11. Max de Crinis used his position as a psychiatric consultant to euthanize the mentally ill, before killing himself and his family
Max de Crinis (b. 1889) was a senior SS member and doctor of psychiatry, holding a Chair in the field at Cologne and Berlin hospitals. Joining the Nazi Party in 1931 de Crinis added an authenticity and legitimacy to outspoken medical claims made by the movement, extensively utilizing his position as a psychiatric consultant to promote racial claims of genetic superiority and demonize mental health problems. Actively involved in the “Akition T4” euthanasia program, serving as an supervisory medical expert, de Crinis was complicit in the murders of countless mentally ill persons throughout Europe.
Later, de Crinis also became Director of the European League for Mental Hygiene and in 1941 medical director of the Ministry of Education. Facing imminent arrest, interrogation, prosecution, and likely execution, de Crinis, after killing the rest of his family with potassium cyanide, ingested a tablet himself on May 2 1945 in Stahnsdorf, near Berlin.