Action 14f13

Aktion 14f13
A so-called "charitable ambulance"Gekratbus
Also known as	Sonderbehandlung14f13 Aktion 14f13
Location	Hartheim,BernburgandSonnenstein Killing Facilities
Date	1941–1944
Incident type	Deportations toextermination camps
Perpetrators	Heinrich Himmler,Philipp Bouhler,Viktor Brack,Werner Heyde,Horst Schumann,Richard Glücks,Arthur Liebehenschel
Participants	Nazi Germany
Organizations	Concentration Camps Inspectorate,SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt(Amt D),Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH,Deutsche Reichsbahn
Camp	Auschwitz,Buchenwald,Sachsenhausen,Mauthausen,Gusen,Flossenbürg,Neuengamme,Ravensbrück,Groß-RosenandDachau
Victims	15,000–20,000
Memorials	Das Denkmal der grauen BusseTraveling monument of the greyGekratbuses

Action 14f13,also calledSonderbehandlung(special treatment)14f13andAktion 14f13,was a campaign byNazi Germanyto murderNazi concentration campprisoners. As part of the campaign, also calledinvalidorprisoner euthanasia,the sick, the elderly and those prisoners who were no longer deemed fit for work were separated from the rest of the prisoners during a selection process, after which they were murdered.TheNazicampaign was in operation from 1941 to 1944 and later covered other groups of concentration camp prisoners.

Background

In spring 1941,Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmlermet withReichsleiterPhilipp Bouhler,head of theHitler Chancelleryto discuss his desire to relieve concentration camps ofexcess ballast,sick prisonersand those no longer able to work.Bouhler wasHitler'sagent for implementation ofAktion T4,theeuthanasiaprogram for thementally ill,disabledand inmates of hospitals and nursing homes deemed unworthy of inclusion in Nazi society.

Heinrich Himmlerand Bouhler transferred technology and techniques used byAktion T4personnel to concentration camps and later toEinsatzgruppenanddeath camps,to efficiently murder unwanted prisoners and inconspicuously dispose of the bodies.Aktion T4was officially terminated by Hitler on August 24, 1941 but it was continued by many of the physicians who had been involved, until Nazi Germany was defeated in 1945.

Organization

Philipp Bouhler,Head of the T4 programme

Bouhler instructedOberdienstleiterViktor Brack,the head ofHauptamtII(Main Office II) of theHitler's Chancellery(Kanzlei des Führers) to implement the new order. Brack was already in charge of the various front operations of T4. The scheme operated under theConcentration Camps Inspectorand theReichsführer-SSunder the name "Sonderbehandlung14f13 ". The combination of numbers and letters was derived from the SS record-keeping system,14for the Concentration Camps Inspector,ffor the German word deaths (Todesfälle) and13for the cause of death, in this case murder by poison gas in the T4killing centers."Sonderbehandlung"(" special action "– literally" special handling ") was theeuphemisticterm for execution or killing.

Selections, first phase

Buchenwaldinmates on 16 April 1945, the day that the camp was liberated

After the operation began in April 1941, a panel of doctors began visiting concentration camps to select sick and incapacitated prisoners for "elimination". This panel included those already experienced fromAktion T4,such as professorsWerner HeydeandHermann Paul Nitscheand doctors Friedrich Mennecke, Curt Schmalenbach,Horst Schumann,Otto Hebold, Rudolf Lonauer, Robert Müller, Theodor Steinmeyer, Gerhard Wischer, Viktor Ratka and Hans Bodo Gorgaß. To speed up the process, camp commandants made a preliminary selection list, as they had done in the T4 operation. This left just a few questions to be answered, such as personal information, date of admission to the camp, diagnosis of incurable disease, war injuries,criminal referralbased on theGerman penal codeand any previous offenses. Names ofballastexistenzen(dead weight prisoners) were to be compiled and presented to the medical doctors forwithdrawal from service,which included any prisoner who had been unable to work for a long time or was substantially incapacitated and would not be able to return to work.

Paul Nitsche,a Nazi psychiatrist who was executed in 1948 by the Allies, partly due to his role in selecting prisoners for extermination

Prisoners in the preliminary selection had to report to the medical panel but there was no proper medical examination; the prisoners were questioned about their participation inWorld War Iand about any war medals they might have received. Based on personnel and medical records, the panel decided how to classify each of the prisoners. The final assessment was made using the information in the reporting form and was limited to the decision as to whether or not the prisoner would be steered toward "special treatment" 14f13. The report form and results were sent for documentary registration at the T4 central office in Berlin.

Prisoners being considered for the preliminary selection were sometimes encouraged by the camp administration to come forward if they felt sick or unable to work. They were led to believe they would go to a "recovery camp", where they would have light duties. Many prisoners believed the lie and readily volunteered but, after they were gassed at the killing centers, the victims' belongings were sent back to the camp warehouse for sorting. Prisoners learned the true reason for the selection and even prisoners with serious illnesses stopped reporting to the infirmary.

The first known selection took place in April 1941 atSachsenhausen concentration camp.By the summer, at least 400 prisoners from Sachsenhausen had been murdered. During the same period, 450 prisoners fromBuchenwaldand 575 prisoners fromAuschwitzwere gassed at theSonnenstein Killing Facility;Hartheim Killing Facilitywas used to murder 1,000 prisoners fromMauthausen concentration camp.Between September and November 1941, 3,000 prisoners fromDachauand several thousand people from Mauthausen and neighboringGusen concentration camp,were gassed at Hartheim. Prisoners from theFlossenbürg,NeuengammeandRavensbrückcamps were also selected and murdered. After November, another 1,000 prisoners from Buchenwald, 850 from Ravensbrück and 214 fromGroß-Rosen,were gassed at Sonnenstein Castle andBernburg.From March to April 1942, some 1,600 women were selected at Ravensbrück and gassed at Bernburg.

The jury courtroom in 1947 during theDresden Doctors' Trialfor the crimes committed atSonnenstein Killing Facility

The "medical reviews" are described in an excerpt from letters written by Dr. Friedrich Mennecke; during a selection at Buchenwald, Mennecke wrote to his wife;

Weimar, Nov. 25, '41 8:58 a.m.

Elephant Hotel

First there were 40 forms to finish filling out from a 1st portionAryan,on which my two other colleagues had already worked yesterday. Of these 40, I worked on about 15.... Then came the "examination" of the pat.[ients], in other words, an introduction to the particulars & comparison with the notations in the files. We were not yet finished with these by noon because both my colleagues only worked in theory yesterday, so that I "post-examined" the ones who Schmalenbach (& I myself, this morning) had prepared & Müller, his. At 12:00 we first took a lunch break.... Then we examined some more until around 4:00 p.m., in fact, I had 105 pat[ients], Müller 78 pat[ients], so that at the end, as 1st installment, 183 forms were done. As 2nd portion, now came a total of 1200 Jews, who will be entirely not first "examined", but rather with them, it's sufficient to pull from the files the reasons for arrest (often very extensive!) and transfer them to the forms. So, it's a purely theoretical job that takes us to Monday, certainly including benefit, perhaps even longer. Of this 2nd portion (Jews), today we did: I, 17; Müller 15. 5:00 sharp, we called it a day and went to dinner.... The next few days will also go Just as I have described today, above – with exactly the same routine and the same work. After the Jews come about 300 Aryans as 3rd portion, who again will have to be "examined".

— Friedrich Mennecke

Killing centers

The gas chamber atBernburg Killing Facility,designed byErwin Lambert

Only three Nazi killing centers (NS-Tötungsanstalt) were used for the gassing of theinvalidedprisoners:Bernburg Killing Facility(manager:Irmfried Eberl),Sonnenstein Killing Facility(manager:Horst Schumann), andHartheim Killing Facility(Rudolf Lonauer and Georg Renno). Under the code name "Aktion 14f13"prisoners from Mauthausen and Gusen were murdered atHartheim Castlestarting in July 1941.

After the doctors' commissions hadinvalidedthe concentration camps' prisoners, the camp administration had to provide them on request. They were transported either by the "Gekrat"or theReichsbahnto one of the killing centers. The prisoners were examined for gold teeth by a prison doctor and labelled appropriately before being led into agas chamber,where they were murdered withcarbon monoxide.After any gold teeth were removed,for dispatch to a central office inBerlin,the corpses were incinerated in thecrematorium;some corpses were examined further before incineration.

The murder was carried out by the same staff, using the same means as used previously with the mentally ill inAktion T4.A few administrative details were changed, in that the murders were recorded by members of the respective camp administration; they informed relatives of the deaths, claiming illness as the cause. A detailed description was given by Vinzenz Nohel to theLinzKriminalpolizeiin September 1945, who were investigatingNazi war crimesthat had taken place nearby. Nohe, who had worked as a "burner" in the crematorium at theHartheim Killing Facility,was convicted at theDachau-Mauthausen Trialin 1946 and sentenced to death, for the murder of sick and incapacitated concentration camp prisoners and was executed in 1947.

Scope of selections

Selections increasingly included political or other persecuted peoples, Jews and so-calledasoziale.Pursuant to the general guidelines of theBavarianpolice of August 1, 1936, those to be taken intoSchutzhaft( "protective custody" ) were "gypsies,vagrants,tramps, the "work-shy", idlers,beggars,prostitutes,troublemakers, career criminals, rowdies, traffic violators,psychopathsand the mentally ill. "

Shortages of labour for the war economy led to aConcentration Camps Inspectorate(CCI) decree on March 26, 1942, which was distributed to all camp commandants. In 1942, the CCI was incorporated into theSS-Wirtschafts-VerwaltungshauptamtunderSS-ObergruppenführerOswald PohlasAmt DunderSS-BrigadeführerRichard Glücks.The decree was signed byArthur Liebehenschel,acting in Glücks' stead.

It has been made known via a report from a camp commandant, that of the 51 prisoners retired for Sonderbehandlung 14f13, after a while, 42 of these prisoners again became "capable of work" and consequently didn't need to be sent. From this, it is evident that the selection of prisoners is not proceeding according to the stated regulations. The examinations panel may only choose such prisoners who match the regulations and above all, are no longer able to work.... In order to administer the work set up at concentration camps, the prisoner workforce must be retained at the camp. The camp commandants of the concentration camps are asked to focus particular attention to this.

The Chief of the Central Office

(signed) Liebehenschel

SS-Obersturmbannführer

A year later, the deteriorating war situation required further restrictions on selections, to ensure that every able-bodied worker could be put to work in the war economy. On April 27, 1943, Glücks presented a new circular decree with instructions toretireonly those prisoners who were mentally ill or disabled.

The Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police has decided that in the future, only mentally ill prisoners may be retired by the doctors' panel assembled for Action 14f13. All other incapacitated prisoners unable to work (those sick with tuberculosis, bed-ridden cripples, etc.) are categorically excluded from this operation. Bed-ridden prisoners shall be groomed for corresponding work that they can perform from bed. In future, the order of the Reichsführer-SS is to be heeded closely. The fuel requirements for this purpose are therefore dropped.

— Glücks

After these guidelines were issued, only theHartheim Killing Facilitywas needed and those atBernburgandSonnensteinwere closed, bringing the first phase ofAktion 14f13to an end.

Second phase

According to a command from April 11, 1944, new guidelines were issued and began the second phase ofAktion 14f13in which no forms were filled and selections were not made by a doctors' panel.The selection of the victims became the responsibility of camp administrations, usually the camp doctor. This did not exclude the physically ill, who were no longer fit for work, from being murdered, which was done at the camp or by transferring the prisoners to a camp that had a gas chamber, such as Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen or Auschwitz. Those being gassed atHartheimincludedforced laborersfrom eastern Europe, who were unfit for work,Sovietprisoners of war andHungarianJews, as well as concentration camp inmates. The last prisoner transport to Hartheim was on December 11, 1944, ending the operation. The gas chambers at Hartheim were dismantled and traces of their use were removed, as much as possible and the castle was used as an orphanage.

The number of people murdered underAktion 14f13is not certain but scholarly literature puts the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000 people for the period ending in 1943.

List of Nazi killing centers

• Bernburg Killing Facility
• Brandenburg Killing Facility
• Grafeneck Killing Facility
• Hadamar Killing Facility
• Hartheim Killing Facility
• Sonnenstein Killing Facility

See also

• Glossary of Nazi Germanyfor terms used during the Nazi era
• Nazi Doctors

References

Bibliography

• Walter Grode,Die "Sonderbehandlung 14f13" in den Konzentrationslagern des Dritten Reiches. Ein Beitrag zur Dynamik faschistischer Vernichtungspolitik,Lang, Frankfurt am Main (1987)ISBN978-3-8204-0153-0
• Stanislaw Klodzinski,Die "Aktion 14f13". Der Transport von 575 Häftlingen von Auschwitz in das "Sanatorium Dresden"in Götz Aly (Editor),Aktion T4 1939 – 45. Die "Euthanasie" -Zentrale in der Tiergartenstraße 4,Edition Hentrich, Berlin (1987)ISBN978-3-926175-66-3
• Ernst Klee,"Euthanasie" im NS-Staat. Die 'Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens,S. Fischer Verlag,Frankfurt am Main (1983)ISBN978-3-10-039303-6
• Ernst Klee (Editor),Dokumente zur "Euthanasie",Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag,Frankfurt am Main (1985)ISBN978-3-596-24327-3
• Ernst Klee,Was sie taten - Was sie wurden,Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1986)ISBN978-3-596-24364-8
• Thomas Schilter,Unmenschliches Ermessen,Kiepenheuer,Leipzig (1998)ISBN978-3-378-01033-8
• Eugen Kogon,Hermann Langbein,Adalbert Rückerl,Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas,Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1986)ISBN978-3-596-24353-2
• Jean-Marie Winkler, Gazage de concentrationnaires au château de Hartheim. L'action 14f13 en Autriche annexée. Nouvelles recherches sur la comptabilité de la mort, éditions Tirésias - Michel Reynaud, Paris, 2010ISBN978-2-915293-61-6

Further reading

• Burleigh, Michael(1995).Death and Deliverance: 'Euthanasia' in Germany 1900–1945.New York: Verlag Klemm & Oelschläger.ISBN978-0-521-47769-7.
• Burleigh, M.; Wippermann, W. (1991)."The Persecution of the" Hereditarily Ill ", the" Asocial "and Homosexuals".The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945.Cambridge University Press.pp.161–164.ISBN978-0-521-39114-6.
• Burleigh, M. (1997).Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-58211-7.
• Burleigh, M. (2001) [2000]. "Medicalized Mass Murder".The Third Reich: A New History(pbk. Pan ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 382–404.ISBN978-0-330-48757-3.

External links

• "Killing by starvation in the institutions and other previous crimes of psychiatry"1999 speech by journalistErnst Klee,translated from the original German