|
|
 |
| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
|
|
| Page
299 |
Back |
|
Contents |
Index |
Home
Page |
|
Forward |
|
| |
| The Experimental Impulse |
| |
camp that would give them considerable personal
prestige,” and were “very pleased when prisoner doctors would produce
something scientifically interesting” which could then be published under
their (the SS doctors’) name. This was especially true of Hans Wilhelm
König, who responded enthusiastically to the plan, arranging not only for
male “schizoid” inmates to be brought to the hospital block for
electroshock therapy but taking the unusual step of having female inmates
brought there as well from Birkenau seven or eight kilometers away (see pages
227-28).
König, in fact, took a great interest in the work and
regularly attended the shock therapy sessions. Dr. E., who, attended some of
them as well, felt that the process was genuinely therapeutic, and that it
saved lives: “Those [inmates] with nervous disorders were never selected
[for the gas chamber] by König because he was interested in the effect of
the electrotherapy on them.” Moreover, patients diagnosed as schizoid were
placed “under the protection of Fischer and … König … [and]
consequently … were treated … in a more favorable manner” —
either permitted to remain in the hospital or, if sent back to the camp, not
assigned to hard labor.
But no research or therapy escaped the
Auschwitz taint. A prisoner who worked on a Birkenau hospital block later
testified that “Dr. König did electroshock experiments on
women,” and added, “These women later talked about their treatment. I
believe Dr. König carried out the electroshock experiments on sick women
twice a week and that the women were later gassed.”
In other
words, the electroshock treatments could be seen as a prelude to the gas
chamber, and on the basis of such testimony and other investigations the
International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva (in association with the
International Tracing Service at Arolsen in West Germany) placed these
“electroshock experiments” on the list of “pseudo-medical
experiments” for which victims could be compensated.63
Frédéric E. was deeply
troubled by this designation, which he considered to be a kind of mythology
that developed because the “violent shock” involved caused
“rumors that something terrible was happening.” He initiated a
correspondence with the International Red Cross authorities, insisting that the
project had been genuinely therapeutic and asking that the designation
”pseudo-medical experiments” be changed. The authorities wrote back
that the electroshock had sometimes been given to people without mental illness
and that it was “done in the utmost secrecy.” Dr. E. ceased his
protest only when told that the category “pseudo-medical experiment”
meant that inmates could receive compensation as part of the indemnity to the
Polish Government paid by the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr. E., in his last
letter, made clear that he did not want to deny anyone such compensation, but
nonetheless insisted that the designation was “an error” that should
not be used in |
|
| |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical Killing and the
Psychology of
Genocide
Robert J. Lifton
ISBN 0-465-09094
©
1986 |
|
Back |
Page 299 |
Forward |
|
|
