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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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326 |
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| AUSCHWITZ: THE RACIAL CURE |
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power reversal and became newly considerate toward
inmates, Dr. B. went considerably further. With Allied armies approaching, he
discussed with prisoner doctors possible arrangements for their escape from
Nazi control, including the idea of providing them with SS uniforms. He then
shook hands with them and “said goodbye in a very friendly way,” and
as a last act took a pistol out of his drawer and gave it to one of them for
their protection. While he admitted to an element of a self-serving motivation,
he also later explained, “There existed the ... likelihood that another
massacre … could happen…. I had a few pistols — why should they
lie around?”
During the last days of Dachau, Dr. B was advised by
prisoner friends to go into hiding for a short period because the atmosphere
immediately after the Nazi defeat would be such that “anyone in an SS
uniform [would] be beaten to death”; afterward he could emerge and clear
himself with the inmates’ help. He did that briefly, was taken into
custody under a false name by the Americans at Dachau, and for a time protected
by former inmates who when brought in to identify SS personnel, intentionally
“didn't see me.”
After about a year in custody his identity
was discovered and he was put on trial. He told me that, at that time, “I
personally did not feel guilty.” B. spoke of his sense of
“togetherness” toward SS officers in prison with him and of his
macabre feeling when some were given the death penalty. He began to be worried
when it became clear that the Russians were in charge and might want to create
a show trial.
Former prisoner doctors rallied behind Dr. B. with
impressive testimony on his behalf. Women doctors from Block 10 notably
validated his claim that the experiments he did there harmed no one and saved
many lives. The professor who had been so close to him and Delmotte organized
testimony from many who had worked in the Hygienic Institute and testified
himself that Dr. B. “stood up for the rights of all prisoners … with
admirable bravery [and] with truly cordial helpfulness … far beyond the
usual laws of humanity.” The professor. told how B. had saved his life
after a severe stomach hemorrhage and how “among the inmates of the
Hygienic Institute a veritable ‘Dr. B.’ cult came into existence,
which accorded him not only reverence and respect but also sincere gratitude
and love.”
This professor expressed similar sentiments in a
personal letter to Dr B., which included a warm and detailed account of the
former’s experiences during the two years since the end of the war, and
stated, “You know very well what I owe to you. I am convinced that without
you I would not have stayed alive.” In addition, he wrote of his chagrin
at finding the Hygienic Institute destroyed when he went back with an
investigative commission to inspect the area, along with his pleasure at
discovering that scientific records were still intact. In a later letter he
asked Dr. B. about additional scientific data from the Hygienic Institute and
suggested their publishing a joint article with the possible institu-
[…tional] |
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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 326 |
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