IV

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 205

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the German Government should

investigate and prosecute Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering for his war crimes

of euthanasia committed during World War II.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 30, 1996

Ms. WOOLSEY (for herself, Mrs. MORELLA, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. DELLUMS,

Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin, Mr. NADLER, Mr.

TORRICELLI, Mr. STOCKMAN, Mr. GEJDENSON, and Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the German Government should investigate and prosecute Dr. Hans

Joachim Sewering for his war crimes of euthanasia committed during World War II.

Whereas Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering was a member of the

Nazi party beginning on November 11, 1933, as well as

a member of the SS;

Whereas Dr. Sewering served as staff physician and medical

director at the Schoenbrunn Sanitarium beginning in

1942;

Whereas, between 1943 and 1945, under Dr. Sewering’s supervision, 909 German Catholic mentally and physically
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•HCON 205 IH

disabled patients, mainly children, were transferred from

the sanitarium to a ‘‘Healing Center’’ at Eglfing-Haar;

Whereas, subsequently, these patients were killed by starvation and an overdose of a sleeping drug, Luminal;

Whereas there is documentation with Dr. Sewering’s signature on it that transfers a 14-year-old epileptic girl

named Babette Frowis from the sanitarium to the healing center on October 26, 1943;

Whereas Babette Frowis was pronounced dead on November

16, 1943, just 15 days after being transferred there by

Dr. Sewering;

Whereas Dr. Sewering has enjoyed a successful and lengthy

medical career after the war, most recently acting as the

President of the Federal Physicians’ Chamber in Germany;

Whereas 4 Franciscan nuns, who worked in the sanitarium

at the time these acts occurred, came forward in January

of 1993 to corroborate the accusations against Dr.

Sewering made by physicians in Germany;

Whereas these nuns broke a 50-year-long vow of silence at

the suggestion of the Bishop of Munich to expose Dr.

Sewering and share their accounts of the patients;

Whereas, upon being elected president-elect of the World

Medical Association in 1993, protest by the American

Medical Association about his alleged crimes led Dr.

Sewering to resign as president-elect;

Whereas the German Government has never conducted a

criminal inquiry or indicted Dr. Sewering;

Whereas the German Government has all of the patient

records, including the signature of the doctor that or-
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dered the transfers to the ‘‘Healing Center’’, in a government archival center, and these records have never been

examined by government prosecutors; and

Whereas the German Government has so far protected this

criminal: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the

3 German Government should investigate and prosecute Dr.

4 Hans Joachim Sewering for his war crimes of active eu5 thanasia and crimes against humanity committed during

6 World War II.

Æ