The murders of psychiatric patients and nursing home residents were supposed take place in secret. Nevertheless, the events were soon noticed by the public.

In the area surrounding the T4 killing centres, the buses that arrived repeatedly and the smoke from the crematoria chimneys could not be overlooked. This caused rumours to circulate. In the municipality of Alkoven, there were also direct protests against the nearby Hartheim killing centre.

The consequences of the patient transports did not remain concealed from the staff in the hospitals and nursing homes for long. Rumours about the murders contributed to this, as did the notifications of death and the returned clothes of deported patients. Only a few directors and nursing staff at the institutions tried to sabotage or prevent the deportations by the T4 organisation.

Relatives' complaints and interventions remained mostly isolated actions with varying degrees of success. Sometimes they managed to rescue relatives. In other cases, the efforts came to nothing.

Individual representatives of the judiciary and the church tried to obstruct the murders or to make them public. The public denunciation of the »euthanasia« by Bishop Clemens August von Galen led to considerable unrest among the population and contributed to the halting of the centrally organised killing of patients by the T4 organisation.