On Friday, 27 January 2017, to mark the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp by Soviet troops, the Bundestag remembered the victims of National Socialism with a special ceremony. This year, the victims of euthanasia in National Socialist Germany were remembered in particular. Following an opening address by Bundestag President Professor Norbert Lammert, commemorative speeches were given by Sigrid Falkenstein and Dr Hartmut Traub. Both are relatives of “euthanasia” victims.

Sigrid Falkenstein is the niece of “euthanasia” victim Anna Lehnkering, Dr Hartmut Traub is the nephew of Benjamin Traub, another victim of “euthanasia”. Both have made their murdered relatives’ stories public and work to ensure that the memory of the Nazi “euthanasia” victims is kept alive.

On 10 November 2011 the German Bundestag decided to create a “memorial for the victims of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ murders”. Since 2014, this has been located at the former headquarters of the Nazi “euthanasia” programme at Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. The memorial site was designed by the architect Ursula Wilms along with artist Nikolaus Koliusis and landscape architect Heinz W. Hallmann.