The Nazi German Intellectuals And The Holocaust

For many Germans, the history between1933to1945was just like a drop in the ocean, and passed very quickly. However, it was still in this period and there was the Holocaust happened in the country which represented the modern western civilization and was a symbol of progress and rationality. The Holocaust was conducted by the Nazi regime, and killed6million Jews cruelly. In some sense, the Holocaust overturns the human traditional moral concept, and it destroyed the Jews and the Germans simultaneously through the false vision of "the superiority of the Aryan race". Auschwitz means "Shoah" for the Jews, and meanwhile, it becomes the cross which the Germans should bear forever.From the prespective of the Holocaust, the Nazi medical profession is the warning reminder of the mankind. Except for few innocent persons, almost all the doctors under the nazi regime were labeled evil. From the Nuremberg Trials to recent research, there is a huge contradiction between the ability and the brutality of the nazi doctors. If it is easy to understand the cruelty of the guard in the concentration camp, the nazi doctors attacked the Hippocratic Oath, which means a flagrant violation of the moral emotion of the human being. We are so angry because that we anticipate the doctors should have more noble moral standards.Throughout the development of human history of medicine, evil is not the exclusive label of the nazi doctors. The Soviet psychiatrists diagnosed the opponents as mental patients intentionally, and the Japanese doctors conducted experiments on the prisoners of war without mercy, besides that the South African doctors faked the death records of the black prisoners who had been tortured to death as normal one. All of these dark examples are warning us that not all the doctors are the elegant people who heal the wounded and rescue the dying. This article discusses the relations between the Nazi German Medicine and the Holocaust, and it is composed of four chapters.The first chapter carries out a discussion of Nazi racial ideology and racial hygiene. The Nazi vision of "the superiority of the Aryan race" and "the Jewish malignant tumor" had a lethal impact on the German people. It not only twisted their mind, but also was accepted by the German medical profession. Racial hygiene was regarded as a science by the Nazi doctors. It had enormous influence on them, and was also attractive. It was the combination of the two that became the prerequisite for the "friendly interaction" of the Nazi regime and the medical profession.The second chapter begins by explaining that the nazi doctors pushed the jewish doctors aside and conducted ghastful human experiments. And it exposed the nazi doctors, who were once respected and elegant professors,eventually became "political soldiers".The third chapter attempts to analyse the group personality of the nazi doctors. According to the different degree of the doctors who participated the holocaust, I try to define the group personality of the doctors as four types:"absolute believers","active supporters","negative facilitator" and "minority protesters".The fourth chapter mainly explores the scientificalness and the political nature of the Nazi German Medicine. In my opinion, the unique political environment resulted in an unique science. Although science suffered a severe blow under the nazi regime, we can not conclude that there was no science during that period. On the contrary, it was the nazi regime that supported medicine and other subjects, so the development of these subjects peaked. The "friendly interaction" between the nazi regime and the doctors made the medical profession become a powerful tool of the evil regime which conducted the genocide against the Jews. This was a kind of sad to the doctors.It concluded as follows:1.The overwhelming majority of the doctors under the nazi regime were nomal people. It was not the demonic people that were suitable for participation in the Holocaust, and in other words, ordinary people can behavior comparable to the devil.2.The belief of the Nazi racial ideology and racial hygiene became the bridge of the doctors’ roles changed from "saviors" to "killers". It also became the prerequisite for the "friendly interaction" of the Nazi regime and the medical profession.3.The nazi doctors were a negative teaching material of the history of mankind. But we still can not conclude that the whole medical profession were killers. We should avoid finding a single solution for this problem, so it is necessary to distinguish the different kinds of the nazi doctors.4. The unique political environment resulted in an unique science. Besides that, science is a double-edged sword. If we use it properly, science can benefit mankind, otherwise, it can destroy the human being.