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By Michael S. Bryant: Confronting the "Good Death": Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, 1945-1953

Years before Hitler unleashed the "Final Solution" to annihilate European Jews, he began a lesser-known campaign to eradicate the mentally ill, which facilitated the gassing and lethal injection of as many as 270,000 people and set a precedent for the mass murder of civilians. In Confronting the "Good Death" Michael Bryant analyzes the U.S. government and West German judiciary's attempt to punish the euthanasia killers after the war.

The first author to address the impact of geopolitics on the courts' representation of Nazi euthanasia, Bryant argues that international power relationships played havoc with the prosecutions.

Drawing on primary sources, this provocative investigation of the Nazi campaign against the mentally ill and the postwar quest for justice will interest general readers and provide critical information for scholars of Holocaust studies, legal history, and human rights.

Praise for Confronting the "Good Death"

"[T]he most comprehensive and nuanced analysis of these trials to date; he outlines not only the history of the trials, but also the legal issues surrounding the prosecution of euthanasia crimes, the history of euthanasia in Germany, and the T-4 program's relationship to the 'Final Solution' during the Second World War. Bryant links these interrelated questions seamlessly, drawing for the reader a clear picture of the contingencies that led eventually to the 'spectacular failure' of the euthanasia trials. . . . [A] masterful work that enriches tremendously the growing body of literature on postwar trials of Nazi perpetrators. Bryant's expert juggling of legal, political, and historical complexities provides the reader with an excellent introduction to the euthanasia program, the Final Solution, early postwar American and West German law, and the ultimate victory of national interests over justice."
—Holocaust & Genocide Studies

"[W]ell researched and lucidly argued. . . by and large free of jargon and speculative psychological mumbo-jumbo about the Germans and their psychological deficiencies. Indeed, his sober reflection on the cases and case documents is as refreshing as his conclusion. . . "
—German Studies Review

"This book makes clear how deliberate, well-organized, and widespread the Nazis' murder of the mentally disabled was, as well as how it served as both precedent and training ground for the Holocaust."
—The Federal Lawyer

"Bryant's book offers a unique series of insights into the post-WWII redefinition of euthanasia, after mercy killing had served the Nazis as a crucial prelude to the gassings of Jews and other groups. The work will be of great use to legal historians and to Holocaust scholars from all fields, as well as to the general public interested in human rights issues." 
—Dr. Janet Ward, co-author of German Studies in the Post-Holocaust Age

"With mastery and precision, Bryant dissects the postwar German trials against the 'mercy killers' of Nazism. It's the first truly authoritative work on the subject in the English language."
—Dr. Dick W. De Mildt, co-editor of Nazi Crimes on Trial, Institute of Criminal Law, University of Amsterdam

"A superb book, well and readably written, excellently referenced and woven into a fabric that makes the progression from children's euthanasia through T-4 and ultimately to the holocaust quite plausible as long as we keep in mind that what Hitler meant by euthanasia was simply murder hiding under another name." 
—Dr. Erich H. Loewy, author of Textbook of Healthcare Ethics

Michael Bryant: "Mein Kampf and Early Steps Toward Genocide"

Karla Schoenbeck: "Focus Landsberg: A Bavarian Town and Its History Tied to Hitler"

Magnus Brechtken: "Mein Kampf: The Critical Edition in Historical Perspective"

David Crowe: "Mein Kampf and  the Evolution of the Nazi Concept of Jewish Bolshevism"

Melanie Murphy: "Marxism: Enemy of the People"

Richard A. Koenigsberg: "Hitler as the Robert Koch of Germany"

Martin Menke: "Traces of Catholicism in Mein Kampf"

James Bernauer, SJ: "Jesuits, Jews and Holocaust Remembrance"

Nathan Stoltzfus: "Political Violence in Mein Kampf: Hitler's Tactics for Gaining and Exercising Power"

Ralf Gawlick: "Art and Its Perversion"

Paul Bookbinder: "The Nature of 'The People/Volk' and Qualities of a Leader to Help Create the Holocaust."

Tetyana Kloubert: "Holocaust Education and (Early) Signs of the Erosion of Democracy"