Work has begun on a monument in Berlin to commemorate the 200,000 disabled people killed under Hitler’s euthanasia program during WWII.

Work has begun on a monument in Berlin to commemorate the 200,000 disabled people killed under Hitler's euthanasia program during WWII. The monument – the fourth of its kind in Berlin – will be a 30-meter long blue glass wall, situated in the same position as the original headquarters of the Nazi campaign.

The campaign, called Action T4, was an initiative to force euthanasia on patients judged to be “incurably sick”. It began in 1939, and, though it was officially ended in 1941, killing continued covertly to 1945. The program was named after the district in which the headquarters were found, Tiergarten.

The wall has been designed by German architects Ursula Wilms and Heinz W. Hallman, along with the artist Nikolaus Koliusis. The German government has given 500,000 euros to the project.

Sigrid Falkenstein, the niece of one of the victims of the program, said that the monument was one step along a “long road” to healing. German minister for Cultural Affairs Bernard Neumann said that the monument speaks out “against hate, delusion and coldheartedness – and for tolerance, empathy and a respect for life.”

Xavier Symons
Creative commons
euthanasia
Nazi doctors