Friedrich Panse (30March 18996December 1973) was a German

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

who was involved with the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

T-4 Euthanasia Program (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killing ...

. He was an advisor who "expertly guided" patients into

gas chambers A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Gener ...

. After the war, in 1948, Dr. Panse was tried, but he was acquitted. His defense that was that if he had not participated, even more patients would have died. He was then made Director of the psychiatric clinic of the Medical Academy of the Rhine Hospital in Düsseldorf. In 1965 he was elected president of the German Society for Psychiatry and Neurology.

References

1899 births 1973 deaths Aktion T4 personnel German eugenicists German psychiatrists Legal history of Germany Physicians in the Nazi Party {{Germany-psychiatrist-stub

See also

References