Former Professor Accused of Nazi-era “Mercy Killings”

A retired professor of medicine faces charges of complicity to murder in connection with the deaths of over 150 mentally-disabled women and girls in Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1942, authorities in Germany said on Monday. Dr Rosemarie Albrecht, 88, has been linked to the deaths of 159 mental patients at the women and children's psychiatric ward of Stadtroda Hospital in eastern Germany, according to prosecutors after a three-year investigation. In addition, the investigation has uncovered that Albrecht authored a report recommending the "mercy killing" of 24 mentally-handicapped children from another institution near Jena while acting as assisting physician to the head of the ward. Investigations were launched in 2000 after formerly-classified East German Stasi secret police files on the killings came to light.