Killing in the name of healing: The active role of the german medical profession during the third reich

While in recent years a great deal has been written to clarify Germany's medical past, the picture is not yet complete in several important respects. In the realm of the sociology of medicine, for example, we still do not know enough about physicianpatient relationships from, say, the founding of the Second Empire to the present. On the assumption, based on the meager evidence available, that this relationship had an authoritarian structure from the physician on downward, did it have anything to do with the shape of German medicine in the Weimar Republic and, later, the Third Reich? Another relative unknown is the role of Jews in the development of medicine as a profession in Germany. Surely volumes could be written on the significant influence Jews have exerted on medicine in its post-Wilhelmian stages, as well as the irreversible victim status Jewish doctors were forced to assume after Hitler's ascension to power

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Motivazioni dell'agire dei medici che hanno applicato l'eutanasia nel regime nazi-fascista

RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA ◽

10.3280/rsf2009-001007 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 87-101

Author(s):

Michael von Cranach

Keyword(s):

Medical Profession ◽

Third Reich ◽

Disabled Persons ◽

The Third ◽

The Third Reich ◽

The Right ◽

Keywords Eugenics

- Michael von Cranach in this paper reports the killing of hundreds of thousands of disabled persons, mentally or physically ill, slaughtered in gas chambers or given lethal drugs, in the Third Reich during the Nazi period. The genocide of helpless and ailing persons (in addition to that of Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals) put into operation under the principles of eugenics, defence and health of the Arian race. In reality, the genocide represented a sadistic exercise of power, that alleged itself the right to decide on citizens' life or death. Many physicians connived with the regime and were consequently considered the progressive élite of the medical profession. Keywords: eugenics, defence of the race, biopolitics, exercise of power, scientific and progressive medicine under the Third Reich.

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“Everything Ruined, Which Seemed Most Stable in the World…”: The German Medical Profession, the First World War and the Road to the “Third Reich”

Psychological Trauma and the Legacies of the First World War ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-33476-9_10 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 237-259

Author(s):

Livia Prüll

Keyword(s):

Medical Profession ◽

Third Reich ◽

First World War ◽

World War ◽

The Road ◽

The Third ◽

The First World War ◽

The World ◽

The Third Reich ◽

First World

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The Role of German Academic Medicine and Science in the Medical Crimes of the Third Reich and the Shoah: The Continuing Legacy

Journal of Biocommunication ◽

10.5210/jbc.v45i1.10852 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

Author(s):

William Seidelman

Keyword(s):

Medical Profession ◽

Ethical Reasoning ◽

Third Reich ◽

Human Anatomy ◽

Body Parts ◽

Scientific Institutions ◽

The Third Reich ◽

Nazi Medicine ◽

The University

Despite the revelations of the Nuremberg Medical Trial and subsequent prosecutions, the reality is that with particular respect to medicine and the role of leading academic and scientific institutions during the so-called "Third Reich," the postwar period war was marked by a "Great Silence." With few exceptions, this silence continued until the 1980's, when increasing systematic scholarly research and inadvertent discoveries revealed the significant role played by the German and Austrian medical profession during the Nazi period and the Shoah. The discoveries included body parts of victims of Nazi terror in the collections of university institutes of anatomy and scientific research. The Pernkopf Atlas of Human Anatomy represents a legacy from Nazi medicine. Although it includes images from Nazi victims, its accuracy makes it a valued resource in surgery. The Vienna Protocol is a new halachic responsum on the question of what to do with newly discovered remains from Nazi victims and their data, and can provide guidance in the ethical reasoning on whether to use the Pernkopf atlas. Photo credit: Faculty of Medicine of the University of Vienna under it's newly appointed dean, Prof. Eduard Pernkopf, immediately after the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany that occurred in March 1938. Used with permission of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria).

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Polish Police of the General Government in the Occupational Security System of the Third Reich

PRZEGLĄD POLICYJNY ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0015.4648 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 143 (3) ◽

pp. 50-67

Author(s):

Henryk Ćwięk

Keyword(s):

Jewish Population ◽

Dark Period ◽

Third Reich ◽

The Third ◽

General Government ◽

History Of ◽

The Third Reich ◽

Almost All ◽

Resistance Movement

After the defence war in 1939 was lost, the authorities of the Third Reich forced Polish State Police offi cers to serve in the occupier’s security structures in the General Government. This formation was used to implement various activities directed against the Polish nation. The policy of the Nazi authorities varied depending on the existing priorities in this regard. The Germans carried out brutal pacifi cation operations directed mainly against the Jewish population using Polish police. One should not forget about the harmful actions of Polish policemen against Jews. The tragic part of the occupation history of the Polish police was their participation in operations against the resistance movement. Collaboration in the Polish police was a part of this phenomenon in the General Government. The cooperation of Polish policemen with the resistance movement deserves attention. They made a signifi cant contribution to the preparation and implementation of subversive actions as well as the execution of attacks and sentences. They were present on almost all fronts of underground activity. Knowledge of the role of the Polish police in the dark period of the occupation is not satisfactory and requires further research.

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Women's Labor Service in Nazi Germany

Central European History ◽

10.1017/s0008938900001473 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 241-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jill Stephenson

Keyword(s):

Third Reich ◽

Women's Labor ◽

National Community ◽

The Third ◽

Spiritual Leader ◽

Labor Service ◽

Women And Children ◽

The Third Reich ◽

German People

The totalitarian pretensions of the Nazi party's leadership are nowhere better illustrated than in the belief that the entire German people could be “educated” to a sense of service to the Volk, that mythical national community whose sum was allegedly infinitely greater than its parts. Excluded from real power in the state— whatever was claimed about “the unity of party and state”—the party in the Third Reich assumed the role of “spiritual leader” of the community, with the task of reorienting the aspirations of men, women, and children away from the satisfaction of personal desires and ambitions and toward service. Germans were not merely to accept passively the wisdom of the regime's policies, but were positively to channel their concern and their energy into supporting them. In this way, ran the message, they would find deeper satisfaction than in the pursuit of selfish pleasure.

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Defender of Minorities: Germany in the League of Nations, 1926–1933

Central European History ◽

10.1017/s0008938900015570 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 330-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Carole Fink

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Weimar Republic ◽

Third Reich ◽

League Of Nations ◽

The Third ◽

The Third Reich

Germany under the Weimar Republic played the role of champion of minorities in Europe. A combination of revisionist hopes, völkisch arrogance, and humanitarian concern for the fate of lost kin motivated the Minderheitenpolitik of the Reich. Most historians have interpreted this episode as a link between the imperialism of Wilhelmian Germany and that of the Third Reich, a refinement—dictated by weakness—of Berlin's continuing efforts to dominate Eastern Europe.

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The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry

The Journal of Economic History ◽

10.1017/s0022050706000167 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 66 (2) ◽

pp. 390-416 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

CHRISTOPH BUCHHEIM ◽

JONAS SCHERNER

Keyword(s):

Private Property ◽

Third Reich ◽

The State ◽

Freedom Of Contract ◽

The Third ◽

The Third Reich

Private property in the industry of the Third Reich is often considered a mere nominal provision without much substance. However, that is not correct, because firms, despite the rationing and licensing activities of the state, still had ample scope to devise their own production and investment profiles. Even regarding war-related projects, freedom of contract was generally respected; instead of using power, the state offered firms a number of contract options to choose from. There were several motives behind this attitude of the regime, among them the conviction that private property provided important incentives for increasing efficiency.

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PUTINISM AND ITS IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND AS A PROBLEM OF MODERN THEORETICAL DISCOURSE IN SOCIAL SCIENCIES AND HUMANITIES

Almanac of Ukrainian Studies ◽

10.17721/2520-2626/2019.25.8 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 49-54

Author(s):

Iryna Grabovska ◽

Tetyana Talko

Keyword(s):

General Characteristic ◽

Third Reich ◽

Scientific Debate ◽

The Third ◽

The Past ◽

Conservative Revolution ◽

Ideological Background ◽

The Third Reich ◽

Modern Analytical

The article explores the problem of the ideology of Putinism. It draws attention to the fact that in modern analytical texts about the phenomenon of Putinism, the dispute between scholars has shifted toward clarifying its ideological foundations. A few years ago, an intense scientific debate about the correctness of usage of the term "Putinism" itself took place. The authors investigate the current analytical publications on the ideological foundations of Putinism. The article points out the divergence of views of researchers on the existence of state ideological doctrine developed in the current Kremlin regime. The purpose of this article is defined as proving the fact that Putinism is not only a practical but also an ideological phenomenon of our age. The authors conclude that the ideology of Putinism exists. It seems convincing to consider Putinism as an ideological doctrine of the hybrid type, the general characteristic of which can be defined as neo-imperialism of the autocratic type with the elements of totalitarianism, "assembled" from a set of different doctrines of the past and present. Among them: Pan-Slavism, Russo-Centrism, Eurasianism and Neo-Eurasianism, Duginism (ideologically extremely close to the ideology of the Third Reich and the ideologists of the German "conservative revolution" at the same time, according to L. Lux), Messianism, Isolationism, Anti-Westernism and Anti-Americanism, Neo-Stalinism, Orthodox Fundamentalism, the role of the strong leader. Putinism as a neo-imperialist ideology is in line with the Kremlin's practice, beginning with Putin's rise to power when neo-colonial wars began on the perimeter of the former Soviet empire. It is partly orientated to suppress internal separatist movements, as it was in the case of Chechnya and partly to attempts to "gathering lands" as in the case of Georgia and now – of Ukraine.

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