From Nazi holocaust to nuclear holocaust: a lesson to learn?

1986

In a 1986 address to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a German physician describes his profession's embrace of National Socialism. The nationalistic sentiments of German scientists led them to identify with the goals of the Third Reich and to participate in its programs. He gives examples of physician involvement in the Nazi Party, discrimination against "non-Aryan" doctors, "eugenic" mass murder, and lethal experiments with human subjects. The few who protested were regarded as traitors by the profession as a whole, and post-war apologists argue that physicians' organizations had no choice but to collaborate with the Nazis. Hanauske-Abel rejects this reasonin…