Medicine has never been completely and totally science. Those of us who practice this profession know it as "the art and science of medicine." Although there is a scientific foundation to medicine, the art comes from applying science to human beings. Pure science has no inherent ethics or morals. It is the application of testing to theories to confirm hypotheses, and in doing so provides explanation for how things work. The proven hypothesis becomes a scientific fact and may then be used to direct further efforts at shaping ourselves and our world. In medicine, it is the application of those facts to living, breathing people that is the art, and the art requires moral judgment.
When people do not have a system of moral judgment other than the one they construct for themselves, moral relativism results. What I consider moral may not be the same as what you consider to be moral. And what is tragic is when moral relativism infuses the art of medicine. Throughout history, people in all societies have held a special regard for their healers. Few things are more terrifying than to have a broken body, and the people with the knowledge to heal are elevated in the minds of the public. Although it is human nature to be suspicious of those things that we do not understand, when we find that a science that is incomprehensible to many can cure illness and disease, that suspicion is often replaced with awe and respect. This leads many to accept and obey the pronouncements of scientists and doctors as dispensers not only of healing but truth itself. (Of course, as a doctor, I kind of like it that way myself.)
We have been looking at Germany in the first half of the twentieth century and developments in that society as the Jews were defined as "sub-human", capable of great evil and seen as the greatest threat to that nation. Decades of teaching and reinforcing this notion led to it being widespread in German thought. Even before Hitler rose to power, there was the "Jewish problem," and much debate was carried forth on how to address it. Hitler and his Nazis brought this to the forefront of national consciousness, with much resulting abuse of the Jews. We left off our discussion in 1938, following the terrible Kristallnacht, but for today we will turn our attention to another Nazi program, Aktion T4. To do that, we will need to follow scientific thought from the turn of the century.
Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1859, and in it he described how species developed over time with continual improvement due to the natural selection of superior species. A good deal of his thought had derived from his study of the breeding of animals. It was actually his cousin, Francis Galton, who developed the notion that societies could actually improve its members by artificial selection, choosing those with the best genes. This led to Galton coining the term eugenics (from the Greek, "eu-", meaning "good" and "genos", meaning birth). Over the next many decades, eugenics looked not only at choosing the best members of society breeding with each other but eliminating the most undesirable elements from breeding. In the United States, many states in the early 1900's had forcible sterilization laws for the mentally disabled or epileptic. For over fifty years in this country, more than 60,000 people were sterilized because someone had deemed them "unfit." You must remember, for states to carry out these laws, someone had to be invested with the power to decide who was "fit" and who was "unfit."
The notions of eugenics were a large part of Nazi ideology and the idea of racial superiority. But simply preventing the less desirables from breeding was not enough. Hitler was very much interested in eliminating those undesirables directly. The Nazi party promoted the idea of euthanasia throughout the 1930's. Requests for mercy killing from parents with deformed children were funneled directly to Hitler's office. And in 1939, a child that was born with congenital defects was chosen to be the first to be eliminated. Eugenics, "good birth," had now become Euthanasia, "good death" (eu = good, thanatos = death).
Hitler's personal physician, Karl Brandt, was put in charge of developing the program of euthanizing infants. A large medical bureaucracy was created, with a system put in place to process these killings. The program was later known as Aktion T4, with the "T4" being an abbreviation for Tiergartenstraβe 4, the address of the "Charitable Foundation for Curative and Institutional Care." Initially parental consent was needed for these killings, but that was eventually dropped. Doctors and midwives were ordered to report any defective babies at birth, and although originally decisions were made after examining the infant, simply filling out a questionnaire was sufficient to make the decision to euthanize. Six centers were set up around Germany to handle these children, first infants and then the older ones. Parents were told that their child was going to a special center, and then after the child was euthanized, they would receive a phony death certificate and cause of death. The parents were often suspicious of these reports, especially if their child who had no appendix supposedly died of appendicitis.
It didn't take long for the Nazis and their physicians to realize that they could eliminate disabled adults as well. The "mercy killings" soon became a way to exterminate all undesirables from the German gene pool. The mentally ill and retarded, the epileptic and schizophrenic, those with dementia or any illness that required prolonged institutional care were deemed candidates for euthanasia.
Initially, people were put to death with injection, but this was slow and costly. It was much more efficient to use carbon monoxide gas, and gas chambers were set up at the killing centers. The bodies were cremated. This process of gas execution and cremation would later be utilized on an industrial scale during the Holocaust. There was one huge difference between the Nazi euthanasia program and the slaughter of the Jews, however. The euthanasia program was kept secret.
This was necessary because Hitler knew that the German people would be outraged at the state-sanctioned killing of German citizens. In fact, when word finally got out, the German people protested to the point where the program was officially ended only two years later in 1941. However, it continued unofficially until the end of the war. Over 70,000 Germans were euthanized.
Several points need to be taken in here. The "science" of eugenics and its cold calculations of genetic inferiority and racial superiority were translated into the "art" of killing, a machine for assassination carried out by the German medical profession. Someone somewhere had to make a decision that you were "fit" to live or were "unfit"; you did not make that decision yourself. The science was divorced from an objective God-given morality and coupled with a man-made morality, where it was seen as morally desirable to execute the undesirable. Finally, it was a "medical procedure" that made it all possible, first injection and then the more efficient gassing.
All of these lessons learned by the Nazis from the murder of children would enable them to exterminate millions of Jews. The striking difference was that the German public objected to the forced deaths of other German "humans." There would not be the same outrage at the elimination of Jewish "non-humans", nor any need to keep those programs secret. After only a few generations of being taught that the Jew was not a human were necessary to remove them from the conscience of the German country. Next week we will look at the Holocaust itself, and how Germany developed the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem".
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Not Quite Human, Part II
Many people today, if they are aware of the Holocaust at all, believe that it was purely a program initiated by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi leadership. Last week, however, we saw that anti-Semitism had a history going back centuries, and although Jews in Germany had been granted equality and citizenship in the late 1800's, the late nineteenth century saw a change in attitudes towards them. Only a few generations of teaching and preaching hatred against them was enough to turn the public opinion of nearly the entire country from one of acceptance to one of antipathy.
Jew were seen to be "sub-human," and although this would imply inferiority, they were seen as capable of great cunning and wickedness. Newspapers and magazines began discussing how to solve the "Jewish problem", or "Judenfrage." There was a widespread notion that the Jews needed to be eliminated from Germany.
By the early twentieth century, many felt they were the biggest threat to Germany. They were felt to be responsible for the economic suffering of the German people due to financial manipulation. Germany was in terrible condition following World War I, and it was easy to point to the Jews as the root source of all of the woes the country faced. The schools and universities were full of anti-Semitism.
The Nazi Party became fully functional in 1920. It was a nationalist organization, with elements of socialism. In fact, its name was the "National Socialist German Workers Party" and that is where the name "Nazi" was derived. They were opposed to capitalism, and felt that the Jews had manipulated the capitalist system to their benefit and the ruin of the country. Adolph Hitler joined the party shortly after it was formed, and became a powerful public speaker. Both he and the party claimed the superiority of the Aryan blue-eyed, blond race, and emphasized the danger of the Jews to Germany. Although Hitler was imprisoned for a short time in 1924 following a failed government takeover, he and the party rose to power during the Great Depression of the 1930's, when economic conditions reached their nadir. Hitler finally assumed the role of Chancellor in 1933.
The underlying anti-Semitism in Germany was now whipped into a roaring flame during the Nazi regime. The Jew was seen to be a force of evil, and children were taught that Jews were the source of all of the misfortunes in Germany and other countries. In his landmark book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen describes the stages Jewish persecution would take, including severe legal restrictions, physical and verbal attacks, the transformation of Jews into "socially dead" beings, and obtaining a country-wide consensus on the need to eliminate the Jew from Germany.
Those very things then began to unfold. Jews were beaten and businesses vandalized. There was a nationwide boycott of these Jewish businesses in 1933. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed, banning all Jews from holding civil service jobs. Signs all over Germany were seen at villages, hotels, and restaurants, saying "Jews Not Wanted Here," and the like. The physical attacks increased, and Jews were publicly mocked. Men had their beards forcibly cut off. These were not always the actions of German soldiers or Nazi government officials or Hitler's SS, but the acts of ordinary Germans who were taking their cue from the vitriol expressed by the government and media. Over and over people were taught of the evil wickedness of the Jew and that their race was not human. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped the Jews of their citizenship that had come with Jewish emancipation, and Jews were forbidden to marry Germans. Finally, in 1938, the horrific Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) took place, and throughout Germany Jews were killed or beaten, their synagogues burnt, and the glass fronts of thousands of Jewish businesses were shattered. Although organized largely by the army, many German citizens participated and most were accepting of this destruction.
All Jews that could manage to leave the country did so. Their German neighbors treated them as outcasts or "lepers." Yet, the leadership in Germany continued to preach about the "Jewish problem," and the need to eliminate Jews from the country. Just how to do so was not readily apparent, although extermination was beginning to be discussed at the highest levels of government. By the beginning of World War II, in 1939, however, the children of German citizens themselves would point to how Germany could rid themselves of the Jewish plague. These little ones, though "human", would guide the Germans in their elimination of the Jewish "sub-humans", all with the aid of modern medical science. We will look at this program next week, known by a simple letter and a number--"T4."
Jew were seen to be "sub-human," and although this would imply inferiority, they were seen as capable of great cunning and wickedness. Newspapers and magazines began discussing how to solve the "Jewish problem", or "Judenfrage." There was a widespread notion that the Jews needed to be eliminated from Germany.
By the early twentieth century, many felt they were the biggest threat to Germany. They were felt to be responsible for the economic suffering of the German people due to financial manipulation. Germany was in terrible condition following World War I, and it was easy to point to the Jews as the root source of all of the woes the country faced. The schools and universities were full of anti-Semitism.
The Nazi Party became fully functional in 1920. It was a nationalist organization, with elements of socialism. In fact, its name was the "National Socialist German Workers Party" and that is where the name "Nazi" was derived. They were opposed to capitalism, and felt that the Jews had manipulated the capitalist system to their benefit and the ruin of the country. Adolph Hitler joined the party shortly after it was formed, and became a powerful public speaker. Both he and the party claimed the superiority of the Aryan blue-eyed, blond race, and emphasized the danger of the Jews to Germany. Although Hitler was imprisoned for a short time in 1924 following a failed government takeover, he and the party rose to power during the Great Depression of the 1930's, when economic conditions reached their nadir. Hitler finally assumed the role of Chancellor in 1933.
The underlying anti-Semitism in Germany was now whipped into a roaring flame during the Nazi regime. The Jew was seen to be a force of evil, and children were taught that Jews were the source of all of the misfortunes in Germany and other countries. In his landmark book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen describes the stages Jewish persecution would take, including severe legal restrictions, physical and verbal attacks, the transformation of Jews into "socially dead" beings, and obtaining a country-wide consensus on the need to eliminate the Jew from Germany.
Jewish students being humiliated in class. The writing says, "The Jew is our greatest enemy. Beware the Jew!" (from Isurvived.org.)
Those very things then began to unfold. Jews were beaten and businesses vandalized. There was a nationwide boycott of these Jewish businesses in 1933. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed, banning all Jews from holding civil service jobs. Signs all over Germany were seen at villages, hotels, and restaurants, saying "Jews Not Wanted Here," and the like. The physical attacks increased, and Jews were publicly mocked. Men had their beards forcibly cut off. These were not always the actions of German soldiers or Nazi government officials or Hitler's SS, but the acts of ordinary Germans who were taking their cue from the vitriol expressed by the government and media. Over and over people were taught of the evil wickedness of the Jew and that their race was not human. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 stripped the Jews of their citizenship that had come with Jewish emancipation, and Jews were forbidden to marry Germans. Finally, in 1938, the horrific Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) took place, and throughout Germany Jews were killed or beaten, their synagogues burnt, and the glass fronts of thousands of Jewish businesses were shattered. Although organized largely by the army, many German citizens participated and most were accepting of this destruction.
"Jews are not wanted here" (from U.S. Holocaust museum)
Kristallnacht (from the Telegraph.co.uk)
All Jews that could manage to leave the country did so. Their German neighbors treated them as outcasts or "lepers." Yet, the leadership in Germany continued to preach about the "Jewish problem," and the need to eliminate Jews from the country. Just how to do so was not readily apparent, although extermination was beginning to be discussed at the highest levels of government. By the beginning of World War II, in 1939, however, the children of German citizens themselves would point to how Germany could rid themselves of the Jewish plague. These little ones, though "human", would guide the Germans in their elimination of the Jewish "sub-humans", all with the aid of modern medical science. We will look at this program next week, known by a simple letter and a number--"T4."
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Not Quite Human
I would like to talk to you for the next several weeks about what it means to be a human. Certainly humans and lesser beings are both capable of suffering. God has given man dominion over the creatures that are not human (Genesis 9). As stewards of all that God has given us, we are to treat those things entrusted to us with respect. Humans, however, are due the highest regard. God gives life to man, and in that same chapter he states, "And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image" (vv. 4-6). This comes far before the law seen in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. The concept here is that man and man's life is special to God, and we are accountable to God for the preservation of man's life.
There are few alive today that can recall the Holocaust. I would imagine that if you stopped a young person on the street they would not recognize that time in the world's history. I have been blessed to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. as well as the one in Israel, and to have met and heard a Holocaust survivor speak while in Israel. I have just finished reading many writings on the Holocaust, and foremost among these is a book called Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. The more you study it and delve into it, the more horrific it becomes. There is no point in the study of the Holocaust where you think to yourself, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought." Whatever you think you know about the Holocaust, the realities were much, much worse. Many of the things I wish to discuss with you about suffering on such a scale will be very unpleasant to read. As you read these things and feel uncomfortable, you must imagine them being done to you or your loved ones. They really happened. They are not fiction.
The development of a system to slaughter six to eight million human beings does not occur in short order. This week, I would like to show you how Germany got to the point where as a country these things could be carried out. And yes, I said "Germany", not "Hitler" or "the SS" or "the Nazis". In some way or another, nearly the entire population of a country condoned or participated in the extermination of millions of Jews.
After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. by the Romans under the emperor Titus, Jews fled the Holy Land and dispersed throughout the world. Jews fled to other countries in the Middle East, to North Africa and Spain, and to Eastern Europe. This dispersion, or "diaspora", resulted in a large population of Jews in Poland, Russia, and other Eastern European countries, although many settled in Western Europe as well. Because of their unique religious beliefs, often living in Christian lands, they were never really fully assimilated into these countries and cultures, and in many lands they were not considered citizens. After the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Catholic Church
required Jews to wear special clothing, or often yellow badges, to identify themselves as Jews. There were many restrictions placed on them. Many in the Church held the Jews responsible for the death of Christ, and anti-Semitism was widespread. For centuries, then, the Jews were identified, ostracized, and kept from fully realizing their identity as citizens of the countries wherein they lived.
In the late 1700's and up until the 1900's there were many movements to grant equality to the Jews. This was known as "Jewish Emancipation," and it occurred unevenly across Europe, one country or province at a time. The United States was actually the first country to give Jews equal rights, in 1789; the first country to do so in Europe was France in 1791. Individual German states gave Jews equal rights in the decades to follow, but the country as a whole did not do so until around 1870.
In the early 20th century, the tide turned against the Jews in Germany. Public opinion and the news media began to cast suspicion upon them. Much of this originated with the notions of race, genetics, and had its origins in Darwinian theory and eugenics. The Jews were felt to be a separate race, and an inferior one at that. After the disastrous defeat of Germany in World War I, the economy collapsed. Germany was in horrendous debt as the Treaty of Versailles called for enormous reparations. Unemployment and inflation were rampant. Somebody had to be responsible for all of this misery, and the Jews were identified as being the most responsible. There came to be a feeling that Jews were malicious, wicked, and full of evil impulses to control the economy. It was an unusual combination of sentiments; the Jews in Germany were felt to be a "subhuman" race, an "inferior" race compared to the German blue-eyed and blond-haired Aryan ideal, yet capable of extreme intelligence and cunning. So an inferior Jew could be quite intellectually capable.
Jews proved to be extremely adaptable to harsh conditions. Hardworking and intelligent, bound by religious codes of conduct, they became successful in many foreign lands. They did not typically invest in capital, land, and buildings that could be taken from them. Jews usually did not own factories and large farms. They learned skills that could be taken with them, such as medicine and law, so that when persecution came they could relocate more easily. They became experts at managing money and finance, and many became jewelers and diamond merchants, because you could pick up your precious stones and move quickly if need be.
That the Jews could do well in times of economic distress led many in Germany to despise them and hold them responsible for the poor conditions. The nature of fallen man is often to hate another's success, and to feel that the success of one somehow must mean that he has robbed the less fortunate. There is a linkage in the minds of many that simply cannot be broken, not that one fails and one succeeds, but that the failure of one is due to the success of another. The finger of one that fails is rarely pointed at himself.
These, then, are the roots of anti-Semitism. The notion of Jews as a despicable people, not fully human but "sub-human", capable of great evil and cunning, and responsible for the misery of the German people, was taught and preached and printed and broadcast at every opportunity. Words were not always necessary. The cartoons, drawings, and caricatures spoke volumes. Lies repeated endlessly become the truth. It takes only a generation for a new truth to be accepted. Only one generation of schoolchildren must be raised with a false teaching for that to become the new dogma.
Next week we will look at how a decades of characterizing the Jew led to demonizing the Jew, and how people began to treat the Jews. How we treat others is determined by how we think we should treat others. We treat humans differently than we do other creatures. When the Jew was determined to be something other than human, they were treated differently. As described in Goldhagen's book, a murderer of many Jews explained, "The Jew was not acknowledged by us to be a human being."
There are few alive today that can recall the Holocaust. I would imagine that if you stopped a young person on the street they would not recognize that time in the world's history. I have been blessed to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. as well as the one in Israel, and to have met and heard a Holocaust survivor speak while in Israel. I have just finished reading many writings on the Holocaust, and foremost among these is a book called Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. The more you study it and delve into it, the more horrific it becomes. There is no point in the study of the Holocaust where you think to yourself, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought." Whatever you think you know about the Holocaust, the realities were much, much worse. Many of the things I wish to discuss with you about suffering on such a scale will be very unpleasant to read. As you read these things and feel uncomfortable, you must imagine them being done to you or your loved ones. They really happened. They are not fiction.
The development of a system to slaughter six to eight million human beings does not occur in short order. This week, I would like to show you how Germany got to the point where as a country these things could be carried out. And yes, I said "Germany", not "Hitler" or "the SS" or "the Nazis". In some way or another, nearly the entire population of a country condoned or participated in the extermination of millions of Jews.
After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. by the Romans under the emperor Titus, Jews fled the Holy Land and dispersed throughout the world. Jews fled to other countries in the Middle East, to North Africa and Spain, and to Eastern Europe. This dispersion, or "diaspora", resulted in a large population of Jews in Poland, Russia, and other Eastern European countries, although many settled in Western Europe as well. Because of their unique religious beliefs, often living in Christian lands, they were never really fully assimilated into these countries and cultures, and in many lands they were not considered citizens. After the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the Catholic Church
required Jews to wear special clothing, or often yellow badges, to identify themselves as Jews. There were many restrictions placed on them. Many in the Church held the Jews responsible for the death of Christ, and anti-Semitism was widespread. For centuries, then, the Jews were identified, ostracized, and kept from fully realizing their identity as citizens of the countries wherein they lived.
In the late 1700's and up until the 1900's there were many movements to grant equality to the Jews. This was known as "Jewish Emancipation," and it occurred unevenly across Europe, one country or province at a time. The United States was actually the first country to give Jews equal rights, in 1789; the first country to do so in Europe was France in 1791. Individual German states gave Jews equal rights in the decades to follow, but the country as a whole did not do so until around 1870.
In the early 20th century, the tide turned against the Jews in Germany. Public opinion and the news media began to cast suspicion upon them. Much of this originated with the notions of race, genetics, and had its origins in Darwinian theory and eugenics. The Jews were felt to be a separate race, and an inferior one at that. After the disastrous defeat of Germany in World War I, the economy collapsed. Germany was in horrendous debt as the Treaty of Versailles called for enormous reparations. Unemployment and inflation were rampant. Somebody had to be responsible for all of this misery, and the Jews were identified as being the most responsible. There came to be a feeling that Jews were malicious, wicked, and full of evil impulses to control the economy. It was an unusual combination of sentiments; the Jews in Germany were felt to be a "subhuman" race, an "inferior" race compared to the German blue-eyed and blond-haired Aryan ideal, yet capable of extreme intelligence and cunning. So an inferior Jew could be quite intellectually capable.
Jews proved to be extremely adaptable to harsh conditions. Hardworking and intelligent, bound by religious codes of conduct, they became successful in many foreign lands. They did not typically invest in capital, land, and buildings that could be taken from them. Jews usually did not own factories and large farms. They learned skills that could be taken with them, such as medicine and law, so that when persecution came they could relocate more easily. They became experts at managing money and finance, and many became jewelers and diamond merchants, because you could pick up your precious stones and move quickly if need be.
That the Jews could do well in times of economic distress led many in Germany to despise them and hold them responsible for the poor conditions. The nature of fallen man is often to hate another's success, and to feel that the success of one somehow must mean that he has robbed the less fortunate. There is a linkage in the minds of many that simply cannot be broken, not that one fails and one succeeds, but that the failure of one is due to the success of another. The finger of one that fails is rarely pointed at himself.
These, then, are the roots of anti-Semitism. The notion of Jews as a despicable people, not fully human but "sub-human", capable of great evil and cunning, and responsible for the misery of the German people, was taught and preached and printed and broadcast at every opportunity. Words were not always necessary. The cartoons, drawings, and caricatures spoke volumes. Lies repeated endlessly become the truth. It takes only a generation for a new truth to be accepted. Only one generation of schoolchildren must be raised with a false teaching for that to become the new dogma.
Next week we will look at how a decades of characterizing the Jew led to demonizing the Jew, and how people began to treat the Jews. How we treat others is determined by how we think we should treat others. We treat humans differently than we do other creatures. When the Jew was determined to be something other than human, they were treated differently. As described in Goldhagen's book, a murderer of many Jews explained, "The Jew was not acknowledged by us to be a human being."
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