Abstract
Since the end of the Holocaust the inexplicable actions of SS doctors and the interest in Nazi medicine in general have become a recognized part of Holocaust history. Although research has been conducted on the work of Jewish doctors in ghettoes, a facet of the Holocaust that until recently has been ignored is the history of the life and work of European Jewish doctors leading up to the Holocaust from the beginning of the twentieth century and the role they played and sacrifices made during the Holocaust in the concentration, labor and sub-labor camps. Jewish doctors were the antithesis of Nazi doctors and deserve to be recognized for their service to humanity in a time and under conditions of extreme adversity. The SS doctors turned from healers to killers based on an ideology of scientific racism. The reasons for the decisions and actions of the Jewish doctors during the Holocaust were far more complicated and were multi-faceted. They were influenced by their history, socialization, culture, religion, education and years of rejection and discrimination. This chapter is a brief history of the time leading up to and including the life and work of Jewish doctors during the Holocaust.
Perhaps it was not even normal the way this woman clung to life. As a physician I often admired her indomitable life-instinct – at a place where the sky was always aglow from burning human bodies; where life had so little value and security; where everyone yearned for death, this woman kept on being so frantically attached to life.(Perl 1948, p. 101)
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The concept of the grey zone is essentially a metaphor for moral ambiguity, a conceptual realm that Levi characterises as having ill-defined outlines which both separate and join the two camps of masters and servants. It possesses an incredibly complicated internal structure, and contains within itself enough to confuse our need to judge (Rosenberg 2005, p. 9).
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The primary Jewish sacred text is the Tanakh, whose name is an acronym of Torah, Nebi’im and Ketuvim (Law, Prophets and Writings). The Tanakh consists of the same books as the Christian Old Testament, although in a slightly different order and with other minor differences. The Tanakh should not be referred to as the “Old Testament” in the context of Judaism, however, as the term implies acceptance of the “New Testament.” The Tanakh contains 39 books in all (if each of the Twelve Minor Prophets is counted as one and the subdivided books such as Kings and Chronicles are counted as two): 5 books of the Torah, 21 books of the Prophets, 13 books of Writings.
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The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to Berufsbeamtengesetz), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was presented on 7 April 1933, immediately after Hitler became Chancellor. The law gave the government the power to dismiss tenured civil servants including opponents of the Nazi regime, undesirables and civil servants who were not of “Aryan descent”. This meant Jews and political opponents would be forced to retire or would be dismissed. This included lawyers, teachers, academics, judges and all public servants.
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Mischling – A person with two Jewish grandparents was considered to be either a Jew or a Mischling of the first degree. A person with only one Jewish grandparent is considered to be a Mischling of the second degree.
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Political administrative entity comprising the central part of Poland occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939–1945 but not incorporated directly into the Third Reich. The capital of the Generalgouvernement was Cracow. It was created by Adolf Hitler’s declaration of 12 October 1939 and was essentially a German colony with a totalitarian regime and only minimal rights for the local population. The governor was Hans Frank. The Nazis persecuted the Poles and sent hundreds of thousands to Germany to work in the domestic and war industries as forced laborers. They repossessed the homes and properties of the Polish people that were given to German families who migrated to the newly occupied land. The area of 95,000 square kilometres composed the cities of Kielce, Krakow and Lublin.
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The entire body of Jewish lawand tradition comprising the laws of the Bible, the oral law as transcribed in the legal portion of theTalmud, and subsequent legal codes amending or modifying traditional precepts to conform to contemporary conditions.
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“Actions” were a euphemism for a mass killing on any one occasion, for example, the killing of a number of pregnant women at any one time, the murder of gypsies or homosexuals or at the time of selections.
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Shema (“hear”) is the Hebrew word that begins the most important prayer in Judaism. Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Sh’ma Yisra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.
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Tefillin (sometimes called phylacteries) are cubic black leather boxes with leather straps that Orthodox Jewish men wear on their head and their arm during weekday morning prayer. Observant Jews consider wearing Tefillin to be a very great mitzvah (command).
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Thesis
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Halpin, R.W. (2019). Jewish Doctors: A Place in Holocaust History. In: Moskalewicz, M., Caumanns, U., Dross, F. (eds) Jewish Medicine and Healthcare in Central Eastern Europe. Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92480-9_14
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