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It was on the basis of this decree that the killing of the patients was organized. The organization had its
headquarters on Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. The abbreviation of Tiergartenstraße 4 (T4) gave rise to its use
as a post-war name. The T4 headquarters sent out forms to all care facilities in the German state to record
patients. Physicians, located in Berlin, marked the forms either with a blue minus or a red plus sign. A blue
minus meant the patient should stay in the care facility; a red plus indicated the patient should be deported
to one of the six killing facilities and be gassed there. Patients were deported from the care facilities by
buses and sometimes trains.
In Hartheim, a small wooden garage was located outside the castle. It was here that the buses stopped
and the patients disembarked (figure 4). It took a group of well-organized functionaries to carry out the
systematic killing of the disabled. After arrival, the patients undressed and their luggage was taken away.
Next they were shown to the doctor, who chose a natural cause of death that could be told to the relatives,
and the patients were told they would have to shower. In reality, the shower room was the gas chamber,
where the patients were gassed by carbon monoxide on the day of their arrival. Afterwards, the staff of
Hartheim burnt the corpses in the crematorium. Secretaries wrote letters of condolence to the relatives of
the victims and sent them together with death certificates with false dates and causes of death.
Deciding What to Teach
The history of the T4 program and Nazi medicine is an extensive topic. There are a variety of important
topics that should be included for students. First and perhaps most importantly is the recognition that
the history of the T4 program is the history of individuals. It is the history of the victims, but also the
perpetrators, the bystanders and others.
93 HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN PEDAGOGY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE