in german 'invalidentransporte', a term used by the nazi's in world war II.

Subsequently to the mass murder of the insane, which was referred to as 'euthanasia', systematic killing of persons who were sick and incapable of work began within the concentration camps. The legal basis was provided by Hitler's Euthanasia Proclamation which stated that the [...] incurably ill [...] could, upon the careful review of the condition of their illness, be granted the mercy of death.

In the summer of 1941 the camp physician at dachau was commanded to register those prisoners who were sick or incapable of work. Some weeks later a medical commission from berlin arrived to pass judgment. It was explained to the sick and disabled that they were to be sent to another camp where the work was lighter and where later they would be set free. The prisoners greeted this news trustingly, awaiting their transfer impatiently. As Invalid Transports departed from Dachau in quick succession during the winter of 1941/42, it soon became clear to those remaining that their friends were going to their death.

They were transported in trucks at night. Their destination was hartheim castle near Linz, which had served as an asylum for the insane before the war; here they were gassed to death. Weeks later the relatives would receive a death notice issued by the registrar's office of the Dachau concentration camp. Circulatory diseases and heart failure were usually given as the cause of death.

When the prisoners in Dachau had conclusive evidence about the fate of their comrades - recognition of articles of clothing which had been returned, contact by letter with relatives who had received the death notices - they tried desperately to protect their fellow-prisoners from further Invalid Transports. When renewed selections took place, they succeeded in hiding several of those who were obviously sick, and there were cases where a name on the transport list could be replaced by that of a prisoner who had already died.

But the prisoners were powerless to stop the transports: 3,016 inmates of Dachau were sent in 1942 to their death at Hartheim castle.