Lives Worthy of Life and Remembrance: Memorialization of the National Socialist Aktion T4 Euthanasia Programme

It is estimated that over 70,000 German and Austrian victims deemed mentally and physically disabled by the Nazis lost their lives in the National Socialist euthanasia programmed entitled Aktion T4. These murders prove to be the first instance of mass gassings of a selection of society deemed unwanted, and provided the intellectual and technological framework that was employed in the Extermination Camps. And yet a void in memorialization exists for the topic. Deficient memorialization of such a historically important event in German and Austrian society raises questions as to why this Nazi programme was not memorialized to the same degree as other historical events and victim groups of the Holocaust. The scarce number of representations of the victims in the forms of literature, art, monuments and memorials is indicative of a reluctance or selective remembering of the topic in WWII memorialization practices. The void in memorialization of Aktion T4 is founded in three important and influential factors. Firstly, the negative stigmas associated with mental and physical disabilities, both in confronting the topic, but also presenting it on public display. Secondly, the legal issues in that only a very few number of doctors, caregivers, or commanders of the killing centres were prosecuted and sentenced for their crimes, but rather continued to practice without any repercussions. Finally, the addressing of the topic of German suffering and the representation of German people as victims, and not solely as the perpetrators of WWII. This complex dichotomy of presenting German people as both victims and perpetrators within the same action results in a political nervousness and general avoidance. The topic of Aktion T4 memorialization is pertinent as it speaks not only to the history of the mentally and physically disabled victims, but also to the treatment of people with disabilities today. The memorialization of Aktion T4 and the representation of its victims is an important topic which has been long delegated to the margins of Holocaust memory work. These first victims represent a selected eradication of a group of society deemed unworthy of life, and unworthy of belonging to the German population.Ph