Osoby z zaburzeniami psychicznymi w czasach nazizmu. Kontekst naukowy i społeczno-polityczny eutanazji i sterylizacji oraz ich współczesne implikacje
People with Mental Disorders during the Nazi Era. The Scientific and Socio-political Context of Euthanasia and Sterilisation

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to present the situation of people with mental disorders during the Nazi era, with particular emphasis on the foundations of the extermination policy and its post-war consequences. The “Act on Preventing the Birth of Offspring Burdened by Hereditary Disease” turned people with intellectual disabilities and mental illness into second-class citizens. The wide-ranging program of their sterilisation and euthanasia was an excellent preview of what could happen to intellectually able and mentally healthy people in the Third Reich and the lands under German occupation. The Nazi extermination policy had at least two sources: scientific achievements (also in the field of genetics as the basis for the development of eugenics), and the social, political and economic conditions in Germany. The post-war period did not bring the expected consequences, either from the perspective of the perpetrators, or the victims and their families. The use of science for the purpose of exterminating people whose lives were considered incomplete, to the extent it took place during the analysed period, was unprecedented in modern history and has not happened since. However, we observe disturbing tendencies that may indicate the unethical use of scientific achievements in eliminating “life not worth living”

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