Confronting the "Good Death": Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, 1945-1953

by Michael S. Bryant

Overview

Years before Hitler unleashed the "Final Solution" to annihilate European Jews, he began a lesser-known campaign to eradicate the mentally ill, which facilitated the gassing and lethal injection of as many as 270,000 people and set a precedent for the mass murder of civilians. In Confronting the "Good Death" Michael Bryant analyzes the U.S. government and West German judiciary's attempt to punish the euthanasia killers after the war.

The first author to address the impact of geopolitics on the courts' representation of Nazi euthanasia, Bryant argues that international power relationships wreaked havoc on the prosecutions.

Drawing on primary sources, this provocative investigation of the Nazi campaign against the mentally ill and the postwar quest for justice will interest general readers and provide critical information for scholars of Holocaust studies, legal history, and human rights. Support for this publication was generously provided by the Eugene M. Kayden Fund at the University of Colorado.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646423422
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	09/15/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Bryant is an assistant professor of history and criminal justice at the University of Toledo and has served as a military attorney with the U.S. Air Force.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 The Emperor of Ice-Cream: Nationalist Socialist Euthanasia, 1933-1945 19

2 Constructing Mass Murder: The United States Euthanasia Trials, 1945-1947 63

3 First Reckonings: The German Euthanasia Trials, 1946-1947 107

4 Lucifer on the Ruins of the World: The German Euthanasia Trials, 1948-1950 145

5 Law and Power: The West German Euthanasia Trials, 1948-1953 177

Conclusion 217

Notes 227

Appendix 247

Glossary 259

Bibliography 263

Index 271

What People are Saying About This

Janet Ward

"Bryant's book offers a unique series of insights into the post-WWII redefinition of euthanasia, after 'mercy killing' had served the Nazis as a crucial prelude to the gassings of Jews and other groups. The work will be of great use to legal historians and to Holocaust scholars from all fields, as well as to the general public interested in human rights issues."
—co-author of German Studies in the Post-Holocaust Age