and would "immediately take the necessary measures and get in touch with the chiefs of the main offices of the concentration camps". When sterilization proved impracticable, this was rejected in favor of exterminating the Jews using poison gas, namely, since the technical apparatus was already in place via T4 to kill unwanted "mentally ill" persons. With the completion of the T4 euthanasia programme ran by Brack, the Nazis dismantled the gas chambers previously used for that endeavor, shipped them east, and reinstalled them at Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Treblinka. Brack subsequently took part in the administrative process of establishing extermination camps in occupied Poland. It was personnel and equipment provided by Brack that were utilized to murder the Jews. Trial and execution Sometime in April 1945, Viktor Brack and his superior Phillip Bouhler were arrested. During the Eichberg trial, which concluded at Frankfurt on 21 December 1946, Brack was implicated for his role in recruiting physicians for the euthanasia killings. At the Hadamar Trial—between 24 February 1947 until 21 March 1947—he was again implicated along with Dr. Karl Brandt for his involvement in the T4 programme. Brack was known to radically enforce euthanasia, even terrorizing doctors and nurses to ensure they maintained the killing procedures, despite later claiming during the trials that he had never even heard of the T4 programme. During the trials, Brack insisted that euthanasia was a "humane measure" for incurably sick people and denied all knowledge of the Holocaust. He contested his complicity in mass X-ray sterilizations until confronted by his signature on corresponding documents; meanwhile other administrators—Rudolf Brandt and Wolfram Sievers—testified against Brack, proving links between him, the Führer's Chancellery, and Hitler. Nonetheless, Brack denied any anti-Semitism or involvement with killing Jews and avowed that he had joined the Waffen-SS in 1942 to distance himself from the regime. On 20 August 1947, Brack was sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 2 June 1948, stating at the gallows that he "wished for God to give peace to the world." References Notes Citations Bibliography 1904 births 1948 deaths German people convicted of crimes against humanity People from Aachen People from the Rhine Province Aktion T4 personnel Holocaust perpetrators Executions by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals Executed people from North Rhine-Westphalia SS-Oberführer Heinrich Himmler Technical University of Munich alumni Executed mass murderers