The president of the German Medical Association, representing more than 400,000 German physicians, bluntly announced last week: “The truth is: During the Nazi-regime physicians caused, ordered or mercilessly administered death and harm to humans.” And: German physicians admitted their guilt “late, too late”. Until today, the Medical Association president said the organization had not done enough to acknowledge and understand the role of German physicians within the Nazi Regime. Starting with these quotes, the article in the Tagesspiegel (Rainer Woratschka) reports a scientific research project (independently researched but by order of the Medical Association) that tries to shed light on the many waysup until 1945 that physicians were involved in the violations of human rights. By 1937 about half of the German physicians had been registered as a member of the NSDAP. And they weren’t passive: About 300.000 people were victims of the euthanasia programs, executed by physicians, who had the option to object but most supported the programs, probably for the pay to perform such procedures as forced sterilizations.
Though German physicians probably tried harder than other professions to come to terms with their past (at least after 1987, when the former president of the Medical Association started the dig in the past), the research report still found hints to even more victims. It urges more effort to understand how the wrongdoings during the Nazi-regime continued to cause harm even after 1945.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung (Nina von Hardenberg) writes in more detail of 200.000 so called “ballast existencies” had been registered within a program called “action T4”, and 70.000 of them had been murdered by 1941. Merely to be described as “fragile and lonely” in medical records was a death sentence for psychiatry patients at the time. The Süddeutsche also had a commentary piece (Joachim Käpper). Worth reading, because it hints to other professions that should think about a deeper dig into their past.
Die Welt–kompakt,did not spare more than a few lines. But the mother issue had a longer piece. Agencies like AFP reported relatively long (Zeit.de mixed dpa and AFP), as well as physician newspapers like Ärzteblatt (here), Ärztezeitung (here), and Pharmazeutische Zeitung (here, though copied from dpa). The Austrian Standard printed the wire copy of the Austrian Press Agency (APA), which is (I think) based on the German wire dpa. But I think, it misses the hint, that Austrian physicians still did not try to come to terms with their role in the past (as fas as I know).
In his article for Neues Deutschland, Fabian Lambeck describes the reasons, why so many physicians were eager to fulfill the race ideology of the Nazi regime – because the were profiteers of the new system. E.g., it was in favor of German physicians that Jewish competitive physicians (8000 of 52000 in 1937) lost their approbation. He also mentions one of the worst parts of the wrongdoings: experiments with humans for the sake of research. And, by the way: The knowledge, that these “experts” acquired, was valuable enough to convince American officials to use it in the US.
Sascha Karberg
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