Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life: Its Measure and Form For information on purchasing this book through Amazon, click here. Germans were methodically killing fellow Germans--before they began killing Jews. 'Action T4' was a medical program that quietly whisked disabled and mentally ill people for extermination. Germans of all ages were targeted. Hundreds of thousands received 'treatment.' The philosophical foundations for these actions were laid many years earlier--before the National Socialist party was created. In a sober, academic discussion, professors Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche argued that there were 'lives unworthy of life'--and that for the good of society--such people could be ethically killed. Binding and Hoche's book was a turning point in German culture and served as a catalyst for the T4 program, which was a precursor to the Holocaust

The passages below--from a 1920 book authored by Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding-- shaped the history of the Holocaust and the Second World War:

The two eminent academics—law Professor Alfred Hoche and psychiatrist Karl Bending—proposed that the state was justified in killing “life unworthy of life.”This passage, quoted repeatedly by historians, constituted the ideological foundation of the “Euthanasia Program” that took hold in Germany in 1939.

The authors ask Germans to reflect upon a battlefield "strewn with thousands of dead youths,” and to compare the scene with “our mental hospitals with their caring for their living inmates.” Making this comparison, one is deeply shaken by the strident clash between the sacrifice of the “finest flower of humanity,” on the one hand, and the “meticulous care” shown to existences which are “absolutely worthless,” on the other.

This passage contains a critique of the First World War. The authors do not pose the question directly, “Why were millions of young German men slaughtered on the battlefield.” Rather they pose it obliquely: “Why is the state so wasteful with the lives of best, most vital people (young German men), while the state is so careful with the lives of the least valuable people (incurable mental patients).

The authors present a proposal for euthanasia—the destruction of life unworthy of life—based on comparing the two cases: If the state promiscuously sacrifices its best people in battle—healthy young men who contribute significantly to society, why should the state hesitate to take the lives of people who make no contribution to society, indeed whose lives are burdensome.

The Nazi euthanasia movement had little to do with genetics or social Darwinism or "eugenics." Rather, it arose out of the incipient perception of what could not be uttered: that the state already was involved in a project of mass-murder. If the state killed its best and healthiest human beings (that presumably contributed substantially to society), why could it not also kill the worst or least healthy human beings (who were incapable of contributing to society)?

German casualties of the First World War (reported by Robert Whalen, 1984).

If the Nation Can Kill Its Best Citizens, Why Can’t It Kill Its Worst?

During the four years of the First World War, Adolf Hitler witnessed the suffering of young German men, but refused to critique the German nation and its leaders. Though death had “snatched so many dear comrades and friends from our ranks,” Hitler averred in Mein Kampf, it would have been “a sin to complain” because, after all, were they not “dying for Germany”?

No matter the extent of suffering that Germany had caused, Hitler—like many Germans—refused to say that his country was destructive or evil; to abandoning her.

Like Hitler, Hoche and Binding, were unable to critique Germany directly. They did not pose questions like: “Why did my nation sacrifice the finest flower of humanity in the war?” “Why were the battlefields strewn with thousands of dead German youths?”

Refusing to acknowledge the destruction wrought by their own nation, Hoche and Binding performed a critique by comparing the care provided for soldiers with the care provided for mental patients: "Why are the most valuable lives treated so wastefully by the state, while providing such excellent care for lives that are worthless?"

Arising from this question was the ideology of mass murder. Unable to pose the question, “Why did our nation kill its healthiest or best citizens,” Hoche and Binding declared, “If our nation can kill its healthiest or best people, why can it not also kill its unhealthiest or worst people?"