Irmgard Huber

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Irmgard Huber was the head nurse of Germany's Hadamar Clinic, a major center of the Action T4 euthanasia program during the Hitler years. She was convicted of war crimes in 1947.

When American forces occupied the small German town of Hadamar, they heard rumors about the murder of the mentally ill at a local psychiatric hospital. Hadamar had been one of six major “euthanasia” facilities in Nazi Germany that claimed the lives of some 200,000 Germans. Since these were crimes committed by Germans against their fellow citizens within the borders of their own country, the murders at Hadamar were not classified as war crimes, and therefore offered no legal basis for trial by American forces. However, hospital records revealed that 476 forced laborers from Poland and the Soviet Union — Allied countries — had also perished at Hadamar, and these crimes did fall under international jurisdiction.

Irmgard Huber, head nurse of the hospital, was among the staff arrested by the Americans. Her claims that she never killed patients were corroborated by co-workers and witnesses and she was released. Later, the court ruled that Huber had indeed played a role in selecting patients for murder and in falsifying death certificates. She also controlled the supply of drugs used to overdose patients. Huber was rearrested, tried with six others, and received twenty-five years in prison for serving as an accomplice to murder. As the only female defendant, she received the lightest sentence at the trial. Chief administrator, Alfons Klein, and two male nurses, Heinrich Ruoff and Karl Willig, received death sentences, and chief physician, Adolf Wahlmann, received a life sentence (commuted). Two other members of the administrative staff received sentences of 20 to 35 years.

Huber was also among twenty-five members of the Hadamar staff tried at a German-convened Hadamar trial, empowered to try German nationals. As accomplice to murder in at least 120 cases, Huber was sentenced to eight additional years in prison.

In the early 1950s, however, American authorities bowed to Cold War political pressure and issued amnesties and clemencies for many convicted Nazi perpetrators. Despite her proven role in numerous murders, Irmgard Huber was released from prison in 1952.

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This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL.