ABSTRACT
After spending time in a library reading history books and examining documents, Dr. Adeline found out a great deal of information about Victor's paternal grandfather. He had been an important figure in the euthanasia programme, the so-called "T4 operation", the "mercy killing" of mentally and physically defective persons who were considered "useless" and/or presented a threat to Aryan purity in Nazi Germany. There were about four hundred persons who were assigned to the T4 programme. Some were commissioned to encourage parents and physicians to co-operate with the programme, and soon killing mental patients spread to occupied western Poland where the killing of "disabled" adults began as well. Since thousands of doctors, nurses, and others were involved in the T4 programme, it was impossible to keep it a secret, and the population soon learned of it. Victor's grandfather did not return to his position in the T4 euthanasia programme when it restarted in August 1942.
