The Medical Madness of Nazi Germany
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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION • SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016 • VOLUME 3 Holocaust Remembered THE MEDICAL MADNESS OF NAZI GERMANY Experimentation, Ethics and Genetics 2 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION APRIL 24, 2016APRIL 24, 2016 Contributors Lilly Filler, M.D. Co-chair, Columbia Holocaust Madness then, madness now Education Commission Secretary, S.C. Council on the By Lilly Filler and wonderful medical care that you Holocaust offer the Midlands. t has become hard to remem- Lyssa Harvey, Ed.S The Columbia Holocaust Educa- ber a time when we did not Co-chair, Columbia Holocaust tion Commission is a volunteer or- Education Commission have to worry about terror- ganization created with remaining Teacher, therapist, artist ism, when the world seemed funds from the Holocaust Memorial, so large, when the USA was Charles Beaman dedicated on June 6, 2001, in down- CEO, Palmetto Health a very safe place, and when town Memorial Park on Gadsden the distances around the world were Allan Brett, M.D. Street. Professor of Clinical Medicine, Ilong. The Memorial lists the South USC School of Medicine Today, with a 24-hour news cycle Carolina Holocaust survivors and and live streaming of wars, terrorist F.K. Clementi, Ph.D. liberators. It educates the unin- Associate Professor of Jewish attacks, protests and demonstra- formed through an abbreviated Studies, USC tions, everything seems so close and timeline and a gripping pictorial Janice G. Edwards, M.S., CGC so personal. etching depicting scenes from the Clinical Professor and Director of Is this better Genetic Counseling Program, Holocaust. The commission has USC School of Medicine than before? continued the mission from the Are we more Harold Friedman, M.D. memorial by informing the public Professor of Clinical Surgery, informed and about the Holocaust through our USC School of Medicine involved than website (www.columbiaholocaust Rebecca Gray were previous education.org), educational grants, Director of Media Relations generations, the “Holocaust Remembered” exhib- and Internal Communications, or has this THE STATE FILE PHOTO Palmetto Health it, and this supplement. There is also numbed us to exploring the medical madness As an example of what is good in a Speaker’s Bureau that will provide Jane Kulbersh Filler to the “new of Nazi Germany: experimentation, medicine today, one needs only to a knowledgeable speaker to come to Donna McGreevy, RN, BSN normal of to- genetics and ethics. As a physician, look at Palmetto Health. The mantra an event dealing with the Holocaust. Donald McKale, Ph.D. day?” I don’t have the answers, but I I have always been interested in how of “extraordinary” care of the PH staff This can be scheduled through the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor do know that despite all the photos the Nazi doctor could perform hor- and employees is in sharp contrast Columbia Jewish Community Cen- and Professor Emeritus and news coverage, genocide is still rific experiments on human subjects, to the despicable care of the Jewish of History, Clemson University ter; email Cheryl Nail at cheryln@ occurring, political and religious ref- with no regard for the patient. The prisoners and other inmates of the jewishcolumbia.org, or call 803-787- Henry Miller, O.D. ugees are still a part of the dialogue, Hippocratic Oath was to ensure that concentration camps throughout 2023, ext 211. Hope Patterson and hatred and fear are still a real the physician was held to the highest Europe. PH has also stepped forward It may be more than 70 years since Robin Rosenthal, Ph.D. part of our lives. Is this so different standards and had the patient as his to become our first corporate spon- the end of World War II and the Ho- Academic Dean and Associate from the 1930s and 1940s? or her main concern – “first, do no sor of the Holocaust Remembered locaust, but we must continue to ed- Professor of Psychology, This is the third edition of Holo- harm.” But along with the German supplement. Since I worked at Pal- Columbia College ucate against hatred and fear. These caust Remembered, an educational democratic constitution, medical metto Health throughout my medical emotions are easily stirred in an un- Marlene Roth, M.A. supplement created by the Columbia oversight was abandoned as Hitler career, I am so pleased and thankful informed public, as we witnessed in Holocaust Studies and Genocide Holocaust Education Commission did whatever he wished. that Mr. Charles Beaman, CEO of PH German society in the 1930s. We do Erica Smith and distributed by The State news- Could that happen today? We do agreed to be a part of this edition. not want to repeat these mistakes. Abraham Wandersman, Ph.D. paper to households all over the Mid- have safeguards against human ex- Thank you, Mr. Beaman and Palmet- We must never forget the lessons of Professor of Psychology, USC lands. This supplement is dedicated perimentation. to Health, for your interest, support the Holocaust. Columbia Holocaust On the cover Education Commission INDEX www.columbiaholocausteducation.org Madness then, madness now ................................... 2 ‘If you want to run away ...’....................................... 15 A drawing from “Pernkopf Committed to remembering .................................... 3 Escaping the Nazis .....................................................16 Anatomy,” an atlas of human Lilly Filler CO-CHAIR History repeats itself ...................................................4 Father, patriot, liberator ........................................... 17 Lyssa Harvey CO-CHAIR anatomy created by Nazi doctor Barry Abels Confronting the Holocaust .......................................6 Don’t ‘remember just the bad’ ...............................18 Eduard Pernkopf. The University Esther Greenberg Nazi doctors escape justice ...................................... 7 The relevance of Holocaust education............... 19 of Vienna, where Pernkopf Hannah McGee Guiding principles of medical ethics today .........8 Lesson plan .................................................................20 worked, has said it is likely some Minda Miller The murder of medical ethics ..................................9 Glossary and Teachers Advisory Committee.... 21 information for the illustrations Cheryl Nail Medical genetics in Nazi Germany........................ 10 Holocaust education resources.............................22 came from victims of Nazi terror. Marlene Roth Medical experimentation under Nazi rule ......... 12 An invitation to Yom Ha’Shoah.............................. 23 Lauren Sklaroff-Lamey Surviving the Warsaw ghetto uprising................. 14 Palmetto Health: sponsor........................................ 24 FILE PHOTO Selden Smith MEMBER EMERITUS WAVERLY VIA MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS APRIL 24, 2016 HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT FROM THE COLUMBIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION COMMISSION 3 Committed to remembering Without memory, there is “ “no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future. ELIE WIESEL Jewish author and Holocaust survivor By Charles D. Beaman Jr. mong the atrocities committed during World War II, German physicians conducted medical experiments on prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. Their goals: improving the survival and rescue of German troops, testing medicalA procedures and pharmaceuticals, and confirming the Nazi racial ideology. These cruel and often lethal experiments were done to people without their consent and were tantamount to torture. The victims, while primarily Jewish, also included children, Poles, Roma (also Beaman known as Gypsies), and PETROS GIANNAKOURIS AP others who did not fit the Nazi racial ideal. A young boy looks at portraits of victims at the Holocaust museum in the town of Kalavryta, western Greece. It seems unimaginable today, although it was just a few generations ago, that Western individuals and communities we serve; new pharmaceutical and medical device and Teamwork. Guided by The Nuremburg society allowed such inhumanity to go to providing care with excellence and development ultimately result in providing Code, established in 1947, and The Belmont unchecked for so long. I gained a greater compassion; and to working with others our patients more treatment options. Report, signed into law in 1978, we protect the insight into the plight of the victims of the who share our fundamental commitment We collaborate with a number of state humanity of all people included in our research. Nazis during my recent visit to the United to improving the human condition. It’s our and national research institutions, as well as I believe we must continue to pursue ethical States Holocaust Memorial Museum in mission. For more than 100 years, we have with our local partner, the University of South medical research as a statement of faith. As a Washington, D.C. I felt as if I entered a gallery been living this mission, beginning with Carolina School of Medicine. Christian, I believe people of all faiths should of time, struck by the photos of victims’ Columbia Hospital (to become Palmetto The medical profession has learned a lot work together in protecting humanity in smiling faces before their imprisonment Health Richland), which was founded to about preserving humanity in clinical research clinical research. In the New Testament, the and by the condition of human bodies after provide medical attention to the poor, and from this dark period in human history, and apostle