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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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293 |
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| The Experimental Impulse |
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Another theme in the diary is Kremer’s sense of being
victimized by the “medical establishment,” which rejected his two pet
scientific theories. One of those theories was constructed around his claim to
have demonstrated the inheritance of traumatically acquired deformities, an
idea at odds with all scientific evidence, then and now, and which especially
violated the Nazi focus on pure heredity. He had in fact been reproached by the
rector of his university for having published an article entitled “A
Noteworthy Contribution to the Problem of Heredity in Traumatic
Deformations.” His second theory involved a claim that white blood cells
and other phagocytes (cells that absorb and digest foreign bodies) are actually
tissue cells (from other organs and areas of the body) that have undergone
decay or “retrogression.” Here he considered his Auschwitz research
especially valuable because the “fresh samples” (taken just before
death) he obtained there enabled him to study degenerative effects that could
not be attributed to post-mortem changes.54
For while Kremer had been appointed titular professor, he had never
been given an actual chair and brooded in his diary about “establishing a
small laboratory of my own … once the war is over … [because] I have
brought materials from Auschwitz which absolutely must be worked on.”
Auschwitz was to be the source of scientific breakthrough and revenge; and that
anticipation, along with his general Nazification as well as his combination of
overweening ambition and limited talent, contributed to his degree of numbed
detachment, which was extraordinary even for Auschwitz doctors. Kremer was
imprisoned for ten years in Poland, and again tried back home in Münster,
where he was sentenced to another ten years, considered already served. He died
in 1965.55 |
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| Male Experimental Block |
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A male experimental block was also created from part of
Block 28, within the medical area of the main camp. Emil Kaschub, an advanced
medical student, was also sponsored by Wirths, who brought him to the block and
solicitously inquired about his research needs. Relatively healthy Jewish
inmates were subjected to having toxic substances rubbed into their arms and
legs, causing severely infected areas and extensive abcesses. The idea
apparently was to gain information that would help one recognize attempts by
German malingerers to produce such responses in order to avoid military
service.56 A prisoner who had worked as a
nurse on this block identified some of the material used as “petroleum
substances,” which could be injected as well as rubbed into the skin, and
gave rise to large inflammations and abscesses containing blackish liquid that
“smelled of petroleum” and had to be drained.
The second
series of experiments involved applications of lead acetate to various parts of
the body, causing painful burns and various forms of discoloration. With both
sets of experiments, specimens were sent to laboratories for study, and
elaborate photographic work was done to |
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THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical Killing and the
Psychology of
Genocide
Robert J. Lifton
ISBN 0-465-09094
©
1986 |
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Page 293 |
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