I Accuse (1941 film)
Ich klage an (Eng: I Accuse) is a 1941 German pro-euthanasia propaganda film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner.[1]
It was banned by Allied powers after the war.[2]
Plot
A woman suffering from multiple sclerosis pleads with doctors to kill her.[3] Her husband 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]
Propaganda elements
This film was commissioned by Goebbels at the suggestion of Karl Brandt to make the public more supportive of the Reich's T4 euthanasia program, and presented simultaneously with the practice of euthanasia in Nazi Germany.[6] The actual victims of the Nazi euthanasia program Action T4 were in fact killed without their consent, in the absence of their families.[7] Indeed, one cinema goer compared it to the program and asked how abuses could be prevented from creeping in.[8]
SS reported that the churches were uniformly negative on the movie, with Catholics expressing it more strongly but Protestants being equally negative.[9] Opinion in medical circles was rather positive, though bringing up cases where patients thought to be incurable had recovered.[10] Legal professions were anxious that it be placed on legal ground, and the general population was supportive.[11]
References
- ^ "New York Times: Ich Klage An (1941)". NY Times. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
- ^ Cinzia Romani, Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich p108 ISBN 0-9627613-1-1
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p70 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p70-1 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Robert Edwin Hertzstein, The War That Hitler Won p308 ISBN 399-11845-4
- ^ Pierre Aycoberry The Nazi Question, p11 Pantheon Books New York 1981
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p69 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 385, ISBN 03-076435-1
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p146-7 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p147 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
- ^ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p148 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
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