Ceremony held to bury remains of Nazi victims that were experimented on

(9 May 2012) 1. Medium of man putting urn into grave
2. Wide of official bowing before grave
3. Medium of guests
4. Medium of gravestone
5. Close up of names on gravestone
6. Medium of gravestone with guests in background
7. Medium of violinist
8. Close of of violin
9. Wide of funeral with violinists playing
10. SOUNDBITE (German) Heinz Fischer, Austrian President:
"The culprits tried to hide their deeds from the relatives and the public, to muddy the waters. All the more important was and is, is to aim the spotlight of awareness, the bright light on these events - and to take comment on it publicly."
11. Mid of photographer, pan left to Friedrich Zawrel and woman talking
12. Mid of Frierich Zawrel
13. Close of hand holding walking stick
14. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Zawrel, eyewitness:
"There was a small slit in one of the windows. By chance I looked through it one day and saw the removal of child corpses. Once you've seen it you can never forget again. I tried it once and today I'm happy I didn't succeed."
15. Medium of Gerhard Bader
16. Close up hand
17. SOUNDBITE (German) Gerhard Bader, eyewitness:
"This so-called euthanasia, we experienced it first hand. All of a sudden the strange Uncle Otto around the corner disappeared. And in the end an urn came back. In the beginning there were even death notices in the newspaper. That was one of the most drastic things for us back then."
18. Medium of president Fischer talking to Zawrel
19. Medium of gravestone with flowers
20. Medium of ceremonial fire
21. Close up of ceremonial fire
STORYLINE:
They were starved, tortured, and killed because they were considered inferior to the Aryan ideal set by German dictator Adolf Hitler.
Then their organs were put in jars and displayed for research by the doctors accused of causing their deaths under the Nazis.
Shutting the books on one of Vienna's darkest chapters, black-clad workers on Wednesday placed a small metal urn into the ground at the city's Central Cemetery.
It contained what municipal officials say were the last known unburied remains of victims "treated to death" on the Austrian capital's psychiatric wards during the Hitler era.
The Nazis called them "unworthy lives" - those deemed too sick, weak or handicapped to fit Hitler's image of the master race.
More than 70,000 were killed, gassed to death or otherwise murdered between 1939 and 1941.
Public protests stopped the wholesale massacres then, but thousands more of those deemed inferior lost their lives at the hands of sadistic doctors and nurses until the end of the war.
Of those, about 3,500 died in Vienna institutions, among them nearly 800 children and juveniles.
Thousands of brains, uteruses with foetuses and other organs and parts were then preserved in jars and used for medical research until 1978, when they were put under lock and key amid growing Austrian sensitivity to the crimes committed while the country was Hitler's ally.
Hundreds of the children's remains were already buried 10 years ago, but many adult specimens were kept available until recently for experts trying to trace their histories and identify them.
They were successful in linking remains to names in 61 cases.
Sixty sets of identified victims were buried along with unidentified ones in a non public ceremony late last month.
Under a clear blue sky, the 61st was put to rest on Wednesday, accompanied by the mournful music of a string quartet and speeches by dignitaries.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer said the "culprits tried to hide their deeds from the relatives and the public, to muddy the waters."

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