July 28th
Karl Brandt takes the stand during the Medical Case (Doctors’) Trial in Nuremberg. February, 1947. Brandt was a SS officer and became personal physician to Adolf Hitler. He was one of the defendants found guilty of war crimes at the Doctors Trial. He was executed June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria. Photo source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The latest issue of HCS-Manguinhos (Apr-Jun 2022) features an interview with Volker Roelcke, Professor and Chair of the Institute of the History of Medicine at Giessen University, Germany. In the interview, given to journalist Vivian Mannheimer, Volker Roelcke explains and analyzes historical evidence refuting erroneous assumptions about medical atrocities committed by physicians during the Nazi era.
He also provides insight into the implications of medicine during the Nazi period and the Holocaust for medicine and bioethics today, analyzes the history of the term “genocide,” and suggests formats for future teaching, among other topics.
According to Volker Roelcke, professor of History of Medicine at Giessen University, medicine during the Nazi period is still surrounded by myths, such as that only a few fanatical physicians committed medical atrocities and that all other physicians and medical scientists were coerced by the Nazi regime.
Roelcke, Volker and Mannheimer, Vivian. Medicine during the Nazi period and the Holocaust: what are the implications? An interview with Volker Roelcke. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos [online]. 2022, v. 29, n. 2 [Accessed 28 July 2022] , pp. 523-530.
