Ein Fotoalbum für Viktor Brack – Täterinnen und Täter der NS „Euthanasie“-Verbrechen und der Büroalltag in der Kanzlei des Führers

Lead Partner: Österreichische Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte
Project Team: Kathrin Janzen, B.A. MA, Mag. Robert Parzer
Funding: Förderkreis Gedenkort T4, Nationalfonds der Republik Österreich
Duration: 2022-2024

The archive holdings of the Hamburg Research Centre for Contemporary History include a historical document of outstanding importance for research into the history of National Socialism: a photo album made for Viktor Brack. Brack was an SS-Oberführer and head of office at the NSDAP's Chancellery of the Führer. In this capacity, he and his office staff organised the systematic mass murder of more than 70,000 people with illnesses and disabilities as part of "Aktion T4". The photos in the album show not only Brack himself, but also his colleagues, typists, telephone operators and secretaries at his office. Thus, the album offers viewers a first-time glimpse into one of the scenes of the bureaucratically organised mass murder: the administration of the Führer's Chancellery.

The project is dedicated to the scientific analysis of the photo album and aims to promote new insights into the organisation of the "euthanasia" killings, the Führer's Chancellery as a Nazi institution, and the professional lives of the perpetrators.