How Did Hitler Affect White Germans?

[abaris]

I'm at the point where he talks about what happened to people the Nazis called "life unworthy of life" during the war, and it turns out at least 80,000 German citizens with physical or mental incapacities were gassed from 1940 onwards, and were the main proving test cases (that sounds really callous, I don't mean it that way sorry) for what later became the holocaust.

Most of the personell moved on to serve in the death camps later on. Most of the death camp commanders came from operation T4 as it was called back then. Irmfried Eberl or Franz Stangl or the abyssmal Christian Wirth, a former police officer, who more or less was responsible for keeping the death factories up and running. Also lower charges.

T4 ultimately was terminated because, as opposed to later atrocities, the population took note. One of the very few admirable clerics of the time, bishop Galen went out of his way to make his knowledge public. He published a pastoral letter to be read at every church in his diocese, brandiing the operation as what it was, with every detail he could gather. It's also a perfect example of how far high ranking people could go in opposing the regime, since Galen wasn't touched by the authorities. There's some correspondence about him in the archieves, where Himmler and his henchmen discuss his fate. They come to the conclusion, it would be unwise to persecute him during the war, since it would lead to public outrage.

All in all, a very fine example for church apologists. The high ranking clergy could get away with making a stand. The majority however stayed silent or even praised the regime, despite the example in their midst.