Q. And what was Hitler’s idea of euthanasia? What did he understand by it?
A. The decisive thing for him was also expressed here in the decree, namely, that incurably sick persons—actually it should have read insane persons—other persons were absolute exceptions—could be accorded a mercy death. That is, therefore, a measure dictated by purely humane considerations, and nothing else could be thought under any circumstances, and nothing else was ever said to me.
Q. You said that the Fuehrer gave you the assignment on the basis of a telephone call from Bouhler? The call from Bouhler could not have been the only reason. There must have been others.
A. It was not a telephone call. There was some kind of a documentary incident which was decisive. It may be that the Fuehrer already had these documents or that Bouhler spoke to him again about them. I don’t know exactly. But this was not the cause of the Euthanasia Program being started. In his book, “Mein Kampf,” Hitler had already referred to it in certain chapters, and the law for the “prevention of the birth of children suffering from hereditary diseases” is a proof that Hitler had definitely concerned himself with such problems earlier. The law for the “prevention of the birth of children suffering from hereditary diseases” is actually a law which followed the events. It certainly arose because children with congenital diseases existed. Proof that this is a problem which affects the whole world lies in the fact that similar laws with similar formulation and contents have been passed in other countries.
Dr. Gerhardt Wagner, who was Dr. Conti’s predecessor, discussed these questions at the Party rally in Nuernberg. I did not talk to Gerhardt Wagner at that time and had nothing to do with these things. However, I hear now that in 1935 Gerhardt Wagner had a film made presenting the problem of the insane. Apparently the film was made in asylums with insane persons.
Q. Witness, did not the requests received by Bouhler and the Fuehrer play a certain part?
A. Requests to this effect were certainly constantly received by Bouhler, and the Chancellery of the Fuehrer always received such things. I only know that these requests were afterwards passed on to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. I myself know of one request which was sent to the Fuehrer himself through his adjutant’s office in the spring of 1939. The father of a deformed child approached the Fuehrer and asked that this child or this creature should be killed. Hitler turned this matter over to me and told me to go to Leipzig immediately—it was in Leipzig—to confirm the fact on the spot. It was a child who was born blind, an idiot—at least it seemed to be an idiot—and it lacked one leg and part of one arm.
Q. Witness, you were speaking about the Leipzig affair, about this deformed child. What did Hitler order you to do?
A. He ordered me to talk to the physicians who were looking after the child to find out whether the statements of the father were true. If they were correct, then I was to inform the physicians in his name that they could carry out euthanasia.
The important thing was that the parents should not feel themselves incriminated at some later date as a result of this euthanasia—that the parents should not have the impression that they themselves were responsible for the death of this child. I was further ordered to state that if these physicians should become involved in some legal proceedings because of this measure, these proceedings would be quashed by order of Hitler. Martin Bormann was ordered at the time to inform Guertner, the Minister of Justice, accordingly about this case.