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Arthur Caplan, editor of When Medicine Went Mad Bioethics and the Holocaust, states, "The Holocaust, unlike many other instances of mass killing, was scientifically inspired, supervised and meditated genocide." Since all genocides are a grand-scale effort to systematically eradicate populations, their success hinges on having large portions of a nation going along with genocidal policy. The individuals in a society must be convinced of genocide's legitimacy in ‘their case', they need to forget that it is murder. Genocide obtains it legitimacy for the people of a nation from professionals, those knowledgeable individuals that provide the ideological, intellectual, and scientific basis to justify the complete destruction of a group. It is the status these professional hold that okay destructive actions, all of the statements they make are thought to be important as well as accurate. A well-educated man in good standing...How could he be wrong?
In the case of Germany, doctors began small. Doctors began to try and use hygiene and sanitation to fight diseases such as typhus, cholera, plague, influenza, and smallpox. They then identified Jews as carriers of these diseases. And it was not long before these associations forced the Jews into small, overcrowded ghettos. This was, of course, justified and necessary, given the doctors' finding regarding these diseases. These ghettos were without proper sanitation, and considering the extreme overcrowding, there was soon quite an outbreak of disease, and the doctors had their ‘proof' that Jews were dirty and diseased. In fact the Jews became the disease in people's minds. It was the reports by doctors that truly turned people against the Jews. Dirty and diseased, they were no better than cockroaches. Genocide would be necessary in order to maintain the health of Germany.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler explains, "Anyone who wants to cure this era, which is inwardly sick and rotten, must first summon up the courage to make clear the causes of the disease." Of course, he was referring to the Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals that were ‘contaminating' the German race. This is the ideology behind the medical experimentation in sanitation and hygiene, that led to the gas chambers and euthanasia...all in an effort to rid the German race of it unwanted members.
"Medicine and science had played crucial roles both in fostering of Nazi ideology and in implementing the final solution." (Caplan) While medicine and science were being utilized, they had taken on a very different form. They were not treating individuals, but torturing them. It is obvious that the Hippocratic oath was either forgotten, or large, significant parts were completely ignored.
The Hippocratic Oath(Original Version) I swear by Apollo the physician and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation.I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons labouring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.
So while the torture continued it was thought of as a means to an end. The murder of Jews was thought of as a way to heal the German race. In what has been called the ‘healing-killing' paradox, SS doctors found a loophole in the immoral act of murder in the name of healing those worth saving, Germans. Murder was to them a furthering of their commitment as doctors to the preservation and enhancement of life, as it was seen as purification. All acts were justified under these ideals.
Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz ‘Angel of Death' was a geneticist who joined those concepts with Nazi ideology. He followed Galton's ideas of eugenics, a concept that came about due to a mid-nineteenth century English professor by the name of Sir Francis Galton. Galton believed that the inherited traits of an individual would benefit society and humankind by identifying them and then improving positive ones while eliminating negative ones. (Gutman 17) It was not until after Hitler's rise to power that eugenics became popular, though. It was then that it changed towards racial genetics. Eugenics gave Nazis the scientific foundation for removing and exterminating those persons with mental illness, incurable diseases, as well as sterilization of those thought to be carrying hereditary illness or deformation.
In 17, Dr. Mengele was hired by Professor Otmar Freihorer von Verschauer to work as his assistant at the Institute of Heredity and Racial Hygiene at Frankfurt University. Von Verschauer pursued research on twins as it was "the most efficient method to ascertain inherited human traits, particularly diseases." (Gutman 18) Most of Mengele's experiments he will later conduct at Auschwitz can be traced back to Von Verschauer. Mengele was molded by Von Verschauer, and continued what he began in the search for constructing the perfect Aryan race.
Mengele's work at Auschwitz consisted of twins as much as was possible. Not only was researching two nearly identical people a way to save time and increase efficiency, Mengele also was searching for ways to induce multiple births. This would make repopulating the world with Germans a much less timely endeavor.
Mengele utilized many methods of experimentation. During anthropological exams, every body part was examined and measured. Detailed documentation was kept of every one of his subjects. Details about the shape of faces, color of skin, etc were kept in the documents. Dental examinations were performed in which plaster casts of the jaws were made. Mengele was fastidious in his accounts of the exams.
Sara Seiler Vigorito was a child when she was at Auschwitz. Based on the year she spent in Mengele's private laboratory, she wrote an essay entitled, "A Profile of Nazi Medicine The Nazi Doctor-His Methods and Goals." In the essay she described Mengele. "He would not tolerate carelessness and he demanded respect from his colleagues and "patient" victims. He was extremely intelligent and although his victims feared him, he was never thought of as a monster. Rather it was the depth of his intellect twisted into a science of human destruction that we, even the youngest of his victims, feared most." In her memoirs she wrote
"Dr Mengele approaches a wooden cage in which two small children are imprisoned. He points to one of the children and orders that the child be brought into the examining room. The child is layed onto the examining table naked. Its mouth gagged and its eyes are blindfolded. Assistants hold the child down onto the table on each side. The doctor steps forward with his scalpel and makes a long incision into the child's left leg along the tibia. He then begins to take scrapings from the bone. When he is finished, the leg in bound up and the child is returned to the cage... nothing is given for the pain."
These kinds of experiments were thought of as a necessary evil. The victims have been reduced to a subhuman level, and therefor do not need to be treated ethically. The experiments are justified in the name of science and the purification of the Aryan race.
Other tests by Mengele included the more standard collection of blood, urine, stool, and saliva. Archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum contain numerous requests for analysis bearing Mengele's signature. (Gutman 4) But some experiments were performed that seem to have absolutely no bearing on Mengele's interest in purification, or anything else fathomable.
Vera Alenander, a Jewish prisoner, confined to the barracks for twins in the Gypsy camp testified
"One day Mengele brought chocolate and special clothes. The next day, an SS man,
on Mengele's instructions, took away two children, who happened to be my favorites
Guido and Nino, aged about four. Two, perhaps three days later the SS man brought
them back in a frightening condition. They had been sewn together like Siamese twins.
The hunchback child was tied to the second one on the back and wrists. Mengele had
sewn their veins together. Their wounds were filthy and they festered. There was a
powerful stench. The children screamed all night long. Somehow their mother
managed to get hold of some morphine and put an end to their suffering."
(Gutman)
After weeks of torturous experimentation and examinations, twins would be taken to the dissection lab. One famous account, tells of Mengele's assistant rounding up fourteen pairs of twins in the night. They were placed on a marble dissection table and put to sleep. After they were asleep he injected chloroform into their hearts, which killed them instantly. Mengele then began dissecting them and and meticulously noting each and every piece of the twins' bodies. But the examinations still continued. Their organs and tissue samples were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin.
In the early forties it was generally thought that the extermination of the Jews should be handled quickly for reasons of practicality. But many of the Nazis wanted this opportunity to exploit the Jews using their potential as laborers. However, as the whole point of the Holocaust was to purge the German race of ‘inferior humans', the Jewish workers would need to be sterilized in order to prevent further contamination of what would be the perfect Aryan race. This was easily justified, considering the prisoners were condemned to death anyway. They were simply allowing them to live a bit longer in order to use them for slave labor. "With no ethical considerations at issue, a more opportunistic surgical laboratory than Auschwitz could hardly be imagined." (Gutman 04)
Dr. Karl Clauberg was another major player in the camps at Auschwitz. He showed a great deal of promise. At only, he received his Habilitation (an endowment that gave him lecturer and professorial abilities based on extensive research in a scientific field). Many of his developments are still used today, in fact. Progynon and Prolution were both developed by Clauberg, and are used to treat infertility. But on a personal note he was said to be, "short, bald and unlikable." Many survivors speak of his crude, joking manner and his general dislike by other camp officers. Dr. Wirths, the head doctor at the camp is quoted as saying that in the end, Clauberg had," gone to the dogs, become an alcoholic and a totally unscrupulous character."
Dr. Clauberg's main objective was to develop a serum, which by injection, could sterilize women. This was to be used by the Nazi party to make sure that none of the untermenschen (sub-human races) were allowed to breed. An injection, which is believed to have been Formalin and/or Novocaine, was injected into the cervix, which caused blockages in the fallopian tubes. At any given time, Clauberg could have up to three hundred women in his famous Block 10, also known as Clauberg's block. He was able to keep them there by threatening them with Birkenau, which meant a sure death. He also tried to convince them he wanted to take them to his clinic which was near Auschwitz. Dr. Johannes Goebel served as Clauberg's assistant, who helped develop the serum as well as perform the injections. Between the two of them, the number of women sterilized was over several thousand. The injections brought about many effects besides the blockage of the fallopian tubes. Uterine membranes, including the entire membrane of the womb was, in most cases, burned away along with other vital organs.
Dr. Horst Schumann came to Auschwitz in August of 141. Himmler had chosen him to do reaserch in which the goal was to raise the rate of effectiveness of x-ray sterilization. By late 14, Schumann was at work in Block 0 at Birkenau. He usually chose young men and women as test subjects. Female subjects were placed, naked, between two plates that pressed against the abdomen and back. The men pressed their genitals on a specially designed plate. The subjects were then exposed to radiation for between five and eight minutes. After the treatment, most women still had to undergo the removal of their ovaries. Following the norm, no attention was paid to health risks involved. Infections ran rampant due to the choice of procedure utilized. The procedure used was a horizontal cut across the pubic area as opposed to an opening at the abdomen. The ovaries were then sent to an outside lab for further testing. Many survivors report they had one or two testicles removed in a crude fashion. Some also mention a small instrument, ( that Schumann often boasted he had made himself) which was inserted through the rectum and scraped against the prostate, forcing men to ejaculate. It is estimated that approximately two hundred men underwent both x-ray sterilization and castration. Ninety of these operations took place on one day, December 16, 14. Almost one thousand prisoners were subjected to x-ray sterilization.
Almost all medical experimentation was encouraged officially, as they were a direct reflection of racial theory and policy. Hitler clarified this when he maintained that there was necessity of not only sterilization, but elimination of "life unworthy of life." There is evidence that the sterilization and castration experiments performed at Auschwitz by doctors Carl Clauberg and Horst Schumann were supported by SS official Himmler as he provided ample research materials to the camp. In fact, it was Himmler who first precipitated the idea of creating an agent to block the fallopian tubes.
Besides resulting in the deaths of countless prisoners, the ruthless medical experiments also resulted in the Nuremberg trials. After the war was over and the camps were liberated, 4 German physicians were brought to trial at the Nuremberg Medical Trial, which began in October of 146 and lasted until August of 147. Sixteen were found guilty, of which seven were given the death penalty and nine were imprisoned. They were executed on June ,148.
From this trial the Nuremberg Codes were developed, a 10-point code of human experimentation ethics which sets the general agenda for all future ethical and legal questions pertaining to the conduct of human experimentation. These codes were developed to ensure that history would not repeat itself, but they in time became insufficient as in 147 when they were developed, most human experimentation was of a non-therapeutic design and was more directed to exploring basic processes. Thus, in 164 the World Medical Association issued the Helsinki Declaration which differentiated between therapeutic and non-therapeutic clinical research.
Not one of the doctors discussed here in detail, were among those tried. Dr. Josef Mengele fled Auschwitz in January of 145. He then went to the Gross-Rosen death camp, but fled there before it was liberated in February of 145. He ran all over the world for a time. It was not until June 7th, 15 that West Germany issued the first arrest warrant for Mengele, and another five years passed before the University of Frankfurt, and that of Munich disavowed his medical degrees. He was never captured. It is thought that he died on February 7th, 17, suffering a heart attack while swimming. We do know that he was buried in a grave marked ‘Wolfgang Gerhard'. The body was exhumed in 185, and in more recent years, forensic evidence has positively identified the body as that of Josef Mengle.
Towards the end of the war, Russian troops were advancing towards Konigshutte, where Cluaberg had his clinic. He had sent some of his subjects to Ravensbrook, which is where he went, and continued his studies on sterilization. He was not there long before he went to be with Himmler, at Schleswig-Holstein. Clauberg was eventually captured by allied forces. He was sent to the Soviet Gulag where he spent three years before he was tried. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 5 years. Three years later, he was found dead in his cell.
Horst Schumann ran away as well. He fled to Ravensbrook with Clauberg. He lived in Germany under a false name until he was identified, at which time, he fled again, to Sudan this time. Maybe he realized the magnitude of his horrendous acts, because he spent his time in Sudan treating sick Africans, and studying sleeping sickness. After almost seven years, he was identified, and fled to Ghana where he was apprehended and handed over to West German authorities. But, by this time, he was quite ill, suffering from malaria. He was found physically unfit to stand trial and released. He died in Germany in 18.
While these doctors escaped justice from the Nuremberg trial, from this trial the Nuremberg Codes were developed, a 10-point code of human experimentation ethics which sets the general agenda for all future ethical and legal questions pertaining to the conduct of human experimentation. These codes were developed to ensure that history would not repeat itself, but they in time became insufficient as in 147 when they were developed, most human experimentation was of a non-therapeutic design and was more directed to exploring basic processes. Thus, in 164 the World Medical Association issued the Helsinki Declaration which differentiated between therapeutic and non-therapeutic clinical research.
The Declaration did not have an absolute requirement of informed consent concerning therapeutic research as it introduced the concept of guardianship as sufficient means of obtaining consent. Such a condition seemed to undermine the Nuremberg Codes in that it potentially allowed for the doctor to take advantage of the patient in acting as his caretaker, just as the Nazi doctors had in taking care of their imprisoned patients. Nonetheless, between the two declarations much has been done to define the area of medical experimentation to avoid any repeat of the Holocaust atrocities, and modern-day doctors remain well aware of the issues at stake and the necessity for the preservation of human rights and ethics in every situation.
The atrocities committed at Auschwitz were horrendous, but Auschwitz is just one camp and Clauberg, Schumann, and Mengele were just three doctors. The horrors committed were so vile, they are what stay with the world, forever imprinting images of the emaciated, tortured, and grief stricken. Reading of the experiments performed cause discomfort in nearly everyone, even those completely removed from World War II.
The doctors involved in the Holocaust gave justification to genocide. It is because of these doctors that the people allowed the mass murder of so many innocents to occur. The doctors left behind a legacy that Germany, as well as the rest of the world is ashamed of, and rightly so, and the shame is not going away anytime soon. As late as 18 it was revealed that skeletal and tissue samples from holocaust victims were being used for teaching purposes in West Germany. Only an international outcry on the issue forced the German medical schools and institutions to bury their tissue sample collections in 10.
. In the book Hitler and the Final Solution by Gerald Fleming, there is a quote from Hitler that says, "Once I am really in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews." He nearly achieved his goal with the help of the Nazi doctors, killing nearly six million Jews.
Works Cited
Gutman, Yisrael and Michael Berenbaum. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press Indianapolis, 14.
Lagnado, Lucete Matalon and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the Flames Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. William Morrow and Company New York, 11.
Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Concentration Camps Medicalized Killing in Auschwitz. Yad Vashem Israel, 184. p. 07-55.
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