The First National Socialist Extermination Crime.

This article describes Nazi crimes against the mentally ill during World War II. The main focus is the T4 action, the first extermination campaign in national socialist Germany, which is widely considered a precursor to the Holocaust. The first part of the paper presents historical facts regarding the T4 Action: its ideological background, its characteristic organization, and secret structures; the parallels between this inner war and the war that was being waged against other nations; the rigorous methodology—from the filling out of ‘special forms‘ (meldebogen) to death in the gas chamber at one of six extermination centers. The second part of the paper is based on our own research on the victims' medical files, now available in the Federal Archives of Germany. The history of how the current archival material was discovered is touched on briefly. The T4 selection criteria are analyzed. As an example, events at the Uchtspringe asylum are described in detail. We attempt to distinguish among potential motives for the killings—those inspired by concepts of racial hygiene and those with a more pragmatic or utilitarian purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]