Ernst-Robert Grawitz

Ernst-Robert Grawitz (8 June 1899 – 24 April 1945) was a German physician and an SS functionary during the Nazi era. He played a major role in Nazi human experimentation on concentration camp inmates, and was one of the administrators of the T4 Euthanasia Program, which sought to systematically kill those considered physically or mentally unfit. He killed himself and his family with grenades as Soviet forces advanced on central Berlin in the Battle of Berlin.

Biography
Grawitz was born in Charlottenburg, in the western part of Berlin, Germany. As Reichsarzt SS und Polizei (Reich Physician SS and Police), Grawitz was also head of the DRK, the German Red Cross, between 1937 and 1945.

Grawitz funded Nazi programs to "eradicate the perverted world of the homosexual" and research into a so-called "cure" for homosexuality. This involved experimentation on inmates in Nazi concentration camps. He was chief medical officer of the SS and an “enthusiastic experimenter on concentration camp inmates”.



Grawitz was also a part of the group in charge of the murder of mentally ill and physically handicapped people in the Action T4 "euthanasia" programme, including children from 1939. The officials selected the doctors who were to carry out the operational part of the killing programme. In addition, researchers both in and outside the SS wanted to exploit the supply of inmates held in the SS camps and use them for experiments. In order to do so, the interested parties had to apply to Grawitz, who forwarded requests to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler who then gave final approval.

Towards the end of World War II in Europe, Grawitz was a physician in Adolf Hitler's Führerbunker. When he heard that other officials were leaving Berlin in order to escape the advancing Soviet Red Army, Grawitz petitioned Hitler to allow him to leave Berlin; his request was denied. As the Soviet Red Army advanced on Berlin, Grawitz killed himself and his family with grenades at their house in Babelsberg.