The pastoral letter from
the Bishop of Münster, Monsignor Klemens von Galen, was addressed during the
time of Hitler’s euthanasia of people with mental disabilities. It still speaks
to the ethics and morality of the 21st century.
Men and women of Germany!
Article 211 of the German Penal Code, which still has the force of law, states:
“Premeditated murder shall be punishable by death.” Article 139 stipulates:
“Whoever has knowledge of any criminal intention against the life of another
person and omits to inform the authorities or the person threatened is himself
liable to punishment.” When I learned that patients in the Marienthal Hospital
near Munster were in danger of being removed elsewhere and put to death, I at
once brought the matter to the notice of the High Court in Munster, and the
Chief of Police, by registered letter dated 28th July. I wrote as
follows: “I am informed that during the present week – the date mentioned is 31st
July – a large number of persons considered to be “unproductive citizens,” at
present patients in the provincial hospital of Marienthal, near Munster, are to
be transferred the hospital at Eichenberg and there deliberately put to death,
following the precedent of proceedings in other hospitals. Since this is
contrary both in Divine Law and ordinary morality, and since moreover it is an
act of mass homicide and subject to the death penalty under Article 211 of the
Penal Code, I am bringing the matter to your notice, as it is my duty to do
under Article 139 of the Code, with the request that you take the necessary
steps to protect the persons who are thus threatened and to deal with the
services which are planning their removal and eventual murder. I further
request that you will inform me of the steps you have taken.”
So far as I am aware, no
action has been taken, either by the police or the Court. We must therefore
assume that, sooner or later, these defenceless individuals will be executed.
Why? Not because they are
guilty of any crime punishable by death, or because their behaviour towards
their guardians or nurses has been so aggressive as to justify the latter in
resorting to force in self-defence. There is no extreme reason of this kind,
such as justifies the killing of an armed enemy in times of war. Nothing of the
sort applies here. These unhappy invalids are to die because a commission has
decreed it, because they are judged to be “unproductive citizens,” of no
further value to the State. It has been decided that, since they no longer
produce, they are to be treated like machinery that no longer functions, or an
old horse or a cow that has ceased to give milk. I need not pursue the analogy,
which is sufficiently obvious. When the machine, or horse or cow, no longer
serves any purpose for which it was intended, we may legitimately destroy it.
But here we are dealing with our own kind, men and women who are our brothers
and sisters. Certainly they are unhappy people, unproductive individuals, but
is that to say that they have forfeited the right to live? Is it our own right
to life, yours and mine, to be measured according to our productive capacity as
reckoned by others? It will go hard with us, in the weakness of own old age, if
the weakness of our old age, if the right to destroy our unproductive
neighbours has been accepted as a principle. It will go hard with those who
have sacrificed their health and strength to the necessities of production, and
with the gallant soldiers who return wounded and broken from the front.
Here is an instance of what
happens these days. One of the patients in the Marienthal Psychiatric Hospital
was a farmer, about fifty-five years old, who came from a neighbouring village of
which I could give you the name. He had suffered from mental disorder for some
years, but he was not gravely ill; his family were allowed to visit him
whenever they pleased. A fortnight ago he was visited by his wife and one of
their sons who was on leave from the front. The son was very devoted to his
father, and their parting was a sad one, since he could not be sure that he
would ever see his father again. He might be killed in the service of his
country. Now it seems that they will not meet again on this earth for a different
reason. The father is on the “unproductive list.”
Another relative who called
to see the father during the present week was informed that he had been
transferred elsewhere by order of the Ministry of War. They did not say at the
hospital where he had been taken but expected news of him in a few days. And
what will the news be? Will it be the same as in other cases – that the man is
dead and had been cremated, and that his ashes will be sent to his family on
payment of costs? The soldier risking his life for his fellow countrymen will
not see his father again because his fellow-countrymen have murdered him! This
is a true story: I give you the names of the family and the place where they
live…
If we agree that unproductive members of
society are to be destroyed, even if we limit this to those who are without
means of support or defence, if we accept the principle, then it means that all
people incapable of useful work may be destroyed, including ourselves, when we
grow old and infirm. The principle may be extended to include not only the
mentally afflicted but all persons suffering from chronic or incurable
diseases, tuberculosis, for example, as well as men wounded in war. None of us
will be safe. An arbitrary constituted committee may draw up lists of
“unproductive persons” which will include anyone whom they consider unworthy to
go on living. There will be no police to protect the victim, no court of
appeal. Who will then be able to trust his doctor? He may report us to be
“unproductive” and receive an order to destroy us. How can we fail to perceive
the state of moral anarchy which such a principle must create if it is accepted
and applied – the mistrust of every man for his fellow, spreading among
families and even into the home? Woe to mankind, woe to the German people, if
we thus transgress God’s commandment, delivered amid thunder and lightning from
Mount Sinai, and implanted in the heart and conscience of men: “Thou shalt not
Kill!”
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