Скачать или смотреть Nazi “Euthanasia” in the Czech Lands – lecture by Michal V. Šimůnek

How did Nazi “euthanasia” policies unfold in the ethnically diverse Czech Lands—and what happened to the less-studied group of psychiatric patients transferred from Saxony to Bohemian institutions during the Action T4 program? This lecture by Michal V. Šimůnek, presented as part of the Dresden–Prague Talks “Topographies of Suffering – Czech and German Victims during World War II” in the winter semester 2025/26, sheds light on a little-known chapter of Nazi medical crimes.

Focusing on Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, the talk examines how the heterogeneous ethnic composition of the region shaped the implementation of Nazi “euthanasia,” which officially targeted only German patients in the Reichsgau Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Yet this rule was not always followed. With the beginning of mass transports within Action T4, psychiatric institutions in Bohemia were deliberately used to create space for Reich German patients—especially those from Saxony.

A key example is the establishment in 1941 of "Außenstelle Wiesengrund", a branch of the Saxon psychiatric institution Arnsdorf, located in Dobřany (Wiesengrund) in western Bohemia. There, 485 Saxon patients were transferred. Most later died in Wiesengrund, while others perished in the psychiatric institutions of Kosmonosy and Prague-Bohnice. A handful survived and returned to Germany, some even before the end of the war. Beyond this group, an additional 171 Saxon patients have been identified in Bohemian psychiatric institutions. Using detailed name lists and personal data, including diagnoses, the lecture provides insight into the structure, treatment, and fate of this overlooked subgroup of victims of Nazi psychiatric policy.

Michal V. Šimůnek studied history as well as the history and philosophy of the natural sciences at Charles University in Prague. His research focuses on the history of the life sciences in Bohemia and Moravia in the 19th and 20th centuries, science policy, and the development of scientific institutions. After working at the Centre for the History of Sciences and Humanities in Prague, he joined the Institute of Contemporary History at the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he has been a researcher since 2004. He is also a member of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust.

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