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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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340 |
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| AUSHWITZ: THE RACIAL CURE |
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work on genetic abnormalities and indirectly on twins (he
did not use twin studies but referred to their importance). He was sufficiently
deferential to his teachers to confirm prior work by Lenz and Verschuer on the
existence in this area of an “irregularly dominant hereditary
process,” and associated the deformity studied with a wide variety of
additional deformities and anomalies in the same families. His method was
essentially genealogical.7
His third
publication was entitled “Hereditary Transmission of Fistulae Auris”
(an abnormal opening in the cartilage of the ear), identified as a publication
from the Frankfurt Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene directed
by Verschuer, and published in a journal Der Erbarzt [“The Genetic
Physician”] edited by him. This is a brief case report on hereditary
transmission of this kind of fistula, again by means of the Lenz-Verschuer,
principle of “irregular, dominant hereditary process.” Mengele
also makes a point of the simultaneous occurrence of these fistulae. with
dimples of the chin (he himself was said to have had such a dimple).8
All three studies are consistent with
hereditary emphases supported by the Nazis but by no means intellectually
initiated by them. The studies are full of charts, diagrams, and photographs
that claim more than they prove, but could probably nonetheless be considered
relatively respectable scientific works of that time even outside of Nazi
Germany. What they all suggest is Mengele’s commitment to bringing science
into the service of the Nazi vision.
Mengele was apparently headed for
an academic career, and was looked upon favorably by Verschuer, who in a letter
of recommendation praised his reliability, combined background in anthropology
and medicine, and capacity for clear verbal presentation of difficult
intellectual problems.9 Mengele’s choice
of a professor’s daughter as wife was also in keeping with his academic
aspirations.
His military experience loomed large in his life: six
months in 1938-39 with a specially trained mountain light-infantry regiment in
the Tyrol, then considered a rather elegant form of service, including skiing
and mountain climbing; and from 1940, service in the reserve medical corps, and
then three years with a Waffen SS unit mostly in the East including action in
Russia with the Viking division, a wound that led to his being declared
medically unfit for combat, and four decorations, including the Iron Cross
First Class and Second Class. He was said to have “acquitted himself
brilliantly in the face of the enemy during the Eastern Campaign,” and was
promoted to the rank of captain (Hauptsturmführer). The only doctor
in Auschwitz to possess that array of medals, he was enormously proud of them
and known to refer frequently to his combat experience as a source of authority
on various matters. In a semi-comical incident, one of the Iron Crosses fell
from his uniform while he was riding through the camp on his bicycle, and was
recovered only after a frantic search by a group of prisoners. |
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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 340 |
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