Science and the Swastika

Episode 1

Hitler's Biological Soldiers

48 mins

Looks at the role of doctors in Nazi Germany and how many of them willingly took part in eugenics and euthanasia in the 1930s and 1940s, thus betraying the fundamental tenets of their profession, with initial sterilisation policies moving to ones of killing adults and children who were mentally or physically disabled. The programme includes an interview with Dr Erich Haessler, who worked at the hospital where the first victim of the 'euthanasia progamme was killed in 1939 - a deformed baby, murdered on the orders of Hitler himself.