Action T4 (German: Aktion T4, pronounced [akˈtsi̯oːn teː fiːɐ]) was the postwar designation for a programme of forced euthanasia in wartime Nazi Germany. Under the programme physicians were directed to judge patients "incurably sick, by critical medical examination," and then administer to these patients a "mercy death" (German: Gnadentod).[3] In October 1939 Hitler signed a "euthanasia decree" backdated to 1 September 1939 that authorized Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler, and Karl Brandt, to carry out the programme of euthanasia (translated into English as follows):