Nazi era doctor given top medical award

[spartan]

A German doctor who allegedly sent 900 children to a Nazi death camp has been given a top medical award.

Dr Hans-Joachim Sewering, 92, a former SS member, was honoured for “services to the nation’s health system”.

The doctor has always denied sending children to Eglfing-Haar, a facility south of Munich where it’s alleged physically and mentally handicapped children were killed.

Despite the allegations, Dr Sewering enjoyed a brilliant career and is a former head of Germany’s doctors’ association. The Nazis are known to have coerced doctors into reporting disabled patients during “Action T-4”.

Many alleged Nazi war criminals have either died or disappeared with out a trace, but Dr Sewering still lives openly in Dachau, north of Munich, near the site of the concentration camp of the same name.

While established Nazi hunters at the Simon Wiesenthal centre have launched 'Operation Last Chance' in an attempt to track down any remaining fugitives before they die, Dr Sewering has been the target of a long, lone campaign led from the US by a fellow doctor.

Dr Michael Franzblau has spent tens of thousands of pounds of his own money to bankroll an effort to see Sewering prosecuted.

“I would like the German medical profession to recognize that they have a stain on their honour by his continued presence,” he has said in speeches in the US.

Dr Franzblau, who claims he is motivated by a moral imperative as “a physician, an American and a Jew” even took out a full page advertisement in the New York Times costing more than £30,000 asking: “Why is the German state of Bavaria harbouring an accused war criminal?"

If this doctor did do what people claim he did then i am shocked by this.

[Mujer Libre]

This is not particularly surprising wen you consider the readiness with which the medical profession embraced the Nazi program, as well as the fact that in the post-war period, many leading Nazi doctors simply resumed their positions at the top of the medical profession.

Unfortunately many doctors fail to recognise that our work is inherently political because of the power and influence of the medical profession, and the privileged knowledge we have access to.

Systemic collaboration with oppressive states has been a feature of the medical profession since the early twentieth century- and it's so widespread, and poorly acknowledged by the rest of the profession. I actually wrote a paper on this. I'd copy and paste it, but I might want to publish it later.

So instead, have a look at this- Doctor Hans Reiter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiter) was a prominent Nazi rheumatolgist, and his name was only recently expunged from medical terminology.

[redSHARP]

did he repent for his actions during the war? cause that could be a deal breaker. i always had the idea that if you repent and mean it and then tried to undo the damage done, then maybe we wont shoot you in the back of the head (or something along those lines)

[Dros]

I don't see what the big deal is. He was a doctor. It also sounds like he was a damn good doctor and when Hitler rose to power he kept on working. Should he have quit and risked getting shot? Some may say yes to that question. I think that's ridiculous. Werner Heisenberg, one of the greatest physicists of the past century, was responsible for heading up the Nazi nuclear project. Should we take away his Nobel Prize? Should we rename the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle the "Freedom Uncertainty Principle"?

The reality is, Germany had some of the best scientists in the world at that time. It would be silly to repudiate them simply because they had the misfortune to live in a country that was taken by Fascism.

[Wanted Man]

It also sounds like he was a damn good doctor and when Hitler rose to power he kept on working.
Yeah, he sounds like a swell guy. :rolleyes:

Of course, it's nothing new. People who closed their eyes to war crimes, profiteers, collaborators, nazis, or even known war criminals; all of them are being rehabilitated in Europe today. In the Netherlands, we have the misfortune of having to honour people like Johan Heesters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Heesters), who built an operette singing career as Hitler's favourite singer. Anti-fascists protesting this tendency are dismissed as people who want to 'play at being resistance warriors', which of course also diminishes the role of the few people who did join the resistance (the Dutch people collaborated with the nazis on a massive scale, including the railway workers who did nothing to prevent Jews being deported).

Of course, Germany also doesn't need to be reminded of the past. Heesters continued to be loved in Germany after the Netherlands puked him out. Germany is also still harbouring an 80-something Dutch war criminal, who tortured and murdered hundreds of prisoners with his bare hands during the war.

Meanwhile, anti-fascist memorial events in the Netherlands are quietly being turned into commemorations of all Dutch soldiers who died (including in Indonesia, Korea and Afghanistan), while liberation day is transforming into a general 'freedom day' to celebrate liberal democracy.

[Dros]

Yeah, he sounds like a swell guy.

Yeah. I realized I skipped the first sentence of the OP. Kind of important. Perhaps not such a great doctor after all. But it's important to consider the fact that a lot of doctors were forced to send children to the camps. So we should no more about his circumstances.

But my last post was largely mistaken due to lack of all available information.

[Mujer Libre]

Yeah. I realized I skipped the first sentence of the OP. Kind of important. Perhaps not such a great doctor after all. But it's important to consider the fact that a lot of doctors were forced to send children to the camps. So we should no more about his circumstances.

But my last post was largely mistaken due to lack of all available information.
Drosera, while many doctors were forced to participate in Nazi atrocities- as a whole, the medical profession, including its professional associations (The Hartmannbund being one of the major ones, I believe) actually enthusiastically embraced the Nazi programs. In fact, early on in the genocide, the Nazi party actually had to tell doctors to hold back because they were going overboard in the killing hospitals.

It's pretty awful. :(

[Harrycombs]

In fact, early on in the genocide, the Nazi party actually had to tell doctors to hold back because they were going overboard in the killing hospitals.



Source please?

[Dros]

Drosera, while many doctors were forced to participate in Nazi atrocities- as a whole, the medical profession, including its professional associations (The Hartmannbund being one of the major ones, I believe) actually enthusiastically embraced the Nazi programs. In fact, early on in the genocide, the Nazi party actually had to tell doctors to hold back because they were going overboard in the killing hospitals.

It's pretty awful. :(

That is correct. Most of the German petty bourgeoisie backed the Nazis. I would never have claimed otherwise. But it would be silly to claim that all German doctors from the 30's and 40's were war criminals. As I said, I did not know that he sent 900 people to camps. But we don't know under what circumstances that occurred.

[R3V0LUTI0N(A)RY]

Of course all doctors didn't support the nazis but sending 900 children to death camps makes it a bit strange to give him a honor for “services to the nation’s health system”. Sure, they could have forced him to do so but still, what exactly was the award for? Any specific medical acheivement that didn't involve genoside?

[Holden Caulfield]

even if he did a lot of good he still did a lot of evil things and so shouldn't be recognized in the way he was whether he was pro-nazi or not,

just because he felt obligated to do it is not an excuse for killing 900 children,

a lot of good things did come from nazi Germany but people who signed aways hundreds of lives for the fear of losing their own should not be awarded

[Dros]

even if he did a lot of good he still did a lot of evil things and so shouldn't be recognized in the way he was whether he was pro-nazi or not,

just because he felt obligated to do it is not an excuse for killing 900 children,

a lot of good things did come from nazi Germany but people who signed aways hundreds of lives for the fear of losing their own should not be awarded

That is not a dialectical or scientific perspective. As I've said before, many people did not have a choice. So, you are essentially punishing them for holding a certain position at a certain time, something completely arbitrary. There is far and away not enough info here to draw a reasoned conclusion.

[The Feral Underclass]

This is not particularly surprising wen you consider the readiness with which the medical profession embraced the Nazi program, as well as the fact that in the post-war period, many leading Nazi doctors simply resumed their positions at the top of the medical profession.

Plus the fact that many European countries practiced euthanasia and sterilisation against mentally and physically disabled people long after the Nazis. Especially in Scandinavia.

Also most of our knowledge of contemporary medicine has come from Nazi experimentation on victims of the holocaust.

[Holden Caulfield]

That is not a dialectical or scientific perspective. As I've said before, many people did not have a choice. So, you are essentially punishing them for holding a certain position at a certain time, something completely arbitrary. There is far and away not enough info here to draw a reasoned conclusion.


an award not being given is not a punishment it is with holding praise he must be accountable for his actions, he may not have had a chance in your view but he is not being punished for that,

if i had to punch a child in the face to spare my own life, then learnt new ideas of physics from this should my work be awarded?

[Philosophical Materialist]

Does anyone have a link to this article? Thanks.