Meseritz-Obrawalde: a 'wild euthanasia' hospital of Nazi Germany

In 1939, Hitler authorized a programme of 'euthanasia' of children and adults with physical and psychiatric disorders. Initially, gas chambers were established at six psychiatric institutions in Germany and Austria. This programme was discontinued in August 1941 but the killings continued on an individual basis. Physicians selected patients who were unable to work or who required extensive care, and ordered the nurses to administer lethal doses of sedatives. Meseritz-Obrawalde was a site for 10,000 of these killings. Using documents from the trial of one of Obrawalde's physicians, Hilde Wernicke, the era of 'wild euthanasia' is described and her rationale for participating in the killings is explored.