HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Sanitätswesen ("medical corps") was one of the five divisions of a Nazi concentration or
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
organization during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. The other divisions were the command center, the administration department, the Politische Abteilung and the protective detention camp.


Background

The medical corps was an obligatory component of the command center staff of a concentration camp. This division was subordinate to the chief physician of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI), called after 1937, the ''Leitender Artzt'' ("head doctor"). The chief physician of the CCI was responsible for assigning and posting "medical personnel" to the
concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
s, for technical instructions to the camp doctors and for evaluation of their monthly reports. Later, the CCI became "Amt D" of the
SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (; SS-WVHA) was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects of the (a main branch of the ; SS). It also ran the Nazi concentration camps, concentr ...
and Enno Lolling became head on March 3, 1942, of "Amt D III for Medical Corps Units and Camp Hygiene" with headquarters in
Oranienburg Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Geography Oranienburg is on the banks of the River Havel, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin. Division of the town Oranienburg consists of ni ...
. As such, he was the head doctor supervising all concentration camp doctors, who was, in turn, subordinate to the Reichsarzt SS, Ernst-Robert Grawitz.


Chief physician

The ''Standortarzt'' ("Garrison Doctor"), the chief camp physician, also called "first camp doctor", ran the medical corps at the concentration camp. In this capacity, the leading doctor was the supervisor of the entire medical staff of the camp. He was also responsible for carrying out the instructions of the chief physician of the CCI and the preparation of monthly reports to them.


Troops doctor

The "troops doctor" was responsible for the medical care of the SS-guards and their family members.


Camp doctors

The rest of the camp doctors divided up the remaining areas of the camp (men's camp, women's camp, etc.), according to the duty roster. The medical care of prisoners was secondary to their main tasks. Of primary importance were the hygienic aspects of disease prevention and maintenance of prisoners' capacity to work. To this end, they availed themselves of prisoners who were doctors and nurses to serve as auxiliary staff in the infirmary. According to
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
commandant
Rudolf Höss Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; ; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, he w ...
, their non-medical tasks were:"Die Tätigkeit von SS-Ärzten in Konzentrationslagern und das "Großlaboratorium" Auschwitz"
University of Marburg, official website. Retrieved May 27, 2010
# They were to be present at the arrival of Jewish transports to conduct selections of those men and women able to work. # They were to be at the
gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Donatie ...
s to observe the killing procedures and verify that everyone was dead. # ''Zahnärzte'' ("Dentists") had to conduct continual spot tests to verify that the prisoner dentists from the
Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ) were Extermination through labor, work units made up of Nazi Germany, German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the di ...
removed all gold from the mouths of the dead before they were incinerated in the
crematorium A crematorium, crematory or cremation center is a venue for the cremation of the Death, dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a ...
and had placed the gold in the secure containers on hand for that purpose. They also had to supervise the gold being melted afterward. # They were to "retire" and send to be exterminated those Jews who had become incapacitated and for whom the prognosis did not anticipate a return to work within four weeks. Those who couldn't get out of bed were to be killed with an injection. # They had to conduct ''verschleierten Exekutionen'' ("covert executions") of healthy prisoners arrested by the Politische Abteilung who had been sentenced to death for political reasons. These were "liquidated" by injection. The camp
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
wanted the executions to be kept secret, hence the doctors certified the cause of death as being from "natural causes". # Attendance at "judicial" camp executions was required to certify death. # They had to be attend the
corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...
of prisoners in order to examine the prisoner serve as an impediment. # They had to conduct forced abortions on non-German women, up to the fifth month. Moreover, the doctors had the opportunity, and in some cases, were assigned, to conduct "
medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...
".Baruch C. Cohen
"The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments"
Jewish law website. Retrieved May 27, 2010

With photos. Retrieved May 27, 2010
These experiments were conducted on living prisoners or sometimes on prisoners who were executed for the purposes of the particular research project. Along with this were manifold relationships throughout the
German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...
with National Socialist professors at medical faculties and institutions, such as the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science () was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organi ...
(now the Max Planck Institute), also the pharmaceutical industry and medical organizations. When the local registrar's office required a death certificate for one of these dead prisoners, it was falsified with regard to doctor's name and cause of death.


SS medics

The camp doctors were allocated SS
medic A medic is a person trained to provide medical care, encompassing a wide range of individuals involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of health conditions. The term can refer to fully qualified medical practitioners, such as physic ...
s as ancillary staff, who served as nurses in the infirmary. These medics often had little or no nursing training and as a result, possessed only limited medical knowledge.


Prisoner doctors and nurses

The direct care and treatment of sick prisoners was mainly by prisoners who had been doctors and nurses before their arrest. At times, their medical work was performed "illegally", in disobedience of a direct order from the SS.


Other medical staff

On occasion, there was also an SS pharmacist.


After 1945

Though a number of the most important Nazi doctors were tried in Nuremberg and some were executed, many Nazi doctors slipped into comfortable and respected positions after the war. For example, in
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
, Hermann Voss became a prominent anatomist and in
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, Eugen Wannenmacher became a professor at the
University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...
and Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, who had been
Josef Mengele Josef Mengele (; 16 March 19117 February 1979) was a Nazi German (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (). He performed Nazi hum ...
's mentor and sponsor, was allowed to continue his medical practice.
Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was conce ...

"Von deutschem Ruhm"
''Die Zeit'', (September 25, 2003) Retrieved May 27, 2010
Their Nazi past was generally ignored, though some were forced to work under false names. The experiments they conducted have been cited in medical journals and sometimes republished with no reference or disclaimer as to how the research data were obtained.


See also

* Henryk Mandelbaum * Josef Klehr * Adolf Theuer * Hans Koch


Sources

* Karin Orth, ''Die Konzentrationslager-SS''. dtv, Munich (2004) * Wolfgang Kirsten, ''Das Konzentrationslager als Institution totalen Terrors''. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler (1992) * Hermann Langbein, ''Menschen in Auschwitz.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag (1980) *
Eugen Kogon Eugen Kogon (2 February 1903 – 24 December 1987) was a German historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor. A well-known Christian opponent of the Nazi Party, Kogon was arrested more than once and spent six years at Buchenwald concentration ...
, ''Der SS-Staat. Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager'', Alber, Munich (1946); later, Heyne, Munich (1995)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanitatswesen (Nazi camp) Nazi concentration camp occupations The Holocaust Prison healthcare