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EmailLIFTON PLUS 14
William E. Seidelman MD, CCFP, FCFP
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
University of Toronto,
Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
Toronto, Canada
St. Michae's Hospital,
Toronto, Canada
Fourteen years ago a landmark event in Holocaust history occurred with the publication of Robert J. Lifton's book, The Nazi Doctors. In that book Lifton detailed the nefarious activities of some Nazi doctors with a particular emphasis on Dr. Josef Mengele. While Lifton's book was extremely important in awakening interest in the subject of medicine in Nazi Germany, the focus of the book was limited to a few doctors. Unfortunately, the title gave the misleading impression that the few doctors described by Lifton represented The Nazi doctors. By focussing on a few physicians but using the definitive article "the" Lifton was giving unintended support to the deceptive propaganda of the leadership of German medicine which claimed that only a few evil doctors were involved in the crimes of the Hitler period. The corollary of that view is that the majority of German doctors were not associated with the evils of the Hitler regime.
In Lifton's book proved very popular. It was translated into German and received widespread attention in Germany where it reinforced the prevailing view of the German medical establishment.
Three years after the Lifton book was published there appeared another book in English by the German-born Canadian scholar Professor Michael Kater entitled Doctors Under Hitler. Kater's book went far beyond Lifton's work in that it documentated the ubiquitious involvement of the German establishment in the crimes of the Third Reich. Kater emphasized the postwar careers of physicians involved in the nefarious activities of the Third Reich. According to Kater many of those same physicians went on to influential positions after the war. He described the pervasive Nazi influence in the Federal Chamber of Physicians of Germany; of the then four postwar leaders of the German medical profession, three had been former members of the SS and SA.
Needless to say, Kater's book was not well received by some people in Germany. 11 years after the English language edition was first published a German edition is only now about to appear.
A similar fate befell Kater's landmark social history of the Nazi party first published in 1983 under the title The Nazi Party. In that work Kater documented for the first time the fact that of all occupational groups in Germany doctors had the largest membership in the Nazi party and that they joined early. Almost 50% of German physicians belonged to the Nazi party. Kater's book on the Nazi party is has yet to be published in German translation. 17 years and we're still waiting.
Lifton's work had been preceded by a book published in the late forties soon after the Nuremberg medical trial. Known in English as "Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the Nazi Medical Crimes," this book was a report by the two official observers of the doctors' trial appointed by the Federal Chamber of Physicians of Germany, Dr. Alexander Mitscherlich and Dr. Frederick Mielke. Despite the presence of thousands of physicians in Germany, many senior distinguished clinicians and researchers, the only two people the profession could find to serve as "official" observers were a young untenured lecturer in psychiatry, Mitscherlich, and medical student, Mielke. Mitscherlich and Mielke's report was a remarkable documentation of the atrocities perpetrated by medicine as documented by the doctors' trial. The original German language report entitled "Das Diktat der Menschenverachtung" was published in Germany in 1947. In 1949, 10,000 copies of the book were printed by the Federal Chamber of Physicians of Germany. However, it would appear that none of these volumes were ever distributed. There were no book reviews. There were no letters. Mitscherlich recalled that "it was as if the book had never been written." The printing of the 10,000 volumes and the false claim that they had been distributed to the profession was used by the Federal Chamber in their successful effort to gain membership in the World Medical Association; the body responsible for international standards in medical ethics.
Despite the damning documentation of the role of the German medical profession, nothing much changed. The principal victims were the authors. Mielke committed suicide. Mitscherlich was to experience professional and academic discrimination for most of his career. Despite the fact that he and Mielke had helped to redeem the reputation of German medicine, they were regarded as traitors to their profession.
For almost four decades after there was silence. Until Lifton.
Well, not quite.
In 1984, there appeared in Germany a modest paperback by the German geneticist Benno Muller-Hill of the University of Cologne. Entitled Todliche Wissenschaft, Muller-Hill's book documented the relationship between German medical science and the killing programs of the Third Reich. Muller-Hill the geneticist, exposed the involvement of one of Germany's leading geneticists, Professor Otmar von Verschuer, in the crimes of Dr. Josef Mengele. Known in English as Murderous Science, the book was not well received in Germany. There was only one published review in Germany. Despite his distinction as a geneticist, Muller-Hill comments on his career after the book was published, "It may be understood that under these conditions no honorary German fellowships are to be reported." Satisfaction was derived from honors from Israel and France. Muller-Hill suggests that his professional career was protected by his having tenure.
There have been other important publications in the interval but few from Germany. The past 14 years have also seen continuing revelations of the involvement of the German medical profession in the crimes of the Third Reich. In 1989 it was revealed that some medical schools and research institutes had body parts of victims of Nazi terror.
In 1993 the world learned that a leading German doctor (and former president of the doctors' chamber) who had been a member of the SS and was linked with the Nazi euthanasia program was appointed president-elect of the World Medical Association for 1993-94. Upon exposure in the world press, Professor Sewering resigned from his position with the world body claiming that he was the victim of an international Jewish conspiracy.
In 1990's it was disclosed that leading Austrian institutions, in particular the University of Vienna, the Vienna Psychiatric Hospital and the Vienna Museum of Natural History had the remains of victims of Nazi terror.
Not surprisingly the victims have received little consideration in all this. Perversely, the victimization by German doctors continued long after the end of the war. Holocaust survivors seeking compensation from Germany as part of reparations were forced to undergo a medical evaluation by doctors who had themselves been involved in the medical crimes of the Third Reich. Documentation on this is to be found in a book that was actually first published in Germany in 1988. Authored by the German physician/historian Dr. Christian Pross, the English edition is entitled Paying for the Past: The Struggle Over Reparations for Surviving Victims of Nazi Terror.
Amidst the recent revelations concerning the role of banks, insurance companies and major corporations during the Third Reich, little attention was paid to the role of medicine including the universities, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies in the exploitation of the terror of the Hitler regime. 14 years after Lifton and with the German publication of Kater's important work, the subject and the victims, may finally begin to receive proper consideration.
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Sources:
Kater, M. Doctors Under Hitler, Chapel Hill; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Press. 1989.
Kater, M. The Nazi Party: A Social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919-1945. Cambridge; Harvard. 1983.
Lifton, R. J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York; Basic. 1986.
Muller-Hill, B. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933-1945. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. 1998.
Pross, C. Nazi Doctors, German Medicine, and Historical Truth. In Anna G. and Grodin M. (eds.) The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. New York; Oxford. 1992.
Pross, D. Paying for the Past: The Struggle Over Reparations for Surviving Victims of Nazi Terror. Baltimore; Johns Hopkins. 1998.