Deus iudicat, cum nemo accusat. Reflexe, dokumentace a (ne)vyšetřování nacistické „eutanazie“ v Československu v letech 1945–1990
Considerations, documentation and (non)investigation of Nazi “euthanasia” in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1990

Summary/Abstract: For several decades after the end of WWII, the crimes committed against the lives and health of patients within the framework of Nazi “euthanasia” were of marginal interest. In socialist Czechoslovakia – incidentally as in the former GDR, for instance – crimes against groups marginalised for health reasons garnered little or even no attention; their victims were expelled from the collective memory. Documentation was closely linked to the official investigations carried out by the State Security (StB), which in the case of Czechoslovakia could have been submitted either in the immediate post-war period or in the 1960s. In terms of methodology, it was in the main subordinate to police practice and characterised by both a deficit of historical analysis and a lack of basic orientation in the subject. In view of the complicated nature of the issue it is therefore unsurprising that the conclusions – which essentially from the very beginning had no ambition to analyse Bohemian and Moravian materials in the broader context in which Nazi “euthanasia” was carried out – were in the end markedly superficial and contradictory and in all of the cases examined simply trailed off. However, there was merit in the fact that they managed to gather and record at least some testimonies and data that may today prove useful in historical research.

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