|
|
 |
| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
|
|
| Page
316 |
Back |
|
Contents |
Index |
Home
Page |
|
Forward |
|
| |
| AUSCHWITZ: THE RACIAL CURE |
| |
Dr. Tadeusz S. stated), the doctor just quoted went
further and said, “He himself … often repeated [the point that he]
had not enrolled voluntarily in the SS, but only under coercion, which in 1944
was possible.” And a third doctor said similarly, “He told me he was
not considered kosher by the SS [because his wife was related to a German
officer who defected to an Allied nation] so that is why they put him in this
position in the Hygienic Institute … where they could keep close watch on
him.” I suspect that these falsehoods (he was, in fact, eager to join up
and acknowledged volunteering for the Waffen SS) resulted mainly from his need
to achieve maximum acceptance by the prisoner physicians. Possibly also they
exaggerated and distorted it out of a need to believe that this SS doctor, who
treated them humanely, was not a genuine SS officer — not really “one
of them.”
Ernst B. tended to romanticize his integration
with the inmates: “After half a year [in Auschwitz], I discussed all
personal ... [and] all possible questions openly with the prisoners. [There
was] no difference in my social contact with them from with other
personnel” — in terms that suggest how far that integration actually
did proceed.
He could then attribute what he called a “perverse
reaction,” in deciding not to take advantage of an opportunity to be
transferred from Auschwitz, to his having become “integrated into the
whole thing.” Prisoner doctors to whom he talked about the opportunity of
course urged him to stay, and he was referring to his relationship with them
within the overall Auschwitz situation when he added that “the situation
was so extraordinary that you … could not get out.”
He
remembered asking himself, “Is it right to stay, or would it be better to
leave?,” and deciding that he should stay: “Here I had impact
[Resonanz]* and I felt I could accomplish something positive [in
comparison with other possible assignments] …. At least I could do
something humane here.” He enumerated other ways in which he could
contribute to the lives of prisoners: by turning over to them meat given him
for testing and telling SS officials that large “samples” were
required; and helping in a project to distill spoiled marmalade to produce
orange brandy, which could be, in turn, exchanged with SS men for meat from the
slaughterhouse and bakery products, all for inmates. Over time he realized that
these maneuverings were safe “because every person there was also
corrupt.”
Dr. B. had another dream that expressed his conflicts
and the depth of his integration with prisoners — a dream so dangerous
that he can remember having had it only after leaving Auschwitz, though I
gained the impression that fragments of it may have occurred there as well. The
dream involved a young Jewish woman laboratory assistant in the Hygienic
Institute who had a talent for making drawings from photographs of the |
__________
* The choice of this word
— literally, “resonance” — suggests the idea of human
interaction rather than mere influence. |
|
| |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical Killing and the
Psychology of
Genocide
Robert J. Lifton
ISBN 0-465-09094
©
1986 |
|
Back |
Page 316 |
Forward |
|
|
