variety of killing methods, all equally barbaric, were employed by Jekelius’s team and by medical staff in other institutions. Some children were killed with an injection of carbolic acid, and some with an excess of barbiturates; others were simply left outside, exposed to the harsh Austrian winter, until they contracted pneumonia. Parents would typically receive a note in the mail informing them that their son or daughter had died of natural causes. (The lesson of Meltzer’s 1920 survey of parents had not been lost on Hitler.) Often these notes also included a bill for cremation or burial
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