The Trial of Wilhelm Doering: “Public Interest” and Shooting of Mentally Handicapped Children in Shumyachi

Abstract

In May 1961, the German law enforcement agencies detained Wilhelm Doering, the commander of one of the mobile squads of Einzatzkommando. The perpetrator was charged with the organization of the slaughter of the Jewish population in a number of settlements in Belarus and Russia, as well as the slaughter of mentally handicapped children in the village of Shumyachi (Smolensk region). Following two trials (1962—1964) W. Doering was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. The former Nazi managed to avoid responsibility for organizing the slaughter of 16 disabled children living in the Shumyachian boarding house. The Court qualified the offence under consideration as a “second-degree murder”, under which the statute of limitations had expired. In fact, the German judiciary laid the blame for the slaughter of children on the Soviet authorities that “left the children in a helpless state” and the Nazi criminals were characterized as guardians of “public interest” who, by killing children, saved the Russian population and German servicemen from the epidemic. The court verdict never mentioned that, in the Third Reich, the slaughter of mentally ill children was common practice; the crime in Shumyachi was taken out of general context of Nazi atrocities related to the implementation of the “child euthanasia programs.” The verdict handed down to W. Doering was a fact of blatant injustice and trampling upon the memory of thousands of children victims of Nazism.