Of Euphemisms and Euthanasia: The Language Games of the Nazi Doctors and Some Implications for the Modern Euthanasia Movement

2000 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Ben Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Human Society ◽  
World War ◽  
Nazi Doctors ◽  
Consistent Application ◽  
Nazi Physicians ◽  
The Way

Euphemisms are place-holders for important concepts. They may disguise a practice which one might abhor if it were given another name. In Nazi Germany during World War II, euphemisms were used to desensitize physicians and society to the horrors of a program of euthanasia. This article examines some of the euphemisms used by the Nazi physicians to redefine medicalized killing, compares the Nazi language games with those of contemporary proponents of medicalized killing, and concludes that the consistent application of euphemisms for medicalized killing significantly weakens arguments against assisted killing. We should watch the way we talk. Human society can be described as a long conversation about what matters. In this conversation, the language we use to describe our social practices not only reveals our attitudes and virtues, it shapes them (Winslow, 1994, p. 1).

scholarly journals USING FORBIDDEN RESEARCH METHODS AND TAKING BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL FROM PRISONERS OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS BY NAZI MEDICAL WORKERS DURING WORLD WAR II

2017 ◽  
pp. 115-122
Author(s):  
Julia Alekseevna Abbyasova ◽  
Ekaterina Olegovna Golovina ◽  
Yuriy Vladimirovich Ishkov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Medical Experiments ◽  
Irreparable Harm ◽  
Pure Race ◽  
Second World ◽  
Nazi Physicians

The article analyzes the processes of illegal use of prohibited methods of research by Nazi physicians during their medical experiments on live people-prisoners of the concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau during the Second World War. Medical experiments on living people, prisoners of concentration camps, as a rule, resulted in their death or caused severe and irreparable harm to health. These experiments supported by the idea of creating "pure race" were conducted by physicians of Nazi Germany in the death camps located throughout Europe. The leaders of the Nazi hierarchy developed the foundations of their fascist ideology, using the works of German sociologists (Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Hans Friedrich Carl Guenther, Walter Wuest) and geneticists (Eugen Fischer, Erwin Bauer and Fritz Lenz, etc.), many of whom came to the conclusion that the possibility of creating the necessary conditions in Nazi Germany for the purpose of improving the human race was closely linked to limiting reproduction of the "lower" peoples. The Nuremberg trial of Nazi criminals (1945-1946) identified serious crimes of Nazi physicians, who conducted medical experiments on people in concentration camps, and claimed them inhuman and breaking all international and human rights.

The Unassailable Self: Freud's Image Among Post-war American Intellectuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Jenness
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
External Force ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Human Being ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the way American intellectuals depicted Sigmund Freud during the peak of popularity and prestige of psychoanalysis in the US, roughly the decade and a half following World War II. These intellectuals insisted upon the unassailability of Freud's mind and personality. He was depicted as unsusceptible to any external force or influence, a trait which was thought to account for Freud's admirable comportment as a scientist, colleague and human being. This post-war image of Freud was shaped in part by the Cold War anxiety that modern individuality was imperilled by totalitarian forces, which could only be resisted by the most rugged of selves. It was also shaped by the unique situation of the intellectuals themselves, who were eager to position themselves, like the Freud they imagined, as steadfastly independent and critical thinkers who would, through the very clarity of their thought, lead America to a more robust democracy.

Blitzkrieg – An Army Fueled by Drugs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Heckert
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Pharmaceutical Company ◽  
Primary Component ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Main Ingredient ◽  
Crystal Meth ◽  
Wonder Drug ◽  
Research Institute

Pervitin is a drug developed in Nazi Germany by the pharmaceutical company Temmler, before the start of World War II. Originally sold without prescription to the population, it was claimed to suppress fatigue, make one more alert, reduce hunger, and help fight depression. The main ingredient of this wonder drug was methamphetamine, the primary component of what we now call crystal meth. This miracle drug’s effectiveness against fatigue caught the attention of the director of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology of the German forces, Dr. Otto Ranke, who considered that fatigue was enemy number one of a soldier during battle. An order of thirty five million Pervitin tablets were purchased for the Wehrmacht’s invasion of France in May 1940 to increase effectivity of the campaign that relied especially on speed for success. History will claim that the use of mobile warfare over positional warfare with Germany’s motorized army, French high command mistakes, and an equipment disadvantage led to the ultimate defeat. My research aims to show that Pervitin was a crucial factor in the iron force of the blitzkrieg by the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and that it did not as much come from its tactics, inferiority of the Allies, and employment of mobile warfare but from an army that was blitzed on Pervitin to turn it into a steamroller of a machine that could not be stopped, day or night.

scholarly journals THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSUMERS COOPERATIVE SOCIETY IN PROVISIONING OF COLLECTIVE FARM PEASANTRY OF ALTAI LAND IN THE YEARS OF WORLD WAR II: IN TERMS OF POTTERY AND MANUFACTURE OF WOODEN SOLE BOOTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-119
Author(s):  
Tat’yana K. Shcheglova ◽  
Aleksey V Rykov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
World War ◽  
Collective Farm ◽  
Cooperative Society

The war between Nazi Germany and the USSR caused drastic changes in the Soviet system of distribution of goods. Reorientation of factories on military contracts led to diminishing of the centralised production of goods for consumers in rear areas. As a result, consumers cooperative society started to play an important role. The article considers the problems of consumers cooperative society and local enterprises which were its major suppliers. Through the example of pottery and manufacture of wooden sole boots diffi culties of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war are revealed. The problems of interaction of local enterprises and consumers cooperative society are considered. In conclusion, the author points out that the major problem of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war was the shortage of raw materials and the signifi cant factor of development was hand-crafted character of anufacturing. A certain problem was created by the reluctance of enterprises to deliver their production at artifi cially low state prices and its poor quality. The consequence of that was the decrease of signifi cance of consumers cooperative society and the increase of the ratio of market trade in provisioning of collective farm peasantry.

scholarly journals Symbolic Geographies and the Politics of Hungarian Identity in the ‘Populist-Urbanist Debate,’ 1925-44

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 177-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Esbenshade
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
World War ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
The Way

This article examines intellectuals’ debates about national identity in interwar and World War II Hungary to uncover their connection to underlying “symbolic geographies” and “mental maps.” Focusing on the way in which Hungarian identity and history have been informed by, and indeed inserted into, virtual spatial rubrics that rely on the historically developed cultural concepts of “Europe” and “Asia,” and “West” and “East,” the paper looks in particular at the “populist-urbanist debate” that raged between two groups of writers, both opposed to the ruling neo-feudal order. The populists were composed mostly of provincial-born intellectuals who saw the recognition and uplift of the peasant as the key to Hungary’s salvation. The urbanists were cosmopolitan intellectuals, mostly of assimilated Jewish origin, who saw the wholesale adoption of progressive Western rights and norms as the only way forward.

War Children in Nazi Germany and World War II

2017 ◽  
pp. 200-223
Author(s):  
Ilka Quindeau ◽  
Katrin Einert ◽  
Nadine Teuber
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
World War

“An Ireland over There”?

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Sara S. Goek
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
World War ◽  
Irish Identity ◽  
Diasporic Identities ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the role of dance halls in British and American cities among the Irish communities after World War II. It incorporates historical and cultural analysis of Irish traditional music in dance halls, stressing the symbiotic relationship between place and diasporic identities. It offers a window on the way Irish negotiated, contested, interpreted, and performed their Irish identity while living abroad.

Sweden

2019 ◽  
pp. 435-440
Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
World War ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Immigrant Policy ◽  
Economic Well Being

Sweden maintained a policy of uneven neutrality throughout World War II. While the Swedish government initially maintained a strict anti-immigrant policy, attitudes changed once World War II began. When Swedish authorities learned in 1942 that the Germans sought to deport Jews from Denmark and Norway, they aided in the rescue of thousands of Jews from the two neighboring countries. Throughout the war, Sweden maintained diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany. The Nazis sought to have Aryanization policy carried out in Sweden with respect to German-controlled companies operating in Sweden and also for Swedish companies with links to Germany. In the end, however, efforts to Aryanize property in Sweden were not very effective and did not have a major impact on the economic well-being of Swedish Jews. Sweden endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

France

2019 ◽  
pp. 137-150
Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Vichy France ◽  
Two Phases

Germany invaded France in 1940. A month later the countries entered into an agreement, by which 80 percent of France was occupied by Nazi Germany. Competing property expropriation laws were enacted in both Occupied and Unoccupied (Vichy) France. More than 20 percent of France’s Jewish population was killed during World War II. Restitution and reparations measures—particularly with respect to private and heirless property—took place in two phases. The first occurred in the immediate postwar years and ended around 1954, and the second commenced in the late 1990s and early 2000s and is ongoing. In the late 1990s, a government commission (Matteoli Commission) was established to examine the conditions under which property was confiscated by the occupying or Vichy regimes. A compensation commission (Drai Commission) was subsequently established to provide payment to those not previously compensated for damages resulting from legislation passed either by the occupying or Vichy regimes. France endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.

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