Säuglinge und Kleinkinder mit Epilepsie in der NS-Medizin

The Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, passed in the German Reichstag on 14 July 1933, had been prepared for decades by representatives of a racial ideology but significant tightening measures, such as forced sterilization, were introduced. From the early summer of 1939, efforts to “grant the terminally ill a mercy killing” can be proven, which was implemented as part of the T4 campaign following a decree from the Reich Chancellery on 1 September 1939. At the same time, the Reich Committee for the Scientific Recording of Severe Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses was founded, to which all conspicuous infants and small children had to be reported by doctors or midwives. A committee then decided whether the children should be transferred to 1 of the 37 specialized pediatric departments where many children were killed by overdosing on medication and neglecting treatment. The medical history of a patient at the Kaufbeuren institution under its director Valentin Faltlhauser is presented as an example. The textbooks on pediatrics show that the reporting requirement became increasingly stricter between 1933 and 1940. Exact data on the number of reported children with infantile epilepsy are not known. For various reasons, there were no court cases after 1945 for the murder of the children, so the full extent of the crimes is not known.