What was behind T4 was a real compassion for individuals and families, and a reasonable concern for the long-term welfare of society. As with just about everything else with National Socialist Germany, this program has been grotesquely distorted and exaggerated. Nearly all of us who have "learned" about it picture sadistic Germans rounding up everyone with any kind of physical, social or mental handicap and "getting rid of them."
There are those who respect and defend NS Germany who seem to feel very uncomfortable with the reality that T4 existed, as well as sterilization programs. And, of course, there are countless people who have no interest in the real history of NS Germany who are emphatically against any kind of euthanasia.
Almost invariably, the discomfort and objections these people express reveal an explicit or implicit belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful god who is every bit as cruel and perverse as Yahweh, that abominable character from The Old Testament. In other words, when a person is born with truly debiliating physical deformities or mental disorders, or when a person in a car accident becomes terminally comatose, or when a person develops an illness that ensures that he or she will be suffering tremendous pain and/or a complete loss of control over the body until death, it is all part of "God's mysterious plan."
These beliefs are not only embarrassing; they prevent the people who hold them from fully recognizing reality, from being truly compassionate, and from seriously caring about the long-term health, well-being, happiness and future of their people and humanity.
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What was behind T4 was a real compassion for individuals and families, and a reasonable concern for the long-term welfare of society. As with just about everything else with National Socialist Germany, this program has been grotesquely distorted and exaggerated. Nearly all of us who have "learned" about it picture sadistic Germans rounding up everyone with any kind of physical, social or mental handicap and "getting rid of them."
There are those who respect and defend NS Germany who seem to feel very uncomfortable with the reality that T4 existed, as well as sterilization programs. And, of course, there are countless people who have no interest in the real history of NS Germany who are emphatically against any kind of euthanasia.
Almost invariably, the discomfort and objections these people express reveal an explicit or implicit belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful god who is every bit as cruel and perverse as Yahweh, that abominable character from The Old Testament. In other words, when a person is born with truly debiliating physical deformities or mental disorders, or when a person in a car accident becomes terminally comatose, or when a person develops an illness that ensures that he or she will be suffering tremendous pain and/or a complete loss of control over the body until death, it is all part of "God's mysterious plan."
These beliefs are not only embarrassing; they prevent the people who hold them from fully recognizing reality, from being truly compassionate, and from seriously caring about the long-term health, well-being, happiness and future of their people and humanity.
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