Today in History---June 2, 1948
--72 years ago today, Adolf Hitler's personal Physician, Dr. Karl Brandt, was hanged as a convicted War Criminal for crimes against humanity, by verdict of the Nuremberg Court after WWII.
Brandt was the architect and initiator of Nazi Germany's secret involuntary Euthansia program called T-4. (Tiergarten 4, the HQ for the program). Administered by the SS, Hitlers racial decrees mandated among other things, taking into custody, handicapped children, sick children and terminally ill adults, the infirm elderly, and anyone else classified as "unfit to live", "a life unworthy of living" in order to purify the Race, and save money for the State. The first phase was lethal injection in hospitals and asylums. That proving too costly, gave way to loading people into Vans whose Carbon Monoxide exhaust was directed into the Van as it drove around. This consumed needed gasoline. Finally, Zyklon-B was developed and the "unfit" were shipped to Camps where they were gassed. The personnel trained for the Euthanasia program later became the administrators for the Death Camps implementing the Final Solution to the Jews.
On days like today, it's worth remembering that the Nazi Horror started out with "small beginnings". And secondly, that the US and its allies back in our better days used to hang Nazis, not elect them, or have them read the News on Fox.
