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| Dr Robert Jay Lifton |
THE NAZI DOCTORS:
Medical
Killing and
the
Psychology
of Genocide © |
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266 |
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| AUSCHWITZ THE RACIAL CURE |
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To begin with, a prisoner immediately had to
polish his motorcycle, on which he always came. Subsequently, he went directly
into the doctor’s room, had his boots taken off by a prisoner, and his
feet washed. At the same time, another prisoner had to brush and polish his
fingernails. He then sat in the middle of the room, smoked a pipe, had his feet
in a tub, and sometimes had eight prisoners who were to read his every desire
in his eyes, dance about him. He acted altogether like a Pasha. So, for
instance, a prisoner tailor had to appear to take his measurements. He dictated
some notes to another prisoner. Simultaneously, the Camp Senior of the Medical
Block had to appear and give a report ... on the events in the medical block.
The prisoner pharmacist had to bring him medicines, which he [Klehr] took with
him .... He did all this, however, only when the camp doctor was not
present.34 |
As surprising as any other aspect of his behavior was a
“medical” reversal he underwent upon being transferred, in the fall
of 1944, to the outer camp Gleiwitz where he worked on a medical block and no
longer did injections. A Czech inmate observed that “Klehr changed
considerably. He was responsible for no more brutalities there and was
generally decent.” The same inmate overheard a conversation between Klehr
and his wife in which in response to her question about whether he was involved
in any of the terrible things that went on in Auschwitz, he replied “I am
an SDG. I heal here and do not kill ”35
After his wife’s visit, he was reported to have become even more insistent
upon improving camp conditions for prisoners. This Czech inmate was also
impressed with Klehr’s wife and children (permitted to live nearby for a
period of time) and seemed unable to understand how Klehr could have such a
family.36 He is believed to have killed by
injection thousands of inmates.
Like the actual doctors, he was able to
switch quite readily, at least for a time from killer to healer, with the help
of the influence of his family especially his wife (who could visit more often
in Gleiwetz). The deteriorating situation at the front might also have been
responsible — that is, fear of facing enemy justice. But in his
representation of himself at his trial, Klehr suggested the very opposite of
repentance and little of the healer seemed to be present in him in the
courtroom He was convicted at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial and sentenced to
life imprisonment and an additional fifteen years of hard labor.37 (I shall discuss in chapter 20 this kind of
contradictory behavior in connection with the Auschwitz self of the Nazi
doctors.)
Klehr was estimated to have participated in the murder of
between 10,000 and 30,000 persons (through selection or actual injections).
Only 475 cases could be directly proven, plus complicity in about 2,000 more
deaths. His sentence of 475 counts, for murders committed “on his own
initiative (Eifer) with particular deceit (Heimtücke),”
was the highest imposed at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial. When the sentences
were |
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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 266 |
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