The Banality of Data: Patient Records, Nursing, and Ideology.

This article explores nursing, patient records, and ideology within the context of the National Socialist "euthanasia" program ( T4) in Germany and Austria from 1939 to 1941, which targeted individuals with mental and physical disabilities for systematic killing. Using Hannah Arendt's concept of the "banality of evil," it examines how ordinary individuals, including nurses, became agents of atrocity by adhering to bureaucratic orders. Jacques Ellul's Ethics of Technology framework is employed to analyze how National Socialist ideology manipulated technological processes to enhance efficiency in genocidal goals.