Silence, Scapegoats, Self-reflection (eBook)

The Shadow of Nazi Medical Crimes on Medicine and Bioethics

Volker Roelcke, Sascha Topp, Etienne Lepicard (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2015 | 1. Auflage
379 Seiten
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress (Verlag)
978-3-8470-0365-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Since the end of World War II, Nazi medical atrocities have been a topic of ambivalent reactions and debates, both in Germany and internationally: An early period of silence was followed by attempts of victims and representatives of medical organisations to describe what happened. Varying narratives developed, some of which had a stabilizing function for the identity of the profession, whereas others had a critical and de-stabilizing function. In today's international debates in the field of medical ethics, there are frequent references to Nazi medical atrocities, in particular in the context of discussions about research on human subjects, and on euthanasia. The volume analyses the narratives on Nazi medical atrocities, their historicity in different stages of post-war medicine, as well as in the international discourse on biomedical ethics.

Prof. Dr. Volker Roelcke leitet das Institut für Geschichte der Medizin an der Universität Gießen.

Inhalt

Title Page 3
Copyright 4
Table of Contents 5
Body 9
Jürgen Reulecke: Preface 9
Volker Roelcke, Sascha Topp, Etienne Lepicard: Introduction: Conflicting Values in Medicine and Bioethics 11
Post-War Trials: Setting Stages, Structuring Narratives 27
Paul Weindling: Consent, Care and Commemoration: The Nuremberg Medical Trial and Its Legacies for Victims of Human Experiments 29
The “Nuremberg Code” 29
Towards a code 33
“Enlightened Consent” 36
Legacies 39
Etienne Lepicard: The Nuremberg Medical Trial and Its Reception in France and Israel, 1947–1952: A Comparative Perspective 47
Introduction 47
Some background and chronology 49
Sources and method, or the protagonists of the story 53
The French reception of the NMT (1946–1947), or euthanasia as a human experiment 56
Israeli reception of the NMT (1946/47), collective voice or personal involvements? 71
A. A journal's special issue (1946) on “The struggle for life and health within the ghettos under Nazi occupation” 71
B. The NMT in the mirror of the Israeli press 72
C. The “Jerusalem Declaration (1952)” in context 75
Conclusion 82
Annette Weinke: Judging Medical Crimes in Divided Germany 87
Introduction 87
Medical trials under Allied occupation 90
“Cold war medicine” and failed attempts for justice 94
Memories, Concerns, and Legal Issues of the Victims 101
Helmut Bader: The Voice of the Victims and their Families: The Case of Martin Bader 103
Family background 103
Autobiography 103
Letters from the Schussenried psychiatric asylum 107
Documents on euthanasia 108
Post-war documents 109
Rolf Surmann: Rehabilitation and Indemnification for the Victims of Forced Sterilization and “Euthanasia”. The West German Policies of “Compensation” (“Wiedergutmachung”) 113
Preliminary remarks 113
The basic constellation 115
Correctional approaches and new orientations in society 119
Rehabilitation without equivalent progress in indemnification 123
Professional Organizations 129
Gerrit Hohendorf: The Sewering Affair 131
On the difficulty to appreciate a former president of the German Medical Association and not to deny his Nazi past 131
The Sewering affair 1992/1993 133
Franzblau's account of the Sewering case 138
Sewering's own account of the story 138
The story in the view of Schönbrunn and church authorities 139
Historical sources 141
Conclusion 144
Sascha Topp: Shifting Cultures of Memory: The German Society of Pediatrics in Confrontation with Its Nazi Past 147
The debate about Catel and “child euthanasia” at the DGK: 1960 to 1967 151
1960: Gerhard Joppich's chairmanship – The beginning of the Catel dispute 153
1961/1962: Bamberger's chairmanship – A first statement on Nazi euthanasia 155
1963: Bennholdt-Thomsen's chairmanship and the annual congress in Cologne 162
1964–66: The chairmanships of Gerhard Weber, Hermann Mai and Adalbert Loeschke – “No intervening in a pending lawsuit” 165
1981: The Tegernsee symposium “Ethical problems in pediatrics and related areas” 169
1983: The centenary in Munich and the first steps towards dealing with the past 175
Conclusion 178
Donna Evleth: The French Medical Association (L'Ordre des Médecins) and the Nazi Past 183
The Vichy Ordre 183
The postwar Ordre 189
Rakefet Zalashik: Nazi Medical Atrocities and the Israeli Medical Discourse from the 1940s to the 1990s 195
Introduction 195
The pre-state period 196
The Israeli period 203
The relative absence of broader ethical deliberations 206
A transition in the 1990s 209
Conclusion 210
Past and Present: Debates on Implications for Professionalism and Ethics in Medicine 211
James Kennedy: The Legacy of National Socialism for the Dutch Euthanasia Debate 213
The dearth of public discussion over euthanasia 216
The first extensive public discussions: the 1960s 219
Euthanasia and its perceived relations to social problems 221
Nazi “euthanasia” versus Dutch-style euthanasia 225
Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen: Starvation in French Mental Hospitals under Nazi Occupation: Misinterpretations and Instrumentalization since 1945 231
Volker Roelcke: Between Professional Honor and Self-Reflection: The German Medical Association's Reluctance to Address Medical Malpractice during the National Socialist Era, ca. 1985–2012 243
Historical findings on medicine in National Socialism and a few implications 246
Forms of (non-)attention 250
1. Attacks and reactions: the “Hanauske-Abel case” and its consequences 250
2. Untapped potential: the protocols of the Nuremberg Medical Trial and the patient files from the “Aktion T4” euthanasia program 259
3. The 2008 Giessen conference and the project of a “literature study” on the state of historical knowledge 269
Conclusion 276
Dedicated Voices 279
William E. Seidelman: `Requiescat sine Pace': Recollections and Reflections on the World Medical Association, the Case of Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering and the Murder of Babette Fröwis 281
Professor Dr. med. Hans Joachim Sewering and the murder of Babette Fröwis 281
The World Medical Association 283
Professor Sewering and the WMA 284
Response to Sewering's impending appointment as president of the WMA 285
Professor Sewering's resignation from the WMA and the sequelae 290
Implications 293
The death of Hans Joachim Sewering 294
The 2012 Nuremberg Declaration of the BÄK 295
Whither the WMA? 296
Michael Wunder: Learning with History: Nazi Medical Crimes and Today's Debates on Euthanasia in Germany 301
German discourses on euthanasia before National Socialism 302
Euthanasia during National Socialism 303
Euthanasia in the Netherlands 305
The situation in Germany 309
Conclusions 312
Appendix (Documentation) 313
Jewish Medical Association of Palestine. Motion to the World Medical Association (1947). With an Introduction by Etienne Lepicard 315
Bund der “Euthanasie”-Geschädigten und Zwangssterilisierten / BEZ (Federation of Victims of “Euthanasia” and Forced Sterilization) (2008) 327
Bundesärztekammer / BÄK (German Medical Association) (2008) 331
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde / DGPPN (German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Nervous Disorders) (2008) 333
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin / DGKJ (German Association of Child and Adolescent Medicine) (2008) 337
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialpädiatrie und Jugendmedizin / DGSPJ (German Association for Social Pedicatrics and Youth Medicine) (2008) 341
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin / DGKJ (German Association of Child and Adolescent Medicine) (2010) 345
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde / DGPPN (German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Nervous Disorders) (2010) 349
Deutscher Ärztetag (German Medical Assembly): The Nuremberg Declaration (2012) 361
Contributors 363
Illustrations 367
Index of Persons and Selected Institutions 369

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.1.2015
• Reihe/Serie: Formen der Erinnerung
• Reihe/Serie: Formen der Erinnerung
• Reihe/Serie: Formen der Erinnerung.
• Reihe/Serie: Formen der Erinnerung.
• Co-Autor: Isabelle von Bueltzingsloewen, Donna Evleth, Margret Hamm, Gerrit Hohendorf, James Kennedy, Michael Seidel, William Seidelman, Hans-Michael Straßburg, Rolf Surmann, Paul Weindling, Annette Weinke, Michael Wunder, Fred Zepp, Helmut Bader, Rakefet Zalashik
• Zusatzinfo: with 8 figures
• Verlagsort: Göttingen
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Schlagworte: Cultures of Memory • Erinnerungskulturen • euthanasia • Euthanasie • history of medicine • human experimentation • Human Rights • Medical Ethics • Medicine • Medizin • Medizinethik • Medizingeschichte • Menschenrechte • Menschenversuche • National Socialism • Nationalsozialismus • Nürnberger Ärzteprozess • Pädiatrie • peadiatrics • Psychiatrie • Psychiatry
• ISBN-10: 3-8470-0365-8 / 3847003658
• ISBN-13: 978-3-8470-0365-6 / 9783847003656