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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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53 |
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| “Euthanasia”: Direct Medical
Killing |
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either-or judgments without examining the children or even
reading their medical records, but solely on the basis of the questionnaire.
They recorded their decisions on a small form with the names of the three
experts printed on the left side; on the right side, under the word
“treatment” (Behandlung), were three columns, making a small
space available parallel to each individual expert’s name. If an expert
decided upon “treatment” — meaning the killing of the child
— he put a plus sign (+) in the left column. If he decided against killing
the child, he put a minus sign (-) in the middle column. If he thought a
definite decision should not yet be made, he wrote in the right-hand column the
phrase “temporary postponement” or the word “observation”
and then initialed this opinion. The same form was passed in sequence to the
three experts, so that the second one receiving it would know the opinion of
the first, and the third would know the opinion of the first two. A unanimous
opinion was necessary for a child to be killed — an outcome favored by the
reporting arrangement.
Where a decision for or against killing was not
unanimous, there was initially a policy of requesting additional information
from the responsible local medical officer. But this policy was soon abandoned,
probably because of its further threat to the program’s secrecy (which in
any case gradually eroded, but which authorities tried nonetheless to
maintain), and possibly also because of the administrative delays entailed.
Instead, these children, along with those for whom observation or postponement
was specifically recommended, were sent for further observation to the same
children’s units where the killing was done. After a specified time, the
consultants received additional information on the children, along with the
original questionnaires, as a basis for a final decision. This arrangement also
strongly favored a decision for killing. But the process was referred to as a
means of obtaining “expert opinion.” The units where the killing was
done were parts of children’s institutions whose chiefs and prominent
doctors were known to be politically reliable and “positive” toward
the goals of the Reich Committee. These centers were grandly referred to as
“Reich Committee Institutions,” “Children’s Specialty
Institutions (or Departments),” or even “Therapeutic Convalescent
Institutions.” Actually no such separate institutions existed. The
children marked for death were usually dispersed among ordinary pediatric
patients; some were kept in separate wards of their own.23 *
The first Children’s Specialty
Department was established in the state institution at Görden and was
referred to publicly as a "Special Psychiat- […ric] |
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* According to
Hefelmann’s testimony, children were already being sent to Görden in
October 1939, the committee wanting particularly “to put newborns to sleep
as soon as possible,” to prevent “closer bonds between mothers and
their children.”24 |
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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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