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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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104 |
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| “LIFE UNWORTHY OF LIFE”: THE
GENETIC CURE |
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| of the Führer,” having “absolutely no idea
what it meant, what it was all about.” Upon reporting there, this very
young and inexperienced doctor had an impressive encounter: |
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Two professors of psychiatry met me. One was
Heyde and the other was Nitsche. Both were wearing civilian clothes . . . and
they talked about euthanasia. They talked about this problem, from the
viewpoint of the work of Hoche and Binding [see pages 46-48] .... It was a very
intensive conference and presentation of the necessity . . . of all this, and
they convinced me. |
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Dr. D. was so impressed by Heyde and Nitsche’s tone of
quiet “persuasion,” and by the “completely ...
extraordinary” situation of sitting down together with men of that
professional standing, that he could turn over to them the responsibility for
what he himself was being asked to do: “Whenever someone [of that
standing] takes up that sort of thing, that means he’s taking on a good
deal of responsibility. I thought he [Heyde] would be well aware of what he was
doing and of the responsibility involved.”
The briefing included a
discussion of the concepts of Hoche and Binding (brought up by the two
professors) which, though not specifically familiar to Dr. D., were not
inconsistent with the stress on organic and hereditary influences he had been
exposed to during his psychiatric work as a medical student. Generally
speaking, the encounter evoked his long-standing impulse toward obedience
— an impulse inculcated during his rural childhood, especially by his
civil-servant father. And when Dr. D inquired of Heyde and Nitsche whether he
could discuss the matter with an older respected friend, he was told quite
sharply that “the entire matter was top secret.”
He gained
the impression that the project offered him better medical opportunities than
the military situation he was then in: |
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I found myself in a horrible dilemma. On the one
hand there was the military idleness - with the likelihood that all of a sudden
I would find myself in a medical situation I could not handle at all. That was
horrible. . . . On the other hand, I did not think it would be just a killing
institution. I thought I would have an opportunity to go on with my medical
training - with patients - and that only certain patients would be selected,
and then not just killed but given a mercy death. . . . Anyway, what was
decisive then was the wish to work medically and not just as a soldier.
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| Or at least he could, partly and temporarily, convince
himself of that — until he arrived at the actual killing center: "It was a
great disappointment to see that there were no patients .... I imagined an
institution with mental patients, and then some single, rooms — well, what
shall I say — |
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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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