Death and Deliverance: “Euthanasia” in Germany 1900–1945

Michael Burleigh, Cambridge University Press, pounds sterling14.95, pp 382, ISBN 0 521 47769 7

The widely reported revelations concerning the Holocaust have tended to overshadow the many other atrocities perpetrated by the National Socialist regime during its 12 years in power in Germany. Among the worst of these crimes was the so called “euthanasia” programme, a state sponsored policy of systematic mass murder designed to exterminate children and adults with severe mental and physical disabilities in the interest of national welfare. The experience gained from these …