The following is a list of notable medical doctors in Nazi Germany. This list is primarily split up into those who performed Euthanasia through the Aktion T4 campaign, to those who primarily performed experiments on Holocaust victims. While a majority consists of members of the Nazi Party, others who could not become members contributed in notable ways. After the war, the German Medical Association blamed Nazi atrocities on a small group of 350 criminal doctors.[1][2][3] During the Doctors' trial, the defense argued that there was no international law to distinguish between legal and illegal human experimentation,[4] which led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code (1947). Some doctors attempted to change names to escape capture and trial, such as Werner Heyde[5] and Robert Ley,[6] Other doctors, such as Walter Schreiber, were covertly moved to the United States during "Operation Paperclip" in 1951.
Note: Some of those listed here were acquitted of the more serious charges, but were still found guilty for other crimes.
When the Nazi government came to power, they purged Germany of its 6,000 to 7,000 Jewish doctors.[7] Non-Jewish physicians were early recruits to the Nazi Party, due both to social and economic circumstances and to widespread eugenic and Social Darwinist ideas in early-20th-century medicine.[8] By 1942, more than half of all German physicians had become Nazi Party members.[9][10][11] In comparison, only about 10% of the general population became Nazi Party members by 1945.[12] In addition, over 7% of German doctors became members of the Nazi SS, compared to less than 1% of the general population.[13] While most of these doctors were physicians, some held doctorates (PhDs) in biology, anthropology, or related fields. Doctors who were working for the state, and not for their patients, using a Mendelian type of logic chart, saw extermination of their patients as the correct solution to the problem of mental illness and the genetically defective.[14][15][16][17] "The participation in the ‘betrayal of Hippocrates’ had a broad basis within the German medical profession. Without the doctors' active help, the Holocaust could not have happened," wrote E Ernst in the International Journal of Epidemiology.[18] Killing and experimentation[19] became medical procedures as they were performed by licensed doctors. A doctor was present at all the mass killings for legal reasons.[20]
Fischer developed the physiological specifications such as skull dimensions which were apparently used to determine racial origins and he also developed the so-called Fischer–Saller scale for hair colour. He and the members of his team experimented on Gypsies and African-Germans, drawing their blood and measuring their skulls (see Craniometry) to attempt to scientifically validate his theories.
He achieved a doctorate of law and began working for the police in 1903. Later became a politician of the Nazi Party, joining September 1, 1925. He was a contributing creator and writer of the Nuremberg Laws . He was tried and executed after the war.[37]
Hippius is best known for his work in "racial psychology" carried out under the auspices of the Nazi regime, and specifically his study of the "suitability" of people of mixed German and Slavonic descent.
Ritter was appointed head of the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police. He was the "architect of the experiments, the Roma and Sinti were subjected to." His pseudo-scientific "research" in classifying these populations of Germany aided the Nazi government in their systematic persecution toward a goal of "racial purity".
While Rüdin has been credited as a pioneer of psychiatric inheritance studies, he also argued for, designed, justified and funded the mass sterilization and clinical killing of adults and children.[38]
Hellinger was a member of the Nazi party, who primarily dealt with removing dental gold from those killed at Ravensbrück. During his trial he claimed that he believed the deceased were legally executed. On February 3, 1947 he was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was later reduced to time served on May 20, 1954. He re-established his dental practice afterwards until his death.
Jobst was a physician accused of giving injections to terminally ill prisoners in his capacity as camp doctor in Ebensee from 1944 to 1945. He was sentenced to death by hanging on May 13, 1946 and was executed in the following year.
Bruno Kitt was a camp doctor at Auschwitz and Neuengamme after being drafted into the Waffen-SS in March 1942. He was found guilty of participating in the murder and mistreatment of prisoners at the Neuengamme concentration camp, and was sentenced to death by hanging on May 3, 1946.
From December 15, 1943, to January 1945, Klein worked at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Neuengamme, and finally Bergen-Belsen as a camp doctor. During his trial, Anita Lasker testified that Klein took part in selections for the gas chamber.[43] Klein was found guilty and was executed by hanging on December 13, 1945.
Schübbe was temporarily in charge of a medical institute in German occupied Kiev (Ukraine) where people (Jews, "Gypsies", schizophrenics, etc.) were killed. He was never a party member himself, and charges against him were later dropped.
Türk was involved with Child euthanasia. During her interrogation at the Vienna People's Court on October 16, 1945, the doctor stated that she was neither interested in politics nor belonged to a political organization.
