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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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366 |
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| AUSCHWITZ: THE RACIAL CURE |
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[inter…] ested in this specimen.” Mengele’s
rage diminished, and he said, “Good! … Beautiful!” and spoke of
sending it to Berlin.45
Similarly,
when he learned that one identical twin had an undescended testicle, he not
only studied the other twin from the standpoint of evaluating possible genetic
factors, but also sought to learn all he could about the phenomenon of the
undescended testicle. And he pursued a hypothesis concerning the low hairline
of Gypsies as an identifying characteristic to the point of insisting, against
all evidence, that a group of French nomads were of Gypsy origin. Dr. Alexander
O., in relating this story, commented, “Such a learned stupidity, so
ingenious,” and thought this “level of sophistication in
stupidity” to be characteristically German.
Mengele, according to
Marek P., would follow his “usual hospital routine” in the morning,
checking on the medical blocks, participating frequently in various aspects of
the killing, and later going to his pathological laboratory in Birkenau in
order to obtain the results of post-mortem examinations. In this way, Dr. P.
concluded, “he combined his interest in killing procedures with his
research interests.”
And he behaved in specific ways like a
research scientist. Prisoner doctors observed his intensity, ambition and
apparent seriousness of purpose, his being a “work addict” as opposed
to the relative laziness of other SS doctors. We know their impression of his
being “all over the camp,” and Nyiszli refers to his energy in
rushing back and forth between the ramp, where he selected, to the pathology
unit, where he spent “long hours” and would insist on having Nyiszli
show him various tissues under the microscope.46 Dr. Abraham C., Mengele's radiologist, thought
that his greatest pleasure was to "spend hours and hours in Nyiszli's autopsy
room because he seemed to have a genuine passion for medical questions, which,
of course, could be best resolved in the autopsy room." Prisoner doctors
observed how Mengele would rush from the medical wards to his beloved research
areas, would come early in the morning to the Gypsy block to study noma cases
despite his great fatigue from having slept little because of having been most
of the night directing people toward the gas chamber. And he was indeed unusual
in coming in on Sundays to make measurements and work on his records.
Mengele s constant collecting was equated by Teresa W with the
anthropology of that time, but researchers have always questioned any
scientific policy of endless accumulation and measuring. A young German
scientist wrote in 1935: “It is not useful to take as many measurements as
possible; one must restrict oneself to the most significant ones.” The
young scientist was Josef Mengele; and in the same doctoral dissertation he
spoke critically of a previous researcher who had “lost himself in
details.”47 In Auschwitz that critic
seems to have done the same, but, given his equation of Auschwitz with
opportunity, he considered all details there to be “significant
ones.”
Everyone was aware of the extent of Mengele’s
scientific ambition, but W. went further in her impression that what he was
doing was part of a |
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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 366 |
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