Did the Wehrmacht Kill Their OWN Injured Soldiers?

Not sure if this should be here or under war crimes so apologizes.

I was just listening to the audiobook (so I cannot look up sources - one of my peeves with them but side point..) of "Hitler's Furies", Lowers says the Wehrmacht did kill their own injured soldiers in euthanasia. She said there is scant information but made it sound like it was official program not mercy killings or to prevent soldiers from being tortured/imprisoned by USSR. I assume this would only be for soldiers who could no longer fight and was not terribly widespread or it would be mentioned much more but did it happen?

It would make sense (from Nazi logic) for reasons ie Euthanasia of those who cost "society" more and can contribute "nothing". But did it actually happen as officially policy?

Thanks in advance.

 

I have the book at home. I'll take a peak, not much on the WWW regarding the practice except during the latter stages of the war in the fight for Germany. Deserters were hanged throughout the country, and of course Action T4 where they euthanized who they deemed "incurable."

The question is definitely pertinent especially during the German scorched earth policy as they fled from the East. I have read some eastern front memoirs where soldiers confess that they left the injured behind. I vaguely recall mercy killings as they knew what the Soviet soldiers would do to them if captured.

 

Thanks in advance - I know about deserters and mercy killings I have also seen mentioned ie by Guy Sajer- I mean specifically a program like T4 to kill soldiers "wasting" resources. Figure not much on web but books are fine also. Thanks again!

 

Gerhard Weinberg made the same claim in his book "Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders".

Despite the book being heavily footnoted, there is nothing to substantiate this passage.


Without any source material...it is, at best, a dubious claim.

 

There are lots of accounts of soldiers of different armies killing a fellow soldier to save them for a lingering death. These include the soldiers who begged to be shot rather than drown in the liquid mud of Flanders and sometimes those who had to be left to become captives of an enemy known to torture captives, such as the Pathans on the North West frontier or the Japanese in Burma. The custom was to leave the man with a weapon and some ammunition and leave them to save the ;last round for themselves.

I have read or heard nothing about euthanasia as a policy in Nazi Germany for extremely wounded soldiers. However, Nazi German admirals and generals were expected to choose suicide rather than captivity.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to read this happened in many armies, not as a policy , but as an terrible necessity when facing a mercyless enemy.

 

In a famous novel from Hans Helmut Kirst (a former officer in the Luftwaffe), these killings were mentioned. The victims were called "Korbmenschen", difficult to translate "basket-men", because they lost their legs and/or arms and or other parts of their body.
The novel is called "Fabrik der Offiziere" (Officer factory), you can watch it at youtube.

These is no proof, but Kirst was teacher at an officer school, no joke. The "Korbmenschen" lived in their own closed hospitals, similar to retarded people. So it is credible that they were treated in the same way.