Victor Brack

T4 - Euthanasia and Links to Mass Murder in the East

Victor Brack was born in Haaren, Germany on the 9 November 1904 the son of a medical practitioner. After studying economics in Munich he became a fiend of Heinich Himmler and for a time he became a chauffeur for the future Reichsfuhrer-SS. Brack then became a member of the NSDAP and the SS in 1929.

Throughout his career in the Party he was quite active in high official circles. He entered upon full-time service in the Braune Haus, the Nazi headquarters at Munich, in the summer of 1932.

Brack was promoted to the rank of Sturmbannfuehrer in the SS in 1935, and in April 1936 to the rank of Obersturmbannfuehrer. In 1936 he was appointed head liaison officer with the Department of Health by Philip Bouhler, though he had little or no previous medical experience.

Subsequently he rose to become Bouhler’s deputy and Chief of Section II in the Fuhrer’s Chancellery with the rank of Oberdienstleiter. Between December 1939 and August 1941 Brack’s office, known as T-4, from its address at Tiergartenstrasse -4, was responsible during the so-called “Euthanasia Action.”

This programme was responsible for the murder of more than 50,000 Germans, this included the mentally sick, chronically sick and concentration camp prisoners deemed as “unfit for work,” politically undesirable elements and Jews and Gypsies. Brack himself personally interviewed and selected personnel for the euthanasia establishments, from those involved in cremating the corpses, to the cleaners.

Later, because of the urgent need for laborers in Germany, it was decided not to kill Jews who were able to work but, as an alternative, to sterilize them. With this end in view Himmler instructed Brack to inquire of physicians who were engaged in the Euthanasia Program about the possibility of a method of sterilizing persons without the victim's knowledge.

Franz Stangl recalled in an interview with Gitta Sereny, who was about to report for duty in the euthanasia establishment Schloss Hartheim, near Linz:

“I reported to Tiergartenstrasse 4, I think to SS Oberfuhrer Brack who explained what my specific police duties would be.”

In March 1941 he offered the services of his network of institutes to Heinrich Himmler for the purpose of sterilising 3-4000 Jews daily in x-ray clinics.

In August 1941 Karl Brandt telephoned Philip Bouhler to instruct him that on Hitler’s orders the euthanasia programme must be ceased. There was some unease about the murder of invalids and mentally ill Germans. In December 1940 Himmler had recommended to Brack that the euthanasia institute at Grafeneck activities should be suppressed, due to continuing unrest over the euthanasia programme.

Viktor Brack persuaded the Tobis film company to produce the film “Ich Klage an” – I accuse – the sentimental story of a professor who is put on trial for hastening the death of his young wife, an incurable invalid.

Later in 1941 Brack prepared to set up gassing facilities in Riga and Minsk to exterminate Jews, unsuitable for work. Subsequently, he was closely involved in the construction of the death camps in Poland and the installation of gas chambers, and the supply of personnel.

Dr Erhard Wetzel wrote from Rosenberg’s office on the 25 October 1941 to Reichskommissar Lohse in Riga:

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/brack.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009