Ich klage an

Ich klage an (English: I Accuse) is a 1941 Nazi German pro-euthanasia propaganda film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner^[1] and produced by Heinrich Jonen and Ewald von Demandowsky. .

It was banned by Allied powers after the war.^[2]

Plot[]

A beautiful young wife suffering from multiple sclerosis pleads with doctors to kill her.^[3] Her husband, a successful doctor himself, gives her a fatal overdose and is put on trial, where arguments are put forth that prolonging life is sometimes contrary to nature, and that death is a right as well as a duty.^[4] It culminates in the husband's declaration that he is accusing them of cruelty for trying to prevent such deaths.^[5]

Cast[]

Propaganda elements[]

This film was commissioned by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels at the suggestion of Dr. Karl Brandt, to make the public more supportive of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program.^[6] Key scenes from the film were personally inserted by Victor Brack, one of the prominent organisers of the program and later a convicted war criminal. The actual victims of T4 were in fact killed without their consent, or that of their families.^[7] Indeed, one cinema goer is alleged to have compared the film to the program and naively asked how abuses could be prevented from creeping into it.^[8]

The SS reported that the churches were uniformly negative about the movie, with Catholics expressing it more strongly but Protestants being equally negative.^[9] Opinions in medical circles were positive, though there were doubts, especially though not exclusively in cases where patients thought to be incurable had recovered.^[10] Legal professions were anxious that it be placed on a legal footing, and in the few polls that were commissioned, the general population were said to be supportive.^[11]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Ayçoberry, Pierre (1981). The Nazi Question: An Essay on the Interpretations of National Socialism (1922–1975). New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-74841-2.
• Grunberger, Richard (1971). The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933–1945. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-076435-6.
• Hertzstein, Robert Edwin (1978). The War That Hitler Won. New York: Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-11845-6.
• Leiser, Erwin (1975). Nazi Cinema. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-570230-1.
• Romani, Cinzia (1992). Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich. New York: Sarpedon. ISBN 978-0-9627613-1-7.

External links[]

• Ich klage an at IMDb
• Ich klage an at AllMovie
• Full film at Archive.org

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