Essay review: Race hygiene and Nazi medicine.

Abstract

Within the G e r m a n medical communi ty , the message has gone out: "Die Vergangenhei t wird bewfiltigt [We are coming to terms with the past]! ''~ The "past" here referred to is the dark years of Nat ional Socialism. Wha t the medical communi ty must "come to terms with" is, o f course, its p rominen t ideological and practical role in the implementa t ion of Nat ional Socialistic political goals (including genocidal goals). The present spate of medical soul-searching owes not a little to the publicat ion in late 1986 of a highly emotive article in medical journal T h e L a n c e t : "F rom Nazi Holocaus t to Nuclear Holocaust : A Lesson to Learn? ''2 In this article the author, Dr. Har tmut M. Hanauske-Abel , spared no punches: he declared that the Ge rman C h a m b e r of Physicians [Bundes~irztekammer] had "welcomed" the inaugurat ion of the Hitler regime (45 percent of all G e r m a n physicians would ultimately become par ty members) ; he recalled the mostly passive nonresis tance among physicians to the stigmatization and forced emigrat ion of "non-Aryan" colleagues in their