Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene [Paperback]
Author: Götz Aly | Language: English | ISBN: 0801848245 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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"The chapters in this volume painfully drive home the point that certainly as far as Germany is concerned, the lessons of the Third Reich have not yet been learned... These significant attempts by younger recruits to the larger medical establishment to change things through eye-opening reflection and analysis, however uncomfortable, need support."—Michael H. Kater, author of Doctors under Hitler, in the foreword.
The infamous Nuremberg Doctors' Trials of 1946-47 revealed horrifying crimes —ranging from grotesque medical experiments on humans to mass murder—committed by physicians and other health care workers in Nazi Germany. But far more common, argue the authors of Cleansing the Fatherland, were the doctors who profited professionally and financially from the killings but were never called to task—and, indeed, were actively shielded by colleagues in postwar German medical organizations.
The authors examine the role of German physicians in such infamous operations as the "T 4" euthanasia program (code-named for the Berlin address of its headquarters at Number 4 Tiergartenstrasse). They also reveal details of countless lesser known killings—all ordered by doctors and all in the name of public health. Maladjusted adolescents, the handicapped, foreign laborers too illto work, even German civilians who suffered mental breakdowns after air raids were "selected for treatment." (One physician who persisted in speaking of "killings" was officially reprimanded for his "negative attitude.")
The book also includes original documents—never before published in English—that give unique and chilling insight into the everyday workings of Nazi medicine. Among them:
• Minutes from a 1940 meeting of the Conference of German Mayors, at which a Nazi official gives the assembled politicians detailed instructions for the secret burial of murdered mental patients.
• A pre-Nazi era questionnaire sent by the head of a state mental institution to parents of disabled children. (Sample question: "Would you agree to a painless shortening of your child's life after an expert had determined him incurably imbecilic?" Sample answer: "Yes, but I would prefer not to know.")
• The diary of Dr. Hermann Voss, chief anatomist at the Reichs University of Posen (and later a highly respected physician in postwar Germany), who delights in the flowers blooming outside his window and worries that the overstock of Polish cadavers from his Gestapo suppliers might cause his crematory oven to break down.
• Letters of Dr. Friedrich Mennecke, director of the notorious Eichberg Clinic, who writes with cloying sentimentality to the wife he calls "mommy" and comments offhandedly about visiting concentration camps to select "patients" for death.
Today, as reports of mass death in Europe are once again cast in terms of public hygiene, and as euthanasia is advocated—even applauded—on U.S. television, the relevance of what Michael H.Kater here calls "the lessons of the Third Reich" is perhaps greater than ever. Against this background, Cleansing the Fatherland sends a stark message that is difficult to ignore.
- Paperback: 312 pages
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (August 1, 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801848245
- ISBN-13: 978-0801848247
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #547,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Nazism has often been misunderstood. Pross comments: "Anti-Semitism and racism can no longer be identified as the only driving forces behind Nazi politics..." (p. 14). An unknown number (in the thousands) of handicapped and infirm Germans were put to death. (pp. 91-92).
The Nazis are often misrepresented as a thin layer of fanatic madmen ruling over the German masses. It is untrue that doctors and scientific practitioners who actively practiced Nazi doctrines were just a few monsters such as Joseph Mengele, the Auschwitz "Angel of Death". In actuality, many educated Germans could be listed who acted in comparable manner. (e. g., see p. 147).
The anatomist Hermann Voss is particularly instructive. He wrote some human-anatomy books that have been widely used for decades, even in translation into other languages. He continued teaching anatomy well after WWII, and died in his 90's, having escaped justice for his crimes. During WWII, he was stationed in Posen (German-occupied Poznan). He kept a chilling diary during WWII, which has survived. It included transparently genocidal comments, such as the complaints that the Slavs are multiplying too rapidly, and that all Polish people should be exterminated. (pp. 105-106, 127-128, 130, 132).
The considerable attention given, in western countries, to the Holocaust has facilitated the rise of distortions about Nazi actions. For instance, Jewish bodies were not the only ones exploited (as by removal of gold crowns). Gold teeth and crowns were also removed from the bodies of Nazi-murdered Poles. (p. 136). The bodies of Nazi-murdered Poles were used in classes on dissection. (e. g., pp. 135-136, p. 147). So were the heads of guillotined Polish Resistance fighters. (p. 143).
"Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine & Racial Hygiene," Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1994, ISBN 0-8018-4824-5 (PB) 296 pgs., 6" x 9" No index, a few notes & B/W photos.
In the foreword, Michael Kater warns despite passage of those Nuremberg, Helsinki & Tokyo convenants after WW-11 to safeguard medical ethical standards (& prevent hideous medical abuses as done by Nazis & Japanese during the war) that many countries of the world persist in violation of these codes of conduct & he mentions a few countries including India, Canada, Lebanon & Germany in Bavaria. Kater informs us the authors including Ernst Klee are of a "new generation of German Scholars" whose aims are to further rectify & uncover Nazi medical irregularities - & that some of the Aly & Pross writings have been declared controversial & "exaggerated or twisted out of all proportion." He details various ways the Jewish physicians were eliminated starting in 1934 & replacing them with "Aryan" doctors, noting some 4,500 to 6,000 Jewish doctors were expelled from Germany & several hundred committed suicide. Pross states crimes (persecution & Holocaust) were not only by "the tiny number of 350 black sheep among the German medical profession...involved in medical crimes, but... many more...directly or indirectly, ...the cream of German medicine, ...professors, ...scientists and researchers." The only plausible explanation to me is that some residuum of the "old generation of German scholars" remain in the medical citadels & refuse to leave their chairs for the likes of Aly & Pross.
The book contains 5 chapters: Introd.
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