Adolf Hitler's authorization for the Euthanasia Program (Operation T4), signed in October 1939 but dated September 1, 1939. Photograph »

Hartheim castle, a euthanasia killing center where people with physical and mental disabilities were killed by gassing and lethal injection. Hartheim, Austria, date uncertain. Photograph »

Buses used to transport patients to Hadamar euthanasia center. The windows were painted to prevent people from seeing those inside. Germany, between May and September 1941. Photograph »

This photo originates from a film produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It shows two doctors in a ward in an unidentified asylum. The existence of the patients in the ward is described as "life only as a burden." Such propaganda images were intended to develop public sympathy for the Euthanasia Program. Photograph »

This image originates from a film produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It shows patients in an unidentified asylum. Their existence is described as "life without hope." The Nazis sought, through propaganda, to develop public sympathy for the Euthanasia Program. Photograph »

Slide taken from a Nazi propaganda filmstrip, promoting "euthanasia," prepared for the Hitler Youth. The caption says: "Mentally ill Negro (English) 16 years in an institution costing 35,000 RM [Reichsmarks]." Place and date uncertain. Photograph »

Photograph with the caption: "...because God cannot want the sick and ailing to reproduce." This image originates from a film, produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry, that aimed through propaganda to develop public sympathy for the Euthanasia Program. Photograph »

This image originates from a film produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It is captioned: "A moral and religious conception of life demands the prevention of hereditarily ill offspring." Nazi propaganda aimed to create public support for the compulsory sterilization effort. Photograph »

A victim of the Nazi Euthanasia Program: hospitalized in a psychiatric ward for her nonconformist beliefs and writings, she was murdered on January 26, 1944. Germany, date uncertain. Photograph »

Emmi G., a 16-year-old housemaid diagnosed as schizophrenic. She was sterilized and sent to the Meseritz-Obrawalde euthanasia center where she was killed with an overdose of tranquilizers on December 7, 1942. Place and date uncertain. Photograph »

Kaufbeuren euthanasia center. Germany, 1945. Photograph »

Head nurse of the children's ward at the Kaufbeuren-Irsee euthanasia facility. Kaufbeuren, Germany, 1945. Photograph »

Smoke rising from the chimney at Hadamar, one of six facilities which carried out the Nazis' Euthanasia Program. Hadamar, Germany, probably 1941. [Dioezesanarchiv Limburg (DAL), Papers of Father Hans Becker] Photograph »

Two pages of the death registry at Hadamar listing false causes of death. Thousands of the physically and mentally disabled were killed there as part of the Euthanasia Program. Germany, April 5, 1945. Photograph »

Personnel of T4, the agency created to administer the Nazi Euthanasia Program. Berlin, Germany, date uncertain. Photograph »

Friedrich Mennecke, a Euthanasia Program physician who was responsible for sending many patients to be gassed. He was sentenced to death in 1946. Germany, date uncertain. Photograph »

Nazi physician Karl Brandt, director of the Euthanasia Program. August 27, 1942. Photograph »

Cemetery at Hadamar where victims of euthanasia killing at Hadamar were buried. This photograph was taken toward the end of the war. Hadamar, Germany, April 1945. Photograph »