Social Science

Disability, Nazi Euthanasia, and the Legacy of the Nuremberg Medical Trial

Editorial: Lynne Rienner Publishers

ISBN: 9781685852832

Pub: 2024-11-11

During the Nuremberg Medical Trial (1946-1947), the perpetrators of the Nazi euthanasia program were barely prosecuted. The program, also known as Aktion T4, was essentially a campaign of mass murder, designed to cleanse society of individuals who were deemed undesirable: incurably ill, physically or mentally disabled, or simply old. Emmeline Burdett's close reading of the trial transcript and her careful parsing of the legacy of Aktion T4 are the genesis of this revealing book.