“A Cold Wind Coming”: Heinrich Gross and Child Euthanasia in Vienna

Abstract

Medicine in the German Third Reich became an instrument of Nazi political philosophy that included racial purification using biologic measures. This included an involuntary euthanasia program directed at mentally and physically disabled children. One such effort existed at the Am Spiegelgrund Hospital in Vienna under the direction of Dr Heinrich Gross. This article details the scientific and policy origins of child euthanasia in Vienna, the use of scientific materials obtained for personal and professional gain, and the postwar attempts to reconcile with this abject past. ( J Child Neurol 2006;21:342—348; DOI 10.2310/7010.2006.00043) .