Dasein ohne Leben
Template:New unreviewed article
Dasein ohne Leben (Existence Without Life) - Psychiatry and Humanity is a 1942-produced Nazi culture film. The director was Hermann Schwenninger, one of the three managing directors of Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH ("Charitable Ambulance"), a camouflage company of Aktion T4, the central institution for the mass murder of patients in the Third Reich. Schwenninger had also written parts of the screenplay of Ich klage an. The order for the film came from the firm's guide, produced by Tobis Filmkunst GmbH.
The film did not enter the cinemas, but was shown to offenders of the euthanasia program and other multipliers. All well-known copies of the film have been lost, but after the change eight films of the film were found in a GDR film archive. First drafts of the film came from the year 1940.
Plot
The theme of the film is the demand for the killing of mentally ill patients: "mental illness as an inheritance" is the "greatest threat to public health". Whoever is "infected" with this, "the heavy burden of fate is imposed on him: an existence without life".
Embedded in his game framework is a brief history of psychiatry. A professor fighter tells a student and a student the successes in the treatment of mentally ill patients. Shown are the treatment with electric shocks and insulin shocks. Shortly before the turn of the century many new institutions were added to an ever increasing number of patients. In the presence of the film there would be 1,000 institutions with around 500,000 patients, which would have to be cared for by 2,000 physicians and 40,000 nurses. The patients are accommodated in historically valuable buildings in beautiful landscapes, which are not perceived by the patients.
The second line of argumentation is the suggestive representation of sick individuals and a descriptive voice. A group of "idiots in Hartheim" are thus commented: "We see here as it were in the distorting mirror of the future destined for them". A group of "idiots in Kindberg" thus: "crippled in body and soul, misery, themselves and others to the burden, like ghosts without will, imagination and feeling". Further examples from other institutions follow, including the euthanasia institution Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre. The director of a "great lunatic asylum" appears as an expert: 73% of the parents of his "incurable caregivers" would be "redeem" them.
Film Records
For the film, Schwenninger shot the complete course of the NS euthanasia program, including the transport of the frightened patients to the killing institutions, and through an observation window the murder in a gas chamber of the killing center Pirna-Sonnenstein.[1] During the one and a half year of production, the film team visited 20 to 30 institutions throughout the Reich area. [2]
Demonstrations in a Closed Circle
In March 1942, the film was premiered in front of 28 physicians. The largest group were the reviewers of Aktion T4 and members of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft (Max de Crinis, Hans Heinze, Werner Heyde, Paul Nitsche, Carl Schneider). They were joined by Herbert Linden (Reichsinnenministerium), Otto Wuth (psychiatrist of the army health system), three top politicians of the health care administration of Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg, and Hellmuth Unger.
On December 22, 1942, the film was shown at the Military Academy in Berlin. The invited audience consisted of the top officials of the Sicherheitspolizei, the Gestapo, the RKPA,Reichsamt, the Reichsleitung der HJ, the doctors of the military service, the medical officer of the Luftwaffe, eight doctors of the military academy, and the Director of the Berlin Health Office.
In January 1943, Arthur Nebe left Existence Without Life before hundreds of SS officers, who took the film enthusiastically.
Copies of the film are lost today, although there were at least six copies circulating among Nazi organizations, the SS, and the Wehrmacht staffs. It is assumed that the copies were destroyed before the Allies invaded.
See Also
Literature
- Karl Heinz Roth[1]: Filmpropaganda für die Vernichtung der Geisteskranken und Behinderten im Dritten Reich. In: Reform und Gewissen. Euthanasie im Dienst des Fortschritts“, Berlin 1989 2nd edition, pp. 125-196 (pp. 172-179)
Weblinks
References
- ^ Klee, Ernst (1990). Was sie taten, was sie wurden. Frankfurt. p. 83.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Zimmermann, Peter (2005). "Propagandafilme der NSDAP" (PDF). Verlag: 554–567.