Friedlander, in questo libro, ci permette di comprendere come la macabra e calcolata evoluzione delle ideologie eugenetiche abbia condotto prima alla segreta eliminazione dei disabili e dei malati e successivamente sia divenuta un modello per lo sterminio di massa degli ebrei e degli zingari. Grazie a un superbo lavoro di ricerca, l’autore offre una meticolosa descrizione dello spietato programma di eutanasia T4 e della relativa Aktion 14f13, analizzando i luoghi e i metodi dello sterminio, ma anche prendendo in considerazione il coinvolgimento della burocrazia e della magistratura tedesca, nonché la partecipazione dei medici e degli scienziati.
Hard to believe I read this in Junior High. I was on a quest, I already knew some basic info, but I wanted to know the how and why. This book answers fully. No stars because well, yeah. I could give it 5 stars for thoroughness, but 1 star because why one earth did this happen?
My blood ran cold reading a few chapters in. It's know that the Nazis engaged in unmitigated evil, but how it started with the handicapped and children. That was something I did not know.
As a severely disabled person, I am immensely interested in this subject-matter, for obvious reasons and several not-so-obvious reasons. Needless to say, I went into this with great expectations; and, perhaps not-so-surprisingly, I came away very disappointed. Although the author seeks to do honor to the lesser-known victims of the Holocaust; the book itself doesn't do a good enough job of this, at least personally. I'm unsure whether this is a stylistic issue; if, indeed, this is a result of the scant amount of concrete evidence pertaining to this atrocious aspect of the wider horrors of WWII, as the author claims; or whether this is due to something else entirely.
Absolutely chilling. Behind-the-scenes look at how the Nazis went from exterminating their own people - even children - and gradually broadened their evil quest.