1 September 1939
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[Letterhead :A. HITLER]
Berlin, 1 September 1939
Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M. D., are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.
[Signed] A. HITLER
[Handwritten note] Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940
[Signed] DR. GUERTNER
Source: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Vol. 1. Washington, DC: United States
Government Printing Office, 1949. 630-PS.