Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

This is Schloss Grafeneck, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, not too far from me. Built originally as a hunting lodge, it now has a horrific reputation. 1/

Over the first three decades of the twentieth century, eugenics - selective breeding & sterilisation - was a popular, advocated area of study across the world, particularly in the UK & Europe. The Nazi Party would take up these ideas in their quest for a pure 'Aryan' society. /2

The sick, those with physical deformities or mental difficulties, were considered 'useless eaters' and discussed as such in the febrile atmosphere of the 1930s.

They were portrayed as a financial burden on the community. /3

Sterilisations begun soon after the Nazis took power in 1933 - the Ill, and troubled in nursing homes and infirmaries.

In 1939, the killing of babies and sick children begun on trial basis. In September, a register of these people was undertaken. /4

Children would be taken from their existing facilities for 'special treatment'. Later, their parents or loved ones would receive word they had died of illness.

They had been killed by lethal injection. /6

In Stuttgart there is a 'stolperstein' memorial to 17 year old Klara Leucht. With the mental age of a child, she was killed in 1941 in a Hesse facility. /7

As the war begun, infirmaries were emptied. Adults were taken from across Germany, and occupied territories to killing centres such as Grafeneck in 'Graue Busse' or the grey buses.

There they were killed by lethal injection, or gas chamber. /8

By the time the program that would later become known as 'Aktion T4' was ended in 1941, it is estimated that over 300,000 Europeans had been murdered in these centres.

Over 12,000 had died at Grafeneck. /9

So the next time you her some twentysomething fuckwit talk about sterilising the poor, or similar, or cutting benefits to the sick, I want you to remember Grafeneck, Klara & the hundreds of thousands who were murdered.

Then I want to go tell them to go fuck themselves. /FIN