Life unworthy of life
Life unworthy of life (in
German:
Lebensunwertes Leben) was a
Nazi term for those human beings who, by reason of their racial or
genetic background, the Nazis believed had no right to live and should be killed. This concept was a significant element of Nazi thinking. The phrase first occurs in the title of a 1920 book,
Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwerten Lebens, (
Release for Life Unworthy of Life) by
Karl Binding and
Alfred Hoche.
People considered to be deviant or a source of social turmoil were put together in this category. The deviant category included the mentally or physically
disabled,
political dissidents,
homosexuals or
criminals; the social turmoil category included the
clergy,
communists,
Jews,
Roma,
Sami,
Jehovah's Witnesses, and a variety of other groups in society. More than any other of these groups, the Jews soon became the primary focus of this ideology.
This philosophy found its purest expression in
extermination camps built and operated by the Nazis during the
Holocaust in order to systematically murder these and other groups that the Nazis decided were unfit to be permitted to live.
*
Nazi eugenics*
T-4 Euthanasia Program*
"Life Unworthy of Life" and other Medical Killing Programmes
