Product Description

Only one generation ago, the world watched as highly trained physicians abandoned medical ethics in response to the Nazi regime. Weyers' book takes an in-depth look at the circumstances which allowed this to happen and the steps necessary to ensure such

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1668876 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 442 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Has Hippocrates' injunction to physicians to "do no harm" ever been so betrayed as in Nazi Germany? The evidence of that betrayal and its tragic social, moral and physical consequences, particularly on Jews and Jewish physicians, is presented with erudition and passion in this history from Weyers, codirector of the Center for Dermatopathology in Freiburg. To examine the "death of medicine" under the Nazis, Weyers uses his particular expertise to focus on the fate of dermatologists and dermatopathologists, many of them Jews, in Germany and German-occupied lands. He begins with a sophisticated overview of anti-Semitism from early Christian days through the Weimar Republic and Hitler's ascent to power. He then delves into the decimation by the Nazis of Jews from medical fields, dermatology in particular, and the acquiescence of many German physicians to Nazism and the atrocities it spawned. Weyers's grasp of political-social currents is strong, but what gives his book its particular power is his tracing of history primarily through the fates of individualsAas one example among many, the fate of George Groscurth, lecturer in internal medicine at the Moabit Hospital in Berlin, who formed a resistance group only to be arrested by the Gestapo in 1943; Weyers reprints Groscurth's farewell letter to his wife, written half an hour before his execution. Touches like these, plus a stunning array of 392 b&w photos and illustrations, many gruesome but all essential, give Weyers's study a deeply human face. Impeccably researched and clearly written, Weyers's book, worthy of a wide readership, will compel all who encounter it to echo the author's question: "Where would we standAwhere would I standAif exposed to pressure and control like that exerted by the Nazis?"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine
How could the Holocaust have occurred? How could the seemingly sophisticated German society of the Weimar Republic permit the rise of the National Socialist Party? How could the new Nazi government nearly destroy the country's medical system in the name of racial purity?

An increasing number of treatises, symposiums, and books have attempted to address these issues. This book succinctly presents the frightening accounts of the destruction of German Jewry from the point of view of the physician and, more particularly, the dermatologist. Antisemitism, a word introduced in 1873, has always existed; it has been more overt at some times than at others. Because Jews were often denied entrance to many professions and occupations, and because of the Jewish tradition of helping others, Jews became physicians in disproportionate numbers.

Although Jews accounted for only 0.8 percent of the residents in Germany in 1933, at least 16 percent of German physicians were Jewish. Once the Jewish physician graduated from medical school, he, or rarely she, would often experience difficulty in obtaining a hospital appointment at non-Jewish institutions -- hence the development of Jewish hospitals. Many Jewish physicians were barred from selecting the more popular -- and more financially rewarding -- medical and surgical fields. Because dermatology was not held in high regard by the medical establishment, the specialty was available to Jewish physicians. In 1934, a quarter of all dermatologists in Germany were Jewish.

Weyers's documentary account takes the reader through a "Who's Who" of medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many luminaries, such as Ernst Kromayer (inventor of the Kromayer lamp) and Eugen Galewsky (who was responsible for introducing anthralin in the treatment of psoriasis), were Jewish, and others, such as Franz Herrmann (known for his research on the physiology of sweat glands) and Hermann Pinkus (an expert in the field of dermatopathology), were Christian but of Jewish ancestry. Some were converts, like Fritz Juliusberg (who was responsible for describing pityriasis lichenoides chronica), who had disavowed Judaism. Theodor Gruneberg, a member of the Nazi party, was appalled to find that one of his own great-grandparents had been Jewish.

Many directors of university and hospital departments were replaced by followers of the party. Some of the Nazi physicians were lacking in academic qualifications, whereas others had some scientific background, such as Heinrich Adolf Gottron (who first identified Gottron's papules). There were also the German professors who stood up to the regime and lost their posts. Leopold Ritter von Zumbusch (who first described pustular psoriasis) was fired as rector of the University of Munich and then as director of dermatology at the university.

Within six years, Jews went from being full German citizens with economic opportunities to outcasts subjected to the lowest degradation. Imagine an educated society devoting energy to defining who was Jewish, but not according to whether people practiced the religion or whether their mothers or fathers considered themselves Jewish.

The Mischlinge (persons of mixed race), as such persons were considered, would also be ostracized, even if they and their parents had always been Christian. (Jeremy Noakes. "The Development of Nazi Policy towards the German-Jewish `Mischlinge' 1933-1945." New York, Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 1989, xxxiv:291-354.) There were also rules when only one grandparent was an observant Jew.

Like many other intellectual German dermatologists of the late 20th century, including the late Albin Proppe of Kiel, Karl Holubar of Vienna, and Albrecht Scholtz of Dresden, Weyers is haunted by the past: "How do I behave and how should I behave? When is it right and essential for me to uphold my personal convictions and inviolate standards, and when is it necessary to compromise for the greater good? At what point do compromises become concessions, and I become a wholly different person?"

This book should be required reading, because it recalls the tragedy of German medicine during a time when prejudices and hatred overcame reason, let alone the Hippocratic oath. These same evil forces are still with us, only now their methods are called "ethnic cleansing."

Reviewed by Lawrence Charles Parish, M.D.
Copyright © 1999 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Customer Reviews

An excellent book for all interested in history or medicine.
The author begins with some background into the origins of antisemitism in germany which serves to frame the topic. He then provides a richly detailed accounting of how the effects of Nazi policies affected many of the most famous dermatologists of the era. He also reveals the apathy of the academic community in germany towards the plight of their jewish colleages.

A fascinating, absorbing book
This is not another book about medical experimentation on Jews during the Holocaust. It is an account of what happened to hundreds of physicians during the Nazi era. As the Nazis "coordinated" medicine, Jewish physicians were dismissed from their clinics and teaching positions and replaced by Nazi supporters whose medical skills were mediocre at best.

Weyers focuses on dermatologists because it was traditionally a field of medicine heavily populated by Jews. Weyers is also a dermatologist and dermatopatholgist himself.

The displaced dermatologists whose stories are documented by Weyers either went into hiding, committed suicide, or fled from Germany. Their stories are poignant, and the inclusion of postage stamp size photos of them is a very effective touch.

Highly recommended for anyone--not just physicians--who is interested in Holocaust studies or medical ethics

Fascinating account!
I read this book with amazement at the suffering the Jewish doctors, in particular dermatologists. This book is written beautifully, almost like a poem. There is no over-dramatization of what actually happened. The story of these doctors is dramatic in and of itself. No embellisments here, just unadulterated history. An eye-opening, heart-wrenching book.