Werner Catel
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Werner Catel (1894-1981), Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Leipzig, was one of three doctors considered an expert on the programme of euthanasia for children and participated in the T-4 Program for the Nazis, the other two being Hans Heinze and Ernst Wentzler. He was also tied to Hellmuth Unger.
Contents
Life
After the war he took charge of the Mammolshöhe Children's Mental Home near Kronberg, where he continued to rally for the euthanasia of children deemed beyond hope. In 1949 he was found to have committed no grave crimes by a denazification board in Hamburg, and became attached to the University of Kiel in 1954. There was talk after his death in 1981, of establishing a Werner Catel Foundation with $200,000 of unclaimed money left after his death, but the idea was finally dismissed in 1984.Euthanasia during the National Socialist regime
One documented case in which Catel was involved took place in 1938. A father identified only as 'Kressler' or 'Knauer' requested Catel's permission to euthanize one of his children, currently in the University's care, who had been born blind and deformed; Catel deferred the matter and suggested the father write directly to Hitler for permission - and Hitler subsequently sent Dr. Karl Brandt to confer with Catel and decide on a course of action. On July 25 1939 the child was killed.Euthanasia after the Second World War
The fall of the NS regime also meant the end of the T 4 euthanasia program. The T 4 program was influenced by a popular book written in 1920 by Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding. Catel as part of this program was surely influenced by it too. In his 1962 publication, "Grenzsituation des Lebens" (Border situations of life), Catel argued for the reintroduction of euthanasia. As had Binding and Hoche, Catel identified three possible types of euthanasia.
- Reine Euthanasie:
- Euthanasie im engeren Sinne:
- Euthanasie im weiteren Sinne:
See also
Trivia
- Catel was the first physician to describe what is now known as Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
- His obituary controversially stated that he acted "in many ways, to the welfare and well-being of sick children."
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