PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Over many decades Walter Creutz, medical officer in the provincial administration of Rhine Province from 1935 to 1945, was held to be one of the few psychiatrists who had actively opposed the Nazi "Euthanasia" program. In the famous "Euthanasia trial" in Dusseldorf from 1948 to 1950, Creutz was acquitted of complicity in murder; the court attested that he had done his best to sabotage the "Euthanasia" program and in so doing had saved up to 3,000 patients in the Rhineland. This rendering was circulated further in the history of science literature, so that the Rhine Province was considered to be a center of resistance to the "Euthanasia" program. Doubts about this portrayal have arisen since the 1980s. Various authors attempted to prove that Walter Creutz collaborated with the "Euthanasia" apparatus claiming there was no evidence of opposition or resistance or only to a very limited degree. However, this new perspective is based on an equally one-sided, at times grossly distorted analysis of the sources. The article provides building blocks for a more differentiated interpretation.