Viktor Brack
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| “ | Dear Reichsführer, among tens of millions of Jews in Europe, there are, I figure, at least two to three millions of men and women who are fit enough to work. Considering the extraordinary difficulties the labour problem presents us with, I hold the view that those two to three millions should be specially selected and preserved. This can, however, only be done if at the same time they are rendered incapable to propagate. About a year ago I reported to you that agents of mine had completed the experiments necessary for this purpose. I would like to recall these facts once more. Sterilization, as normally performed on persons with hereditary diseases, is here out of the question, because it takes too long and is too expensive. Castration by X-ray however is not only relatively cheap, but can also be performed on many thousands in the shortest time. I think that at this time it is already irrelevant whether the people in question become aware of having been castrated after some weeks or months, once they feel the effects. Should you, Reichsführer, decide to choose this way in the interest of the preservation of labour, then Reichsleiter Bouhler would be prepared to place all physicians and other personnel needed for this work at your disposal. Likewise he requested me to inform you that then I would have to order the apparatus so urgently needed with the greatest speed. Heil Hitler! Yours
VIKTOR BRACK. |
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| ~ Brack in a letter to Heinrich Himmler. |
Viktor Hermann Brack (9th November 1904 - 2nd June 1948) was a Nazi Party member and chief of the Reich office of the Affairs of the Party, State and the Armed Forces. In his position as an SS-Oberführer, he was appointed by Hitler as one of the overseers of Action T4, the Nazi program to eliminate "defective" Germans, alongside Ernst-Robert Grawitz and Herbert Linden, serving directly under Karl Brandt and Philipp Bouhler. Brack was in charge of implementing the killings, alongside Werner Blankenburg. In December 1939, Brack tasked August Becker with arranging that those deemed "Lebensunwertes Leben" ("life unworthy of life") be killed via Gas Chamber, killings which were witnessed by Heinrich Himmler, serving as the inspiration for the main method of killing later used in The Holocaust. He also directed the sterilization of mentally ill people to prevent them from spawning any similarly "inferior" children.
While the Holocaust was at full capacity, Himmler requested that Brack develop a way to sterilize the minority of Jews who had been granted honorary Aryan citizenship to fight in World War II in a way that would prevent them from noticing. In March 1941, Brack succeeded in his objective and prepared a report on his method of sterilizing men with x-rays so that they wouldn't notice until it became obvious. Himmler then ordered Blankenburg to test the procedure on inmates in Auschwitz Birkenau.
After World War II, Brack was a defendant in the Doctor's Trial, the trial in Nuremberg of those involved in Action T4 and the Nazi Medical Experimentation program. Several witnesses testified that Brack had been involved in the medical experimentation, and had ordered prisoners at Auschwitz to be sterilized and castrated. Others also testified that Brack had assisted in coordinating the gassing of Jews during the Holocaust, and had conferred with Odilo Globocnik on how to implement the killings. He was ultimately convicted of the murder of victims under both Action T4 and its successor Action 14f13, and was executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 2nd June 1948.