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 Mas-
sachusetts) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on International Relations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the German Gov-
ernment should investigate and prosecute Dr. Hans
Joachim Sewering for his war crimes of euthanasia com-
mitted 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 su-
pervision, 909 German Catholic mentally and physically
•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 starva-
tion and an overdose of a sleeping drug, Luminal;
Whereas there is documentation with Dr. Sewering’s signa-
ture on it that transfers a 14-year-old epileptic girl
named Babette Frowis from the sanitarium to the heal-
ing 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 Ger-
many;
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-
•HCON 205 IH
dered the transfers to the ‘‘Healing Center’’, in a govern-
ment 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
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the
German Government should investigate and prosecute Dr.
Hans Joachim Sewering for his war crimes of active eu-
thanasia and crimes against humanity committed during
World War II.
Æ