Note 169 — IV. GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN LAW DURING THE NAZI PERIOD (continued 3)
Reading edition
Three of the defendants in the Medical case were tried and convicted upon charges of participation in the euthanasia program. (See United States vs. Karl Brandt, et al., Vol. I, p. 794, and Vol. II, p. 171 ff., this series.) Concerning the time when Guertner received a copy of a Hitler notice regarding euthanasia, the prosecution in the Justice Case introduced the following document (630-PS, Pros. Ex. 383), the original of which was on the letterhead of “A. Hitler” and dated Berlin, 1 September 1939:
Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D. are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who according to human judgment are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.
[Signed] A. Hitler
[Handwritten note]
Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940.
[Signed] Dr. Guertner
III a 3/ 41g R s /