OPERATION T4

When the National Socialist Workers’ Party (the Nazi Party) took control of Germany in the early 1930’s, they moved forward with their effort to create a biologically “pure” population.

One result was a policy called the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases.” It called for the sterilization of all persons who suffered diseases considered hereditary. These included retardation, depression, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and alcoholism. The Law stated, “Whereas the hereditarily healthy families have for the most part adopted a policy of having only one or two children, countless numbers of inferiors and those suffering from hereditary conditions are reproducing unrestrainedly while their sick and asocial offspring burden the community.”

Forced sterilizations were launched in 1934 and an estimated 400,000 people were sterilized under this law. Most of the victims were diagnosed with feeble-mindedness (mental retardation) followed by schizophrenia and epilepsy. The primary methods were vasectomy and tubal ligation. A majority of the patients were pure “German” between 20 and 40 years old. The Law did not target racial or religious groups as such (e.g. Jews) but Gypsies and homosexuals, who were considered asocial, were included. Only the Catholic Church opposed the program while most Protestant Churches accepted or cooperated.

But this wasn’t the worst part. Forced sterilization was only the first step in the killing of the mentally ill and the handicapped. A “euthanasia” program followed shortly with the goal of exterminating from the Aryan race all people considered genetically defective, and a financial burden on the German society.

The Nazis, somewhat concerned with public reaction, never proposed a formal euthanasia law. Instead, they created a secret program called “Operation T4.” Under the premise of a survey, all public and church run nursing homes were required to complete questionnaires about the state of health, and capacity for work, for all adult patients in their care. The completed forms were surrendered to expert (Nazi) assessors to review. These authorities were expected to process a great number of forms very quickly. They would mark a red “+” for each person to be executed or a blue “ - “ for each person to be spared. All Jewish patients were automatically given the red “+” regardless of the seriousness of their illness.

People to be executed were collected and sent to killing centers across Germany. At first lethal injections were used but this was too slow. During 1940, the Nazis switched to carbon monoxide gas to increase their efficiency. Corpses were removed from the gas chambers, gold teeth extracted, and burned in crematoriums. Death certificates listed false causes of death. Letters of condolences were sent by the government to the relatives. That year over 70,000 mentally ill and handicapped people were executed.

The secrecy of Operation T4 rapidly evaporated. Obvious record falsification was discovered. Some religious and civic leaders protested the killings which pressured Hitler to discontinued Operation T4 in 1941.

The killing centers in Germany were disassembled and shipped to Poland. Where they were re-erected in extermination camps to expedite the “final solution.” The experience gained in the execution of the retarded and handicapped in Germany served the Nazis well in the later, more massive holocaust. The euthanasia of the handicapped did not end however. From 1941 to 1945 it existed out of the limelight and became decentralized. This new super-secret program was called “Code 14f13” and executed another 20,000 people. In total 250,000 retarded and handicapped patents were executed during the Nazi regime.

A Hero is Found, then Lost, then Found Again

The patriot and legendary naval commander, John Paul Jones, died 219 years ago in 1792, but many Americans are not familiar with this important revolutionary figure. Born John Paul in Scotland in 1747, he apprenticed at sea at age 13, sailing to the Caribbean. When he was 26 he killed another sailor in self defense during a mutiny. He fled to Virginia and changed his name to John Jones, then later to John Paul Jones.

At the start of the Revolutionary War, he was commissioned in the Continental Navy. He was promoted to Captain at age 29. His war time achievements were extraordinary, continuously seeking out and attacking British ships while commanding a succession of American warships. He became a close associate of Washington, Jefferson, and especially Franklin, his mentor.

In 1778 Captain John Paul Jones decided to take the war to the British. His plan was to raid the coastal areas and take English nobles prisoner so that they could be used in exchanges for American prisoners. Previously, the British considered all captured American navy personnel and privateers as pirates, and refused to hand them over. Although the raids were unsuccessful, the British press branded Jones as an ape-like pirate. This strategy failed as many in the English working class saw Jones as a kind of “Robin Hood” - stealing from the upper class and giving to them. Captain Jones had returned some English fishermen he held and gave them new sails for their boats and some money.

One year later, Jones achieved his most famous victory off the coast of Scotland. He defeated the British ship Serapis in heavy combat. The Serapis was a 50-gun warship with a crew of almost 300. After pounding Jones’ ship, the Bonhomme Richard, the British Captain, Richard Pearson, called out to Jones, “Do you call for quarter?” (in other words are you prepared to give up and surrender your ship?). Jones was believed to have responded, “I have not yet begun to fight.” There is some question as to his actual words though. An eyewitness, Ensign Nathaniel Fanning, recalled Jones’ words to be, “Ay, ay, we’ll do that when we can fight no longer, but we shall see yours (their flag) down first!” While this version is a little wordier, there is no confusion about the meaning.

John Paul Jones maneuvered his smaller and now sinking Bonhomme Richard up next to the Serapis and had his crew lash it to the British ship. The American crew fought hand to hand and after three hours they overwhelmed the enemy. As Jones stepped onto to the deck of the Serapis to accept their surrender, the Bonhomme Richard sank beneath the waves. Many other victories were to come as the small Continental Navy fought against huge odds. America had found a new hero.

While visiting in Paris after the war, John Paul Jones was offered a position as an Admiral in the Russian Navy by Empress Catherine II. He served in the war against the Turkish Navy in the Black Sea from 1788 to 1790.

With his duty completed, Jones returned to Paris, nearly penniless and without prospects, living in obscurity. He died on July 18, 1792, at the age of 45 from a form of jaundice (interstitial nephritis). He was found lying face down on the bed of his small third floor apartment. He had written his will just hours before.

After the French were defeated by the British at Trafalgar, Napoleon is said to have remarked, “Had Jones lived to this day, France might have had an Admiral.”

A friend paid for Jones’ metal coffin. Then a small group accompanied his body to the Saint Louis Cemetery in Paris where Jones was buried in an unmarked grave. There was no service and no clergy presided. Later, the cemetery fell into disrepair. It became a place to dispose of dead animals and where gamblers met to bet on animal fights. For more than 100 years, the remains of John Paul Jones, the Navy’s first hero, remained in the unmarked grave.

In 1899, American Ambassador to France, Horace Porter, began his search for the forgotten grave of John Paul Jones. After six years of tireless work, he was able to locate the gravesite in 1905. Positive identification was possible because the body had been well preserved in that metal coffin. A squadron of American warships was dispatched to France by President Theodore Roosevelt to bring the hero’s body home.

On John Paul Jones’ 159^th Birthday in 1906, before 12,000 mourners, his body was ceremoniously interred in a gold and marble crypt in the Chapel of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. The hero had been found, again.

The inscription on the marble floor in front of his sarcophagus reads,

“HE GAVE OUR NAVY ITS EARLIEST TRADITIONS OF HEROISM AND VICTORY.”

"La Grippe": The Forgotten Predator

 

It came out of nowhere. Later it was thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic mutation of the common influenza virus. The name given to it was the “Spanish Flu” or “La Grippe” as it allegedly killed 8 million people in Spain in 1918. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 became the most devastating epidemic in recorded history. More people died of the Spanish Flu in 12 months than died due to the Black Death Bubonic Plague in four years (1347-1351).

In 1918 the Great War (WWI) was winding down. Americans saw peace on the horizon. They were not prepared for what was about to happen. Small outbreaks of the Flu erupted here and there but they seemed benign, at first. It was strange that those infected most were between the ages of 20 and 40. Flu usually struck the very old and very young.

Before long people were struck down on their way to work, on the street, and died rapid deaths. Many died in just hours, most within only a few days. Physicians reported that their patients displayed common Flu like symptoms at first but that it rapidly developed into “the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen.” The medical profession was powerless to stop it. Some believed the epidemic was a form of biological weapon developed by the Germans as a last stand.

It covered the world, spread by human carriers along travel and trade routes. Returning soldiers then brought a second wave of death with them back to America in September. There were 200,000 deaths reported the following month. It was a complete public health disaster. Medical students were released early from school to be put into the field to try to contain the pandemic.

It was almost impossible to escape from the illness. President Woodrow Wilson suffered through it in early 1919. Public Health departments distributed masks to be worn in public, stores were prohibited from having sales, and funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Bodies piled up. There was a serious lack of medical personnel, medical supplies, and coffins.

Surprisingly, the Spanish Flu disappeared almost as fast as it had come on. It was largely forgotten by Americans during the following decades, until 2009. You can probably remember the scare we had just two years ago when the H1N1 virus was circulating. It was a mutation of the Spanish Flu from 90 years ago. We may have dodged a bullet in 2009, but how long will our luck hold?

The 1918 Spanish Flu by the numbers WORLDWIDE:

20% of the world’s population was infected.

30-50 million people worldwide died.

Twice as many people died of the Flu than were killed in WWI.

More died in a single year than in 4 years of the Black Death Plague.

The 1918 Spanish Flu by the numbers in AMERICA:

28% of all Americans were infected.

675,000 Americans died.

10 times more Americans died of the Flu than in WWI combat.

50% of U.S. military casualties in Europe were from the Flu.

43,000 American soldiers died.

12 year drop was seen in the average life expectancy in 1918 alone.

25 times higher mortality rate than in 1917.

(numbers are from the U.S. Archives and Stanford University)

“I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza,

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.”

(children’s rope skipping rhyme in 1918)  

Soldiers' Letters From The Front

                  

What we are really talking about are the wartime letters exchanged between both the front lines and the families at home. Letters go both directions in about the same number. Letters sent during wartime are among the most significant memorials a person can leave behind them. Some families have kept letters written by several generations of soldiers. Mine has letters written from before the Civil War through Vietnam.

If you read soldiers’ letters from different eras, they are remarkably similar. While some older letters talk about horses and more recent ones about helicopters, all of them communicate the writer’s feelings of fear, survival, boredom, and loneliness. Some offer eyewitness accounts of historic events. Others convey love and affection that under normal times may not be expressed as openly. Taken together, they represent a unique record of the sacrifices made by military personnel and their families at home.

They need to be preserved. Too many are discarded by people who either do not appreciate their significance or, sadly, do not want to recall those distressing times. Other letters, while being saved, are not preserved in a way that will make them available to future generations.

After the beginning of the 20^th Century, letters home rarely contained as much of a historical nature. Security and censorship was increasingly enforced during conflict. But some of the most interesting letters were written after a conflict ended. Soldiers were not sent on their way home as soon as the last bullet was fired, but were freer to write about things that they couldn’t communicate earlier. Foreign postcards, photographs of themselves and their buddies, and stories about battles and liberations were more common.

Following is a brief summary of how soldiers’ letters home have changed over our history. The final section will give you some guidelines for preserving your treasured letters.

Civil War

During the Civil War soldiers wrote an unprecedented number of letters home. Over the course of the war, some regiments were capable of producing 40,000 letters or more. This made the Civil War one of the most documented events in American history.

Between battles there were many hours of idleness. Sometimes they described the battles, but more often they wrote about their daily routine and desire to be home.

When you read their letters you will get a sense of what the soldier was like and what they thought about while so far from home. But writing letters home was only part of the process. Soldiers wanted letters from their family also. The arrival of mail in the camps was a cause for celebration. For many it was the only reminder of the normal life they had left behind.

It was very typical for a soldier to plead for their family to right back on a regular basis. There were few delights greater than receiving mail from home. One letter said, “Joseph, if you are able to write me a letter, I want you to do it. I have only gotten one letter since I left Camp Chase. I would like to hear from home every week. If you could see the men running when the mail comes in, you would write often. If I could hear from home more often, I would be satisfied.” (Harrison Clawson, 180^th Ohio Infantry, 1864)

Occasionally a soldier would get a package from home. It might contain clothing, candy, soap, or more writing paper. If their package contained cookies or a cake, that soldier would become the most popular man in camp. Home cooked food was more prized than any other item except a photograph.

To write home, a soldier would need paper, envelopes, ink and a pen. These could be purchased from “sutlers.” Sutlers were civilian merchants who sell non-military provisions to soldiers in the field or in camps. They sold supplies, including writing materials, from the back of a wagon or out of a tent. This allowed them to travel along with the army. Sutlers were common from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.

In addition to holding a letter, envelopes could have a special purpose. Many were printed with patriotic or political statements. These were generally known as “covers.” Some private companies even printed envelopes for a specific regiment which listed all of the battles in which the regiment participated up to that point. In the later parts of the war, organizations gave out free paper and envelopes to the soldiers. The U.S. Christian Commission and the U.S. Sanitary Commission were known for this.

By 1864, the U.S. Mail Service allowed Union soldiers to send their letters home free of charge as long as they clearly wrote “Soldier’s Letter” on the envelope. Free letter delivery for soldiers since the Civil War has continued to be available. Confederate soldiers were not as fortunate. They often faced shortages of paper, envelopes, and pens. They were sometimes able to procure these things from Union Army prisoners, or off of battlefield casualties.

While all soldiers attempted to write letters home, not all of them could write very well and spelling skills were poor. The average soldier in the Union Army had a fourth grade education which did not allow them to master grammar, if they could write at all. Some poor writes would ask their buddies to write the letters for them. Today it can be difficult to transcribe some of the letters home. Spelling was frequently phonetic which made for interesting, and comical, interpretation. Letters from Confederate soldiers if read phonetically even reveals their southern drawl.

The practice of mail censorship began during the Civil War but was limited to mail that might cross enemy lines.

WWI

World War I was a massive conflict with millions of soldiers participating. The battles were enormous but during periods between them, the men in the trenches had time to reflect and write letters to their families. Many expressed their thoughts on being away. The folks at home wrote letters of support and updated the soldier on family events. And of course there were the “Dear John” rejections letters too.

Packages as well as letters were sent from home. By WWI the use of preservatives meant that some foods, such as baked goods, could be sent to a soldier with greater success. Pre-packaged foods were also available to send. A package from America might arrive in France in under a month.

With America’s entrance into World War, I things began to change. Military censorship of soldiers’ letters started in earnest. If specific information about troop locations fell into enemy hands, there would be serious consequences. Censors looked at two things; was there information that would benefit the enemy or would weaken morale (either the soldier’s or the people at home). Letters written in languages other than English were routinely intercepted.

There was no organized group responsible for censoring mail. Usually unit officers were assigned that duty. Some, opposing the practice, just ignored the task.

The British handled the issue of censorship more sternly. The British government passed the Defense of the Realm Act in 1914 which ordered that letters written by members of the armed forces to their families were to be read and censored by the authorities. Punishment for writing about the war could include imprisonment without trial. Still, British soldiers were encouraged to write home, but to conceal the horrors of war.

WWII

There were more Americans fighting overseas than ever before. It was a new world and soldiers had a front row seat.

Many families have saved the letters sent home during World War II. They were read around the dinner table, everyone sharing the news at the same time. The letters reflected a diversity of emotions from anger to humor to determination. And they were written by soldiers in places new to Americans - in a military hospital in a foreign country, the belly of a flying B-17, a bunk on a submarine, or in a prison camp.

SECURITY

Enemy intelligence was much more pervasive that in any previous war, and coded communication was an ever present concern. Written communications from soldiers were only allowed to be sent via the Army Postal Service. Any attempt to avoid this restriction by using civilian postal systems resulted in severe disciplinary action against the sender.

The U.S. War Department issued a list of ten subjects that were prohibited:

Don’t write about any military units including location, strength, material, or equipment.

Don’t write about military installations.

Don’t write about transportation facilities.

Don’t write about convoys, their routes, time in route, or incidents occurring en route.

Don’t disclose movements of ships, naval or merchant; or aircraft.

Don’t mention plans or orders for future operations (even if you are guessing).

Don’t write about the effect of enemy operations.

Don’t tell of any casualty

Don’t use any code, cipher, or shorthand to conceal the true meaning of your letter.

Don’t give your location in any way.

CENSORSHIP

Censorship became an even more important aspect of mail to and from the front. Soldiers were only allowed to write in generalities and could not include any reference to their location or even their unit. Their letters might say something like “You know what unit I’m in and you can follow our progress in the newspapers.”

Military senders would have their message read by a censor before it was processed. This was a common practice in most countries. Information of a sensitive nature related to troop locations and activities was obliterated, sometimes physically cut out of the sheet. Oddly, enlisted men, who knew little, were censored more severely than officers, who knew a lot. After a specific war-related event had been completed, and news of it already published in the newspapers, the censors would not delete it from the letters.

V-MAIL

My mother saved every letter that my father sent home from Europe during World War II. When I was old enough, I read them. Among the various written pages were some small, funny looking letters that looked more like those office message pads that people used before e-mail. They were from my father and sent to my mother, but I didn’t know why they were different.

It turns out that they were U.S. Victory Mail, or “V-mail,” for short. This was a novel method for servicemen abroad to communicate with their families (and vice versa) in a secure, quick, and inexpensive way. Here is how it worked. The user would write their message on a special V-mail letter-sheet in the limited space provided. Each sheet was only 7” x 9 1/8”. The sender would add the name and address of the recipient, fold the form, and affix postage. If the sender was a serviceperson, no postage was needed. Only one sheet per message was allowed. The V-mail letter-sheet was a combination letter and envelope.

The V-mail letter-sheets were sent to a processing location and microfilmed. Each message was reduced to the size of your thumb-nail. We think of microfilming as a fairly recent invention but it isn’t. It’s as old as photography itself. It was invented in 1839 by the British scientist John Benjamin Dancer, and the first microfilm strips were patented in Europe twenty years later. During the First World War, microfilm strips were carried by passenger pigeons.

The rolls of microfilmed messages were loaded onto aircraft, flown to a receiving station near where the addressee lived, or was stationed if the message was originated in the U.S. An exact copy of the message was reproduced and enlarged, printed on photographic paper, then delivered. This method of mail processing was first invented ten years before World War II as a commercial venture by Eastman Kodak, British Airways, and Pan-Am Airways working together. It was called “Airgraph.”

The first use of V-mail began in mid-1943. After two years, over 500 million pieces of mail were sent from the U.S. to service people overseas, and another 500 million messages were returned home by the soldiers and sailors. There were significant benefits for the military which flew all messages. It took 37 mail bags to hold 150,000 one-page regular letters but only one mail bag to carry the same number in microfilmed form. The weight reduction corresponded; from 2,575 lbs to just 45 pounds. The space and weight saved on each flight was now free to move war supplies.  

Even though posters were placed nearly everywhere urging the use of V-mail as a patriotic act, most people still sent regular first-class mail. Part of the drawback of V-mail was its small size (when the message was printed for delivery, it was only 4 ¼” x 5 3/16”); and part was that the photographic paper used to print the messages tended to fade over time.

In spite of this, V-mail met its anticipated advantages. It was more secure than first class letters because invisible inks and other covert methods could not be microfilmed. It was fast, it was inexpensive, and it freed up cargo aircraft space for other needed materials. All in all, it was a success.

Korea and the Vietnam Era

Letters home written during the Korean War and Vietnam War frequently contained more vivid descriptions of combat as censorship was less stringent during these times.

I remember that on my first full day in basic training our group was literally ordered to write a letter home letting our families know we had arrived safely at camp. We sealed the envelopes ourselves. There was no censorship, but then we knew nothing at all anyway.

Censorship became less of an issue during the Vietnam War. G.I. letters were reviewed and censored but to a lesser degree. Soldiers’ were generally free to write about their experiences and what they had seen in the field. Even hand drawn maps showing the soldier’s location were not generally deleted.

Mail service was greatly sped up by the late 1960’s. Letters from and to home could make the journey in several days.

Popular items sent to a soldier in Southeast Asia were magazines and pre-packaged snacks. Most of these were available near the combat zone through the U.S. military, however, so personal letters and photographs continued to be the most important thing to a soldier.

Today

When the Gulf War began in 1991, new types of communications with the folks at home also began. Hand writing of letters was largely replaced by electronic messaging, either by phone or e-mail. These have grown in popularity since. The internet is available to most soldiers serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The two-way nature of electronic media gives the soldiers and their families the advantage of keeping in touch without waiting; and it boosts morale. Letters are still written of course but the normal delivery time is about two weeks. This is primarily due to the mobility of combat soldiers who routinely outrun the mail.

Service people in all branches of the military have been instructed not to send certain types of information over the internet. But experts are not too concerned about security as the military’s sensitive operations information is restricted to a network that is not connected to the publicly accessible internet.

Packages of course do follow the normal mail route. While most necessary personal items are available through the PX system, soldiers abroad still love to receive packages from home containing photographs homemade snacks, and special interest magazines. Since 9-11, all packages that go through the military mail are screened for chemical and biological weapons and explosives.

It may be sad for some to realize that the era of handwritten letters from the front is almost a thing of the past, but the nearly immediate nature of electronic messaging provides a greater option for staying close to your loved ones serving during wartime. 

Preserving Your Letters

Letters home from a soldier is part of your family’s heritage. They deserve to be preserved just like your Family Bible, marriage or death certificates, and old photographs.

In preserving your letters from the front for future generations, there are two overriding rules: (1) Find the letters, where ever they are. (2) Keep the originals safe.

1. FIND THE LETTERS.

If they were kept at all, they could be almost anywhere. Check your family bible, old trunks and luggage, desk drawers, closets, attics, and basements. Yes, even old shoeboxes. Ask others if they have seen the letters. Some people keep the old letters with the family genealogy materials.

2. KEEP THE ORIGINALS SAFE.

Avoid handling them.

Handling the original letters too much will always end with damage. The paper can be torn, pages can get lost, and the oils in your skin can harm the document.

Don’t use any method of attachment that could damage the letters. This includes stapling, paper clipping, or rubber banding. Discoloration or rust spots are likely consequences. Even post-it notes will leave an adhesive residue.

Don’t glue the letters into a scrap book or album. The best method of holding an old handwritten letter is in its original envelope.

Don’t write notes on the originals under any circumstances. If notes had been made earlier, don’t try to erase them now. It only causes more damage.

Always keep the letter with its corresponding envelope.

Envelopes are originals too. The writer may have neglected to put a date on the letter so the postmark on the envelope will help you identify the time it was written. Sometimes a return address on the envelope might help put the letter into context.

Don’t pass the originals around and never put them in the mail.

Remember, never circulate the originals. These valuable documents could get damaged or even lost forever.

If the letter was originally e-mailed, print it out; never leave it only in your computer.

This should be common sense. Computers can crash and your e-mails may be inaccessible. At the very least, they may be accidently deleted. Don’t take the chance. A clear, chemical-free plastic page holder would be suitable to hold the printed e-mail letters.

Store the originals safely.

After you have assembled the letters and put them in the sequence you desire, enclose them in a sturdy container that closes securely. Whatever container you use, make sure it is clearly labeled as important memorabilia - not to be discarded. Keep it in a cool, dry place. Prepare a list of the contents and keep that in a separate location.

Make sure that others in your family know that you have saved the letters, and tell them where you put them.

3. PREPARE THE INFORMATION IN THE LETTERS FOR OTHERS, INCLUDING YOUR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

This third step requires more time and effort but it is certainly worth it.

Copy the original letters for distribution to others in your extended family.

The best way to make the letters available to others is to scan and print, or photocopy, the originals. Keep the originals safe and under your control.

Transcribe the content of very old letters for the reading ease of others.

Transcription is especially useful for very old letters such as those from the Civil War. Many times, the originals are difficult to read. The paper may be crackled, the ink faded, or they could be written in pencil. We recommend that you first transcribe the letter exactly as it was written. Include all spelling and grammatical errors, you need to preserve it just as the writer created it.

Second, you might consider an additional version written with all original mistakes corrected. This will make the letter’s content much easier to understand by others in your family. But never make corrections on the original document.

Research the historical context in which the letter was written.        

This will be much easier if the letter or envelope has a date on it. From the Civil War onward, histories have been written about almost every military unit that has existed. They frequently exist for units down to the size of a single regiment. Many larger military units, such as divisions, have social/fraternal organizations that meet and publish their own histories. They can be easily found on the internet.   Army histories are usually published in books, but can be quite specific.

Some histories are so detailed that they delineate where the unit was, and what they were doing, on a daily basis during military campaigns. If you correlate the date on the letter or envelope to the unit history, you can determine where your soldier was and what circumstances he was under at the time he wrote the letter. The results of this can be very revealing.

Creating a short biographical sketch of the soldier writing the letter can also be valuable to others.