Nazi Medicine, Part 2.
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
In Part One, we discussed the radical shift that occurred in the early 1930s in medical training in Germany. Undoubtedly there were many physicians who rejected the new philosophy, but there was also “great enthusiasm” on the part of physicians. Doctors had one of the highest ratios of Nazi party membership by profession, and there were seven times more physicians in the SS than teachers.
In 1933, 13% of German doctors were Jewish and in large cities they comprised up to 50% of physicians. In August of 1939, all Jewish medical licenses were nullified, removing one of the great obstacles to the new vision of society.
That vision did not begin with killing, but rather with coercive sterilization. In the words of Adolf Hitler, “The state must see to it that only the healthy beget children… The state must act as the guardian of a millennial future… It must declare unfit for propagation, all who are in any way visibly sick or who have inherited a disease and can therefore pass it on.” As an example, alcoholics were considered unfit, and 90% of those under age 50 were sterilized. One determiner of fitness to beget children was “feeble mindedness”, which included not only mental capacity, but “moral and political behaviors”. Thus almost anyone not agreeing or complying with the Nazi vision could be labeled unfit by a physician and sterilized without consent or appeal.
In short order, between 200,000 and 350,000 Germans were forcibly sterilized. And this was just the beginning – next would come euthanasia of the “impaired”. And physicians would once again be the decision-makers with the broadest leeway in their determinations…
