Episode 320: Friedrich Zawrel (part II)

In Part 2 of Friedrich Zawrel’s story, we meet the doctors of Spiegelgrund.

Dr. Ernst Illing and Dr. Heinrich Gross were psychiatrists working inside Vienna’s infamous children’s institution during the Nazi period. Under the banner of “racial hygiene,” they helped run a system that targeted children considered disabled, difficult, or socially undesirable.

In this episode we look at their backgrounds, their roles within the Nazi medical system, and how ordinary medical careers became intertwined with one of the regime’s most disturbing programs.