# Hitler signs the T4 authorisation for killing people with disabilities

Date: 1939

## The fact

[Hitler](/people/adolf-hitler) signed a T4 authorisation, backdated to 1 September 1939, for Bouhler and Brandt to kill patients judged incurable. It is a dated medical-killing instrument. Adolf Hitler's documented role is: He signed an authorisation backdated to 1 September 1939 empowering Bouhler and Brandt to kill designated patients. Later 'wild euthanasia' continued after 1941.

## Context

Aktion T4 used gas at killing centres. Sharing administration with Bouhler, Brandt, and physicians is required. Public protest in 1941 paused the central programme; killings continued. The setting of Hitler signs the T4 authorisation for killing people with disabilities is the public file around 1939-09-01. Shared offices, unnamed crews, printers, or later editors may appear without becoming this instrument. Contribution type is direct. Driver health-system-capacity is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

## Evidence and sources

USHMM and DHM independently document T4 and the Hitler authorisation. Official carrier: USHMM — Euthanasia Program (T4) (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Independent carrier: DHM LEMO — NS-Krankenmorde / T4 (https://www.dhm.de/; Deutsches Historisches Museum).

Official or archival record: USHMM — Euthanasia Program (T4) (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

## Significance

Worsening health/rights path of very high weight. Direct. High confidence on the authorisation. The welfare reading on this path is worsening.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Do not invent a unique total here. Do not treat later church protests as this authorisation. Mixed effects of Hitler signs the T4 authorisation for killing people with disabilities are separate paths.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Hitler T4 authorisation. Established: a sourced public record of Hitler signs the T4 authorisation for killing people with disabilities under 1939-09-01.

Shared responsibility is part of Hitler signs the T4 authorisation for killing people with disabilities. Naming Adolf Hitler does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1939-09-01 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

The contribution type is direct. The attached driver is health-system-capacity. The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Adolf Hitler: https://factrail.ai/people/adolf-hitler

## Drivers

- Health-System Capacity: https://factrail.ai/drivers/health-system-capacity

## Sources

- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/
- https://www.dhm.de/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/hitler-t4-1939