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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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7 |
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| "This World Is Not This
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I interviewed three groups of people. The central group
consisted of twenty-nine men who had been significantly involved at high levels
with Nazi medicine, twenty-eight of them physicians and one a pharmacist. Of
that group of twenty-eight doctors, five had worked in concentration camps
(three in Auschwitz) either as SS physicians assigned there or in connection
with medical experiments; six had some association with the
“euthanasia” (direct medical killing) program; eight were engaged in
medical policy making and in developing and implementing Nazi
medical-ideological theory; six held other important medical positions which
involved them in tainted behavior and ideological conflict; and three were
engaged mainly in military medicine which brought them in contact with (or led
them to seek distance from) massive Nazi killing of Jews behind the lines in
Eastern Europe.
I interviewed a second group of twelve former Nazi
nonmedical professionals of some prominence: as lawyers, judges, economists,
teachers, architects, administrators, and Party officials. My purpose here was
to probe the experiences of professionals in general under the Nazis and their
relationship to ideology as well as to obtain background information about
medical and related policies.
Very different was the third group I
interviewed: eighty former Auschwitz prisoners who had worked on medical
blocks, more than half of them doctors. The majority were Jewish (interviewed
in the United States, Israel, Western Europe, and Australia); but they included
two non-Jewish groups, Poles (interviewed in Krakow, Warsaw, and London) and
former political prisoners (interviewed mostly in various parts of Western
Europe, notably Vienna). I focused on their encounters with and observations of
Nazi doctors and Auschwitz medical policies in general.
Concerning the
two groups of former Nazis, especially the doctors, arrangements were never
simple. It seemed clear from the beginning that I could best approach them
through introductions from Germans of some standing in their society who were
sympathetic to my research. The process was enhanced by a formal appointment I
was given as a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Research in
Psychopathology and Psychotherapy, directed by Dr. Paul Matussek. My first task
was to locate former Nazi doctors of standing in the regime — which I did
with the help of assistants, through books, knowledgeable scholars, hearsay,
and intensive address searches. When a name and address had been uncovered,
Professor Matussek would send a form letter, which he and I had carefully
constructed, to that person. The letter described me as a prominent American
psychiatric researcher who was conducting a study of the “stresses and
conflicts” of German physicians under National Socialism; mentioned my
earlier work on Hiroshima and Vietnam; emphasized my commitment to
confidentiality; and urged the person in question to cooperate fully with me.
In the case of positive replies, I wrote a brief letter mentioning my desire
to, understand events of that time as accurately as possible. |
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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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