["Euthanasia"--victims and test subjects. The fate of diseased, disabled children in Berlin during World War II].

This article shows, through a study of the Berlin-Brandenburg region, that children and juveniles who were subjected to the killings of diseased and disabled, or mentally retarded, persons during the Third Reich did not only fall victim to the operations of the "Reichsausschuss" ("Reich Commission for Registration of Severe Disorders in Childhood"). Many were also included in the gas chamber killings of the "T4"-action and in various decentralized killing actions. Furthermore, the co-operation of various medical disciplines in the misuse of children for scientific research is demonstrated by looking into the research on a tuberculosis vaccine. It can be shown that the purpose of the killings was not the painless ending of individual suffering, but that they constituted a means of freeing the public from so-called "ballast existences", whose lives were only prolonged if they could be of scientific use.