Editing Aktion T4 (section)

==Post-war==

===Doctors' trial===
{{Main|Euthanasia trials|Doctors' trial}}

After the war trials were held in connection with the Nazi euthanasia programme at various places including [[Dresden]], [[Frankfurt]], [[Graz]], [[Nuremberg]] and [[Tübingen]]. In December 1946 an American military tribunal (commonly called the Doctors' trial) prosecuted 23 doctors and administrators for their roles in war crimes and [[crimes against humanity]]. These crimes included the systematic killing of those deemed "unworthy of life", including people with mental disabilities, the people who were institutionalised mentally ill and people with physical impairments. After 140 days of proceedings, including the testimony of 85 witnesses and the submission of 1,500 documents, in August 1947 the court pronounced 16 of the defendants guilty. Seven were sentenced to death; the men, including Brandt and Brack, were executed on 2 June 1948.

The indictment read in part:
{{blockquote|14. Between September 1939 and April 1945 the defendants Karl Brandt, [[Kurt Blome|Blome]], Brack, and [[Waldemar Hoven|Hoven]] unlawfully, wilfully, and knowingly committed crimes against humanity, as defined by Article II of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the execution of the so called "euthanasia" program of the German Reich, in the course of which the defendants herein murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings, including German civilians, as well as civilians of other nations. The particulars concerning such murders are set forth in paragraph 9 of count two of this indictment and are incorporated herein by reference.|International Military Tribunal{{sfn|Taylor|1949}}}}

Earlier, in 1945, American forces tried seven staff members of the [[Hadamar killing centre]] for the killing of Soviet and Polish nationals, which was within their jurisdiction under international law, as these were the citizens of wartime allies. (Hadamar was within the [[American Zone of Occupation]] in Germany. This was before the Allied resolution of December 1945, to prosecute individuals for "crimes against humanity" for such mass atrocities.) Alfons Klein, Heinrich Ruoff and Karl Willig were sentenced to death and executed; the other four were given long prison sentences.{{sfn|NARA|1980|pp=1–12}} In 1946, reconstructed German courts tried members of the Hadamar staff for the murders of nearly 15,000 German citizens. The chief physician, Adolf Wahlmann and [[Irmgard Huber]], the head nurse, were convicted.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

===Other perpetrators===

{{see also|Category:Aktion T4 personnel|T4-Gutachter}}

[[File:Gedenkstele Tiergartenstr 4 (Tierg) Aktion T4.JPG|thumb|upright|{{lang|de|Aktion&nbsp;T4}} marker (2009) in Berlin]]
* [[:de:Dietrich Allers|Dietrich Allers]] was sentenced to eight years time served in December 1968.<ref name=Klee>Ernst Klee: What They Did – What They Became. Doctors, lawyers and other participants in the murder of the sick or Jews, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 75</ref>
* [[Hans Asperger]] was not discovered to be involved in the programme until after his death in 1980.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05112-1 |title=The truth about Hans Asperger's Nazi collusion |journal=Nature |year=2018 |doi=10.1038/d41586-018-05112-1 |last1=Baron-Cohen |first1=Simon |volume=557 |issue=7705 |pages=305–306 |bibcode=2018Natur.557..305B |s2cid=13700224 |issn=0028-0836 |access-date=5 March 2023 |archive-date=23 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923201428/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05112-1 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Erich Bauer]], arrested in 1949 and sentenced to death, which was automatically commuted to life in prison due to West Germany's abolition of capital punishment. He died in prison in 1980.
* [[August Becker]], initially sentenced to three years after the war, in 1960 was tried again and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released early due to ill health and died in 1967.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/trauriges-bild-a-8b947017-0002-0001-0000-000046164855 |title=Trauriges Bild |trans-title=Sad Image |date=4 December 1967 |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de |access-date=22 August 2018 |volume=L |archive-date=2 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302005353/https://www.spiegel.de/politik/trauriges-bild-a-8b947017-0002-0001-0000-000046164855 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Werner Blankenburg]] lived under an alias and died in 1957.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,175}}
* [[Philipp Bouhler]] committed [[suicide]] in captivity, May 1945.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,175}}
* [[Werner Catel]] was cleared by a [[denazification]] board after World War&nbsp;II and was head of paediatrics at the [[University of Kiel]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uni-kiel.de/ns-zeit/allgemein/catel-werner.shtml |title=Ins NS-Euthanasieprogramm verstrickt: Der Mediziner Werner Catel (Stellungnahme des Senats vom 14.11.2006) |trans-title=Enmeshed in the Nazi Euthanasia Program: The Physician Werner Catel (Statement of the Senate from 14 November 2006) |date=14 November 2006 |work=[[University of Kiel]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428024112/http://www.uni-kiel.de/ns-zeit/allgemein/catel-werner.shtml |language=de |access-date=22 August 2018 |archive-date=28 April 2014 }}</ref> He retired early after his role in the T4 programme was exposed but continued to support the killing of children with mental and physical disabilities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.t4-denkmal.de/eng/Werner-Catel |title=Werner Catel (1894–1981) |date=10 August 2017 |publisher=[[Memorial to the Victims of National Socialist 'Euthanasia' Killings|Memorial and Information Point for the Victims of the National Socialist 'Euthanasia' Killings]] |access-date=24 August 2018 |archive-date=25 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825002602/https://www.t4-denkmal.de/eng/Werner-Catel |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Leonardo Conti]] hanged himself in captivity on 6 October 1945.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,176}}
* Professor [[Max de Crinis]] committed suicide via a cyanide capsule after poisoning his family.
* [[:de:Fritz Cropp|Fritz Cropp]] d. 6 April 1984, Bremen. A Nazi official in Oldenburg, Cropp was appointed the country medical officer of health in 1933. In 1935 he transferred to Berlin, where he worked as a ministerial adviser in the Division IV (health care and people care) in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1939, he became assistant director; Cropp was involved in the Nazi "euthanasia" ''Aktion T4'' in 1940. He was Herbert Linden's superior and was responsible for patient transfers.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,003}}
* [[Irmfried Eberl]] captured 1948; committed suicide to avoid trial.
* [[Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff]], commander of Fortress Mogilev, where many physically and mentally disabled prisoners were killed; executed by the [[Soviet Union]] in 1946.
* [[Ernst-Robert Grawitz]] killed himself shortly before the fall of Berlin in April 1945.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,179}}
* [[Heinrich Gross]] was tried twice. One sentence was overturned and the charges in the second trial in 2000 were dropped as a result of his dementia; he died in 2005.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1503/cmaj.1041335 |title=Unfit to live |journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal |volume=171 |issue=6 |pages=619–620 |year=2004 |last1=Martens |first1=D.|pmc=516202 }}</ref>
* [[Lorenz Hackenholt]] vanished in 1945.{{sfn|Berenbaum|Peck|2002|p=247}}
* [[Hans Heinze]] was convicted of crimes against humanity for his work at the [[Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre]] and served seven years in an [[NKVD]] special camp.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bkjpp.de/index.php5?x=/for201_geschichte-php5& |title=p. 17, Ernst Klee: "Was sie taten – Was sie wurden", p. 136 |access-date=24 October 2023 |archive-date=21 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221111559/https://www.kinderpsychiater.org/startseite/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse]], the governor of [[Hesse-Nassau]], was tried in 1947 at Hadamar for his role in ''Aktion T4'' but was sentenced only to two years' "time served"; he died in 1980.{{sfn|Petropoulos|2009|p=67}}
* [[Werner Heyde]] escaped detection for 18 years and committed suicide in 1964, before his trial.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=932}}
* [[Josef Hirtreiter]] served time in prison from 1951 to 1977 for gassings of Jews at the [[Treblinka extermination camp]]. His involvement at the Hadamar clinic was alleged but could never be proved.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, 1955-1966 |first=Michael |last=Bryant  |publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press |year=2014 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k-j7AwAAQBAJ&q=Hirtreiter+released |isbn=978-1621900498}}</ref>
* [[Ernst Illing]] was the director of the Vienna [[Am Spiegelgrund clinic|Psychiatric-Neurological Clinic for Children Am Spielgrund]], where he killed about 200 children; he was sentenced to death on 18 July 1946.{{sfn|Totten|Parsons|2009|p=181}}
* [[:de:Erwin Jekelius|Erwin Jekelius]], former director of Am Spiegelgrund, died in a prison camp in the Soviet Union in 1952.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130114201743/http://oesterreich.orf.at/wien/stories/50439/ "Euthanasia"]</ref>
* [[Erich Koch]] served time in prison from 1950 to his death in 1986.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1,182}}
* [[Erwin Lambert]] died in 1976.{{sfn|Berenbaum|Peck|2002|p=247}}
* [[Hans Lammers]] was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being convicted in the [[Ministries Trial]]. This was later commuted to 10 years and Lammers was released in 1951. He died in 1962.
* [[Herbert Lange]] was killed by Allied troops during the [[Battle of Berlin]].
* [[:de:Herbert Linden|Herbert Linden]] committed suicide in 1945. Overseers of the programme were initially Herbert Linden and Werner Heyde. Linden was later replaced by Hermann Paul Nitsche.{{sfn|Sandner|2003|p=395}}
* [[Heinrich Matthes]] was sentenced to life imprisonment at the [[Treblinka trials]].
* [[:de:Friedrich Mennecke|Friedrich Mennecke]] died in 1947 while awaiting trial.{{sfn|Chroust|1988|p=8}}

[[File:T4 Memorial.JPG|thumb|right|''Aktion T4'' memorial at Tiergartenstraße 4, Berlin]]
* [[Franz Niedermoser]], chief doctor of the Klagenfurt extermination center, was executed in 1946 after being convicted in the [[Euthanasia trials|Klagenfurt trial]].
* [[Paul Nitsche]] was tried and executed by an East German court in 1948.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Böhm |first=B. |year=2012 |title=Paul Nitsche – Reformpsychiater und Hauptakteur der NS-"Euthanasie" |journal=Der Nervenarzt |volume=83 |issue=3 |pages=293–302 |doi=10.1007/s00115-011-3389-1|pmid=22399059 |s2cid=32985121 }}</ref>
* [[Josef Oberhauser]] served eight years of a 15-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity and was released in 1956. He later received a further four years imprisonment at the [[Belzec trial]] for 300, 000 counts of acting as an accessory to murder.
* [[:de:Hermann Pfannmüller|Hermann Pfannmüller]] served five years in prison as an accessory to murder.
* [[Franz Reichleitner]] was killed by [[Italian partisans]] in 1944.
* Professor [[Carl Schneider]] hanged himself in his prison cell in 1946, while awaiting trial.<ref>{{cite journal |title =Ideology and ethics. The perversion of German psychiatrists' ethics by the ideology of national socialism |author =L Singer |date=3 December 1998 | journal =[[European Psychiatry]] |volume =13 |issue=Supplement 3 |pages=87s–92s |doi=10.1016/S0924-9338(98)80038-2 |quote=Carl Schneider committed suicide by hanging after his arrest...| pmid=19698678|s2cid =206095914 }}{{subscription required}}</ref>
* [[Franz Schwede]] was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1948 and was released in 1956; he died in 1960.{{sfn|Nöth|2004|p=82}}
* [[Franz Stangl]], after being caught in [[Brazil]] in 1967, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died of [[heart failure]] six months into the sentence.
* [[:de:Rudolf Tröger|Rudolf Tröger]] was killed in action at the [[Maginot Line]].<ref>Carsten Schreiber: ''Hidden elite - ideology and regional rule practice of the security service of the SS and its network using the example of Saxony'', Munich 2008, p. 401f.</ref>
* [[Marianne Türk]] was a doctor at Vienna Psychiatric-Neurological Clinic for Children Am Spielgrund where, with Ernst Illing, she killed 200 children. She was sentenced to 10 years prison on 18 July 1946.{{sfn|Totten|Parsons|2009|p=181}}
* [[:de:Reinhold Vorberg|Reinhold Vorberg]] was sentenced to ten years time served in December 1968.<ref name=Klee/>
* [[Albert Widmann]] was convicted in two trials in the 1960s and served six years in prison.
* [[Christian Wirth]] was killed by Yugoslav partisans in 1944.

The [[Stasi]] (Ministry for State Security) of East Germany stored around 30,000 files of {{lang|de|Aktion&nbsp;T4}} in their archives. Those files became available to the public after [[German Reunification]] in 1990, leading to a new wave of research on these wartime crimes.{{sfn|Buttlar|2003}}