Ernst-Robert Grawitz
Ernst-Robert Grawitz | |
---|---|
Born | Charlottenburg, Prussia, German Empire | 8 June 1899
Died | 24 April 1945 Potsdam-Babelsberg, Nazi Germany | (aged 45)
Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
Service/ | German Red Cross |
Rank | SS-Obergruppenführer |
Ernst-Robert Grawitz (8 June 1899 – 24 April 1945) was a German physician and an SS functionary (Reichsarzt, "arzt" meaning "physician") during the Nazi era.
SS career[]
Grawitz was born in Charlottenburg, in the western part of Berlin, Germany. As Reichsarzt SS und Polizei (Reich Physician SS and Police), Grawitz was also head of the German Red Cross. Grawitz funded Nazi attempts to "eradicate the perverted world of the homosexual" and research into attempts to "cure" homosexuality. This involved experimentation on inmates in Nazi concentration camps.[1] He was in charge of "enthusiastic" experiments on concentration camp inmates.[2]
Grawitz was also a part of the group in charge of the murder of mentally ill and physically handicapped people in the Action T4 "euthanasia" programme, including children from 1939.[3] The officials selected the doctors who were to carry out the operational part of the killing programme.[4] In addition, researchers both in and outside the SS wanted to exploit the supply of inmates held in the SS camps and use them for experiments.[5] In order to do so, the interested parties had to apply to Grawitz, who forwarded requests to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler who then gave final approval.[5]
Towards the end of World War II in Europe, Grawitz was a physician in Adolf Hitler's Führerbunker. When he heard that other officials were leaving Berlin in order to escape the advancing Soviet Red Army, Grawitz petitioned Hitler to allow him to leave Berlin; his request was denied. As the Soviet Army advanced on Berlin, Grawitz killed himself and his family with grenades at their house in Babelsberg.[2]
References[]
- ^ "The Nazi doctor who experimented on gay people – and Britain helped to escape justice".
- ^ Jump up to: a b Evans, Richard (2009) [2008]. The Third Reich at War, p. 729.
- ^ Schafft, Gretchen E. (2004). From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich, pp. 159–163.
- ^ Lifton, R. J. (1986). The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, p. 64.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Weale, Adrian (2012). Army of Evil: A History of the SS, p. 100.
- 1899 births
- 1945 suicides
- Nazi concentration camp personnel
- Physicians in the Nazi Party
- Nazis who committed suicide in Germany
- Physicians from Berlin
- SS-Obergruppenführer
- Joint suicides by Nazis
- Nazis who committed suicide
- Suicides by explosive device
- Filicides in Germany
- Aktion T4 personnel
- German Red Cross personnel
- Waffen-SS personnel
- Kapp Putsch participants
- 20th-century Freikorps personnel
- People from Charlottenburg
- Deaths by hand grenade