A timeline of the treatment of the disabled during the Holocaust

January 1933

The Nazi party (NSDAP) takes power in Germany.

14 July, 1933

“The law for the prevention of progeny with Hereditary Disease” calls for the sterilisation of all people with diseases that the Nazis thought of as hereditary, i.e. mental illness, learning disabilities, epilepsy, blindness, deafness. Even alcoholism is covered by the law.

Also in 1933

The Third Reich starts to issue propaganda against disabled people. The term “useless eaters” is used to highlight their burden on society.

1939

The T4 Program begins. Disabled people are now killed rather than merely being sterilised.

1940 – 1941

An estimated 70,000 disabled people are killed under the T4 Program. Most of these are large-scale killings using poison gas – a forerunner of the killing program of Jews, which became known as ‘The Final Solution’.

See the rest of the timeline at the BBC.