Viktor Hermann Brack (9 November 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a member of the ''
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
'' (SS) and a convicted
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
war criminal, who was one of the prominent organisers of the
euthanasia programme
Aktion T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post- war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address o ...
; this Nazi initiative resulted in the systematic murder of 275,000 to 300,000 disabled people. He held various positions of responsibility in
Hitler's Chancellery
Hitler's Chancellery, officially known as the ''Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP'' (" Chancellery of the Führer of the Nazi Party"; abbreviated as KdF) was a Nazi Party organization. Also known as the ''Privatkanzlei des Führers'' ("Private Chanc ...
in Berlin. Following his role in the T4 programme, Brack was one of the men identified as responsible for the gassing of Jews in
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s, having conferred with
Odilo Globočnik
Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was an Austrian Nazi and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. He was an official of the Nazi Party and later a high-ranking leader of the SS. Globocnik had a leading role in Operation Re ...
about its use in the practical implementation of the
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
. Brack was sentenced to death in 1947 and executed by hanging in 1948.
Career
Brack was born the son of a physician in
Haaren (now part of
Aachen) in the
Rhine Province. In 1928, he completed a degree in agriculture at the Technical University of Munich and shortly thereafter began managing the estate attached to his father's sanatorium; he also was a test driver for BMW.
In 1929 at the age of 25, Brack became a member of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
(NSDAP) and the ''
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
'' (SS). Throughout 1930 and 1931, Brack was one of
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
's personal drivers, having become acquainted with the ''Reichsführer-SS'' as a consequence of his father having delivered one of the SS leader's children. Sometime in 1932, he became adjutant to
Philipp Bouhler and by 1934, Brack was his chief of staff. In 1936, he was appointed chief of ''Hauptamt II'' (main office II) in the
Chancellery of the
Führer
( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or " guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Nazi Germany cultivated the ("leader princip ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. The office handled matters concerning the Reich Ministries,
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
, NSDAP, clemency petitions and complaints received by the Führer from all parts of Germany.
Aktion T4
''Hauptamt II'' officials under Viktor Brack played a vital role in organising the killing of
mentally ill
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
and
physically handicapped people in the
Aktion T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post- war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address o ...
"euthanasia" programme, especially the
child "euthanasia" from 1939. By a (backdated) decree of 1 September, Hitler appointed
Philipp Bouhler and his personal physician
Karl Brandt
Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934. A member of ...
to manage the euthanasia program, where they would oversee the murder of physically and/or mentally disabled persons. The implementation of the killing operations was left to subordinates such as Brack and SA-''Oberführer''
Werner Blankenburg
Werner Blankenburg (19 June 1905 – 28 November 1957) was a high official in Nazi Germany who led the commission of numerous crimes against humanity. As section head in Hitler's chancellery, he was one of the persons mainly responsible for the Ak ...
. To efficiently accomplish this task, Brack, who headed Office II of the Führer's Chancellery created four offices; these were Office IIa or the Deputy Chief of Central Office II, headed by Blankenburg ; Office IIb, led by Hans Hefelmann, which dealt with the Reich government and clemency petitions; Office IIc, overseen by Reinhold Vorberg, responsible for matters related to the armed forces, the police, the SS, and churches; and Office IId for matters concerning the Nazi Party, which was headed by ''Amtsleiter'' Buchholz and then by Dr. Brümmel.
In January 1940, Brack gave
August Becker the task of arranging gas-killing operations of mentally ill patients and other people whom the Nazis deemed "
life unworthy of life
The phrase "life unworthy of life" (german: Lebensunwertes Leben) was a Nazi designation for the segments of the populace which according to the Nazi regime had no right to live. Those individuals were targeted to be murdered by the state (" ...
". The Aktion T4 program was related to popular early 20th-century ideas of eugenics and improving the race, not allowing disabled or mentally ill people to reproduce. Initially, the doctors in the program sterilized people, but then they murdered nearly 15,000 German citizens at
Hadamar Euthanasia Centre
The Hadamar killing centre (german: NS-Tötungsanstalt Hadamar) was a killing facility involved in the Nazi "involuntary euthanasia" programme known as ''Aktion T4''. It was housed within a psychiatric hospital located in the German town of Had ...
under an extension of this program. There were six principal killing centers; these resided at Hartheim, Sonnenstein, Grafeneck, Bernburg, Brandenburg, and Hadamar; most of which, historian Robert Lifton points out, "were in isolated areas and had high walls—some had originally been old castles—so that what happened within could not be readily observed from without." Given the scale of the operation, Brack recruited personnel using his network of contacts and party connections to fully staff T4, none of whom were forced to participate but volunteered their services. The T4 killings took place from September 1939 until the end of the war in 1945; from 275,000 to 300,000 people were killed in psychiatric hospitals in Germany and Austria, occupied Poland and the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...
(now the Czech Republic).
Role in the Holocaust
During October 1941,
Adolf Eichmann and Brack decided to begin using "
gas vans" to murder Jews incapable of working, the first three of which were set up at
Chełmno extermination camp
, known for =
, location = Near Chełmno nad Nerem, ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (German-occupied Poland)
, built by =
, operated by =
, commandant = Herbert Lange, Christian Wirth
, original use =
, construction =
, in operatio ...
. Not only did the ''
Einsatzgruppen'' mobile units assigned there kill Jews, but they also gassed Gypsies, people suffering with typhus, Soviet POWs, and the insane; all of whom were led into the vans, murdered, and then driven to nearby woods so their bodies could be placed in mass graves. On 23 June 1942 Brack wrote the following letter to Himmler:
Brack only intended to spare these 2–3 million Jews capable of work provided they were accordingly sterilized. Following these recommendations, Himmler ordered the procedure to be tested on prisoners in
Auschwitz. Since Brack was transferred to an SS division, his deputy Blankenburg took over responsibility for the task and would "immediately take the necessary measures and get in touch with the chiefs of the main offices of the concentration camps". When sterilization proved impracticable, this was rejected in favor of exterminating the Jews using poison gas, namely, since the technical apparatus was already in place via T4 to kill unwanted "mentally ill" persons. With the completion of the T4 euthanasia programme ran by Brack, the Nazis dismantled the gas chambers previously used for that endeavor, shipped them east, and reinstalled them at Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Treblinka. Brack subsequently took part in the administrative process of establishing extermination camps in occupied Poland. It was personnel and equipment provided by Brack that were utilized to murder the Jews.
Trial and execution
Sometime in April 1945, Viktor Brack and his superior Phillip Bouhler were arrested. During the Eichberg trial, which concluded at Frankfurt on 21 December 1946, Brack was implicated for his role in recruiting physicians for the euthanasia killings. At the Hadamar Trial—between 24 February 1947 until 21 March 1947—he was again implicated along with Dr. Karl Brandt for his involvement in the T4 programme. Brack was known to radically enforce euthanasia, even terrorizing doctors and nurses to ensure they maintained the killing procedures, despite later claiming during the trials that he had never even heard of the T4 programme.
During the trials, Brack insisted that euthanasia was a "humane measure" for incurably sick people and denied all knowledge of the Holocaust. He contested his complicity in mass X-ray sterilizations until confronted by his signature on corresponding documents; meanwhile other administrators—Rudolf Brandt and Wolfram Sievers—testified against Brack, proving links between him, the Führer's Chancellery, and Hitler. Nonetheless, Brack denied any anti-Semitism or involvement with killing Jews and avowed that he had joined the Waffen-SS in 1942 to distance himself from the regime.
On 20 August 1947, Brack was sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, af ...
on 2 June 1948, stating at the gallows that he "wished for God to give peace to the world."
References
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brack, Viktor
1904 births
1948 deaths
People from Aachen
People from the Rhine Province
Aktion T4 personnel
Holocaust perpetrators
Executions by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals
Executed people from North Rhine-Westphalia
SS-Oberführer
Heinrich Himmler
German people convicted of crimes against humanity
Technical University of Munich alumni
People executed for crimes against humanity
Executed mass murderers