Nazism and nursing: the role of nurses in the facilitation of Hitler’s T4 programme

This is a talk to highlight the role of nurses in the facilitation of Hitler’s T4 programme during WW2 and learn the lessons from their complicity during the Holocaust.

The Nazi Euthanasia programme (Aktion T4) ran between 1940 and 1941. Its aim was to eliminate people who were considered to have a “life unworthy of life”. Doctors and nurses murdered around 70,000 adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or mental health problems during the course of Aktion T4 by carbon monoxide poisoning in designated killing centres like Schloss Hartheim in Austria. This presentation provides a unique opportunity to explore the central role of nurses in the facilitation of Aktion T4 and lessons that might be learnt for the future.To Book a place please contact Helen Atherton at h.l.atherton@leeds.ac.uk