[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 205 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 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 ordered 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
    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 euthanasia and crimes against humanity committed during World 
War II.
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