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HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN PEDAGOGY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE 92
German Reich, the care facility was closed and the patients dispersed to other institutions. Within one
month, a gas chamber and a crematorium were installed. In 1940, the castle was transformed from a
former care facility into a killing facility for the disabled. Approximately 30,000 people were killed in Hartheim.
This figure includes patients from care facilities as well as prisoners from concentration camps such as
Mauthausen and Dachau who were transported to Hartheim. The killings stopped at the end of 1944, and
the gas chamber and crematorium were demolished. After 1945 the castle became home to several tenants
and did not function as a memorial site. Since 2003, Hartheim is a place of learning and remembrance. It is
the aim of this article to provide information about this history and some ideas on how the T4 program can
be successfully taught in class. 1
Background
In Nazi ideology, disabled people and those with mental
illnesses did not fit into the ideal of a perfect, healthy and
strong society. Nazism saw these people as a societal
burden who generated costs and had no right to live
in the Nazisociety. In October 1939, Hitler signed the
so-called “Euthanasia decree” which was backdated to
September 1, 1939. It reads:
Reich Leader Bouhler and Dr. med. Brandt are charged
with the responsibility of enlarging the competence
of certain physicians, designated by name, so that
patients who, on the basis of human judgment are
considered incurable, can be granted mercy death after
a discerning diagnosis. — Adolf Hitler.
Image courtesy of Dokumentationsarchiv
des österreichischen Widerstandes
1
The information in this article is based, if not otherwise mentioned, on the following book: Kepplinger, Brigitte; Marckhgott,
Gerhart; Reese, Hartmut (Hg.): Tötungsanstalt Hartheim (Linz 2008)