much wanted by colleague doctors for
scientific research. The revenue was monitored by the Central
Accounting Bureau in Berlin. I want to remind you, these were
psychiatric hospitals. The mass murders in the
concentration camps had not begun yet.
A sixth misconception is that the psychiatric murders stopped in 1941.
That year Hitler did speak to the manager of the mass murder program, Karl
Brandt. Exactly what was said is not written. The sources that I consulted
are
divided over whether Hitler withdrew his permission for the program, or
whether he only asked to moderate it. The sources are equally divided about
the
reason that Hitler made this request. Some suggest that Hitler caved in to
pressure from the public, particularly priests, neighbors to the
institutions with
crematoria, and dissident psychiatrists. Others postulate that Hitler was
concerned about morale among the troops. Soldiers returning home for a visit
discovered that little sister or Granny had mysteriously disappeared, or
they
worried that if they were wounded, they might themselves be candidates for
the
mass murder program. A third possibility is that Hitler wished
to designate a different employment for the gas chambers. In
1941 they were dismantled, shipped to the east, and erected
anew in the concentration camps. Teams of doctors and nurses
traveled with the equipment to train concentration camp
commanders in their use.
But the mass murders of psychiatrized people continued in 1941
and after, also without the gas chambers. Especially children
were largely killed with psychotropic drugs and starvation
anyway. In 1945 the allied troops saved some lives by
liberating the psychiatric institutions. Among them were 20
children rescued from a hospital called Eglfing-Haar by
American soldiers. Perhaps some of them are still alive today.
We recognize the names of many concentration camps because we
commemorate the people who were murdered in them. Without the
tools created by psychiatrists for psychiatric inmates, the
history of the concentration camps would not have been the
same. It is high time that we commemorate the people who were
murdered in the psychiatric hospitals, because not remembering
is repeating.
What became of the thousands of psychiatrists and others who
committed the mass murders? A few, among whom the manager of
the mass murder program, Karl Brandt, and his assistant, Paul
Nitsche, were executed at Nuremberg. Many other top officials
in the program escaped justice by committing suicide. Werner
Heyde, inspector of the gas chambers, lived and worked twelve
years under an assumed name, although his identity was known
to his colleagues. After being discovered, he too committed
suicide. Some psychiatrists served relatively short prison
terms, such as Valentin Falthauser, who participated in the
murder of 300 people. He was sentenced to three years,
slightly more than 3½ days per victim. Another psychiatrist,
fleshy Hermann Pfannmüller, who, aside from adults, killed 120
children between the ages of one and five by so-called natural
means, namely intentionally starving them to death, served six
days per murdered child. Most of the psychiatrists who did not
commit suicide were acquitted, if indeed they were tried at
all, and continued their careers, be it in Europe or in the
United States. Among other activities, they trained a new
generation of psychiatrists. One of the most prominent
psychiatrists in the mass murder program, Werner Villinger,
was decorated by the West German government and in 1950 upon
invitation, participated in a White House conference on
children and youth in the United States. Another mass
murderer, the psychiatrist Fredrich Maurz was involved in 1948
in the founding of the World Federation of Mental Health.  You
won’t find that information on their web site. In the 1980s an
American writer interviewed scores of physicians who were
involved in mass murders. They were living and working in
freedom. Also the other people involved, nurses, assistants,
administrators, students, pharmacists, the builders of the gas
chambers and the suppliers of the gas, all went scot-free.
One of the participants in the Nuremberg tribunal was Leo
Alexander, psychiatrist from the United States. It was he who
persuaded the prosecutors not to consider the involuntary
sterilization as crimes, as they were being carried out in the
US as well. In cases brought later than the Nuremberg tribunal
judges also demonstrated sympathy for the psychiatric mass
murder program, leading to
mild sentences or acquittals. We must not forget that the German justice
system
was involved in the mass murder program.
While preparing this speech, I wondered whether publications by the mass
murderers can still be read in this country. I consulted the library
catalogues of
the two universities in Amsterdam. And so it is. Karl Brandt, head of the
mass
murder program, who was executed at Nuremberg, many hits. And yes, I counted
only the hits regarding the correct Karl Brandt, because there are indeed
multiple
authors by that name. Paul Nitsche, also executed, 5 hits. The thesis
written by
Pfannmüller, the tot torturer, also available. Max de Crini, the Berlin
professor
who inspected the gas chamber at Sonnenstein hospital by watching the deaths
through the little window, 6 hits. Werner Catel, the expert child murderer,
hits.
Berthold Kihn, the administrative mass murderer, hits. Villinger, who I
mentioned earlier, a publication from 1958, long after the
demise of the nazi regime. And I went on to find hits for most
of the names that I typed. Binding en Hoche’s book that was
the basis for the mass murders is also available. Who knows
how many publications by psychiatric mass murderers are
studied by young trainee doctors in our country, or yours.
Mein Kampf by Hitler is also available. I am not advocating
censure. But the difference between Hitler and psychiatric
mass murderers is that every child in the country knows that
Hitler was a mass murderer. The names of the psychiatric mass
murderers who inspired Hitler are unknown. I am advocating
that we educate ourselves about the events in the psychiatric
hospitals in those years. The French say, l’histoire se
repete. History repeats itself only when we don’t learn it. To
learn this shameful history, we have to commemorate the
victims. Not remembering is repeating.
Why have these murders never been commemorated in this country
before? Why are they hushed up? Could it be because we still
use psychiatrists to remove deviant people from our midst?
Today’s psychiatrists do not aim to commit mass murder. But
there are parallels. Nowadays we do not speak of “the people”
(volk) but of society. Psychiatrists are still trained to see
humans as body and genes. Although the syllable “psych” means
soul, the soul has no role in modern biopsychiatry either.
Instead of mass murder we now have mass medication. The
boundary between “tranquilized” and “dead” has been moved
somewhat. By this I am referring to the testimony by one of
the psychiatrists, that it didn’t make much difference whether
somebody
was dazed or dead. The undemonstrated and unprovable diagnoses are now not
on the death certificates but in the medical files. Parents of children are
still
pressured by psychiatrists. The doors to some institutions are still locked
from
both sides. Dissident psychiatrists who do not succumb to the beliefs and
practices of the masses are still discredited by colleagues and denied
employment.
The pseudo-medical jargon is also still part of psychiatry. Back then,
violence was
called “care”, murder was called “euthanasia”, death from drugs was called
“natural death”, person was called “patient”, and not understood was called
“schizophrenic.” Now we have added terms such as “compliance” and “insight
into illness”.
The symbiotic relationship between medicine and government is stronger than
ever, a mariage à convenance between law and science, between physician and
the
power of the court, which override the self-determination of the law-abiding
individual.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we plan to be here again next year to commemorate,
because not remembering is repeating.
We call on psychiatrists and other physicians, psychiatric and other nurses,
professors, teachers, and students, all who are directly or indirectly
involved in
caring for people in institutions, to come and commemorate
with us next year, because not remembering is repeating.
We call on politicians, judges, lawyers, civil servants,
health insurers, board members of institutions and
universities, and everyone else who is directly or indirectly
involved in the administration of decisions regarding the fate
of people called patients, to come and commemorate with us
next year, because not remembering is repeating.
We call on the leaders and practitioners of all religions, the
adherents of all philosophies, and citizens of all
occupations, to come and commemorate with us next year,
because not remembering is repeating.
We call on psychiatrized people, those who still can walk,
talk, think, feel, remember, and function independently, to
come and commemorate with us next year, because not
remembering is repeating.
We call on the German government to publish the list of
31.000 names of people known to have been murdered by
psychiatrists which is at the State Archives in Berlin. We
realize that for every name on the list there are nine names
we may never know, but tell us the one that are known. And for
every name, tell us the age of that person at the time of his
or her murder, and tell us the diagnosis that fated that
person. Give us the opportunity to form some kind of mental
image of those people, so that we can remember that indeed
they were human beings like ourselves, because not remembering
is repeating.
We are here today to commemorate 300,000 men and  women,
children and elderly people, with major impairments, minor
impairments, and no impairments, victims of the scientific
values of their time, victims of those who thought they could
engineer the human race, victims who were selected and
murdered by the psychiatrists who claimed to treat them in
their best interests. May their souls find blessing in this
commemoration.
Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest we end this commemoration
ceremony with a minute of silence.

Association for Medical and Therapeutic Self-determination in
the Netherlands
(MeTZelf)  MeTZelf-owner at yahoogroups.com
Sources:
A Sign for Cain, Fredric Wertham
Mass Murderers in White Coats, Lenny Lapon
The War Against Children, Peter Breggin
Nazi Doctors, Robert J. Lifton
http://www.psychiatrie-erfahrene.de/reading_english.htm
http://www.wfmh.com
http://www.pharmapolitics.com