In 1939, Hitler initiated a "euthanasia" program that allowed doctors to kill patients considered "incurable" or with disabilities. The goal was not mercy but to cleanse the Aryan race. Over 200,000 mentally and physically handicapped people were murdered from 1939 to 1945 through lethal injections, gas chambers using carbon monoxide, starvation, and more. While some protested, the program continued until Germany's defeat, showing the extent of the Nazi persecution and genocide.