Date |
Event |
1920 |
Psychiatrist Alfred Hoche and jurist Karl Binding publish a book “Allowing the destruction of life unworthy of living” |
01/30/1933 |
Adolf Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor of Germany |
03/23/1933 |
German Parliament passes the Enabling Act, giving Hitler the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag |
07/14/1933 |
Hitler’s Cabinet passes the “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” mandating the forced sterilization of for people with certain diseases thought to be hereditary |
06/30/1934 |
Hitler and his associates commit their first mass murder |
08/19/1934 |
Adolf Hitler officially becomes Der Führer |
1935 |
Hitler declares his intention to radically solve the problem of mentally sick in the event of a war |
06/1939 |
Parents of Gerhard Kretschmar petition Hitler to euthanize their son and to make child euthanasia legal in Germany |
07/25/1939 |
Gerhard Kretschmar is euthanized on Hitler’s orders |
08/18/1939 |
Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses is established |
08/18/1939 |
Reich Minister of the Interior requires reporting all children with specified disabilities to T4 authorities |
09/01/1939 |
Nazi Germany invades Poland |
09/1939 |
Einsatzgruppen start shooting mental patients in Poland |
10/1939 |
Hitler authorizes Aktion T4 with a letter backdated to 09/01/39 |
10/1939 |
Mental patients from German hospitals sent to Poland and shot |
10/1939 | The first killing with carbon monoxide takes place in Poland |
12/1939 |
The first euthanasia center set up in Brandenburg an der Havel |
07/01/1940 |
The first killing facility for children is established |
12/02/1941 |
Vatican issues decree condemning Aktion T4 |
02/1941 |
The first public protest against Aktion T4 takes place in Absberg |
06-07/41 |
Bishop von Galen condemns Aktion T4 in his sermons |
08/24/41 |
Adolf Hitler officially suspends Aktion T4 |
End of 1941 |
Aktion T4 personnel transferred to Operation Reinhard |
05/29/41 |
Last involuntary euthanasia performed in Germany |