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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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400 |
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| AUSCHWITZ THE RACIAL CURE |
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in Auschwitz, remembered him saying that he had “seen
such terrible things, things that were unimaginable, [that he could] never go
home again and look into the eyes of [his] children.” Eduard told his
brother of dreadful scenes of thousands of dead bodies lying in shallow
ditches, but said nothing at the time about selections.
We know that
Helmut Wirths later went to Auschwitz to collaborate with his brother on cancer
experiments. But although Eduard did want help with the cancer studies, Helmut
later stressed (possibly partly for reasons of self-exculpation) that he went
less for that reason than to offer him personal support: “I knew of his
immense misery”: “My personal view is that my brother didn't want ...
me there for those materials [the research] ... [but] only needed ... a human
being to speak with.” Helmut said “[At least at first] I admired him
[because] I would not have been able to do it [stay at Auschwitz and perform
selections]. … I would have run amok.”
There was a painful
interplay in Auschwitz between the two, brothers concerning selections. Eduard
asked Helmut to accompany him to selections, for the ostensible purpose of
seeing the full horror of the place. Helmut, who by this time had learned what
they were, said he just could not do that. Since, when Eduard had talked about
leaving Auschwitz, Helmut and their father had urged him to remain and do
whatever good there he could, he now replied angrily, “You tell me I have
to stay here [and be here] every day, and you will not [come even] one time to
see [a selection].” Later Eduard (according to Helmut) said that he did
not really want to take him there but just wished to see if he would agree to
go with him. That kind of confused exchange could well have occurred, though
many other things were undoubtedly said. One suspects not that Eduard was
determined to leave, but rather that he stressed to his brother and father,
almost petulantly, the negative side of his ambivalence about staying, and in
so doing could also deflect the Auschwitz problem and place it on family
psychological terrain.
Helmut, who had planned to stay about two weeks,
said that he left after only a few days because he was so revolted by the
place. He described getting into difficulty with an SS officer when the latter,
at the casino the first night asked him how he liked their Sommerfrische
(vacation; literally, “summer air”), and he angrily answered,.
“Shame on you to say such a thing in this place!” According to
Helmut, Eduard had to calm the situation, and shortly after advised his brother
to leave.
Helmut has confirmed that he and his father did urge Eduard
to remain there, and claimed that they thought that he could help people by
doing, so — “but it was theoretical,” Helmut added regretfully,
meaning that the advice did not take into account the concrete horrors of
Auschwitz.
Their father’s advice to Eduard to remain undoubtedly
had great weight. We know the father to have been a demanding but respected
patriarchal figure, and Eduard to have been the older son who almost always
obeyed and followed the straight and narrow path. The father, |
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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 400 |
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