The following is a list of notable medical doctors in Nazi Germany. This list is primarily split up into those who performed Euthanasia through the Aktion T4 campaign, to those who primarily performed experiments on Holocaust victims. While a majority consists of members of the Nazi Party, others who could not become members contributed in notable ways. After the war, the German Medical Association blamed Nazi atrocities on a small group of 350 criminal doctors.[1] [2] [3] During the Doctors' trial, the defense argued that there was no international law to distinguish between legal and illegal human experimentation,[4] which led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code (1947). Some doctors attempted to change names to escape capture and trial, such as Werner Heyde[5] and Robert Ley,[6] Other doctors, such as Walter Schreiber, were covertly moved to the United States during "Operation Paperclip" in 1951.
When the Nazi government came to power, they purged Germany of its 6,000 to 7,000 Jewish doctors.[7] Non-Jewish physicians were early recruits to the Nazi Party, due both to social and economic circumstances and to widespread eugenic and Social Darwinist ideas in early-20th-century medicine.[8] By 1942, more than half of all German physicians had become Nazi Party members.[9] [10] [11] In comparison, only about 10% of the general population became Nazi Party members by 1945.[12] In addition, over 7% of German doctors became members of the Nazi SS, compared to less than 1% of the general population.[13] While most of these doctors were physicians, some held doctorates (PhDs) in biology, anthropology, or related fields. Doctors who were working for the state, and not for their patients, using a Mendelian type of logic chart, saw extermination of their patients as the correct solution to the problem of mental illness and the genetically defective.[14] [15] [16] [17] "The participation in the ‘betrayal of Hippocrates’ had a broad basis within the German medical profession. Without the doctors' active help, the Holocaust could not have happened," wrote E Ernst in the International Journal of Epidemiology.[18] Killing and experimentation[19] became medical procedures as they were performed by licensed doctors. A doctor was present at all the mass killings for legal reasons.[20]
See also: Aktion T4, Euthanasia trials and Nazi eugenics.
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T4-Gutachter[21] | ||||
| T4-Gutachter[22] | ||||
| T4-Gassing doctor[23] | ||||
| T4-Gutachter[24] | ||||
| T4-Gassing doctor[25] | ||||
| Viktor Brack | T4-Organizer[26] | |||
| T4-Gassing doctor | ||||
| T4-Organizer | ||||
| Max de Crinis | T4-Gutachter | |||
| Irmfried Eberl | T4-Director | |||
| T4-personnel | ||||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| T4-Gassing doctor[27] [28] | ||||
| T4-Gassing doctor | ||||
| Ernst-Robert Grawitz | T4-personnel | |||
| Heinrich Gross | T4-personnel | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Hans Heinze | T4-Gutachter (Children) | |||
| T4-personnel | ||||
| Werner Heyde (Fritz Sawade) | T4-Obergutachter | |||
| Ernst Illing | T4-Child euthanasia | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| T4-Director | ||||
| T4-Obergutachter | ||||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Friedrich Mauz | T4-Gutachter | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Paul (Hermann) Nitsche | T4-Obergutachter | |||
| Friedrich Panse | T4-Gutachter | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Carl-Heinz Rodenberg | T4-Gutachter | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Carl Schneider | T4-Gutachter | |||
| T4-personnel | ||||
| Werner Villinger | T4-Gutachter | |||
| T4-Chief doctor | ||||
| Erich Wasicky | T4-Gassing doctor | |||
| T4-Gutachter (Children) | ||||
| Albert Widmann | T4-personnel (Children) | |||
| T4-Gutachter | ||||
| Euthanasia | ||||
| Euthanasia |
See main article: Nazi human experimentation.
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Type(s) | Sentence | Reference(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karl Babor | Injections | None (suicide) | ||||
| Heinz Baumkötter | 25 years | |||||
| Hermann Becker-Freyseng | High-altitude experiments | 20 years | [29] | |||
| Wilhelm Beiglböck | Sea water experiments | 15 years | [30] | |||
| Otto Bickenbach | Poison gas experiments | Life | [31] | |||
| Kurt Blome | Multiple | Acquitted | ||||
| Karl Brandt | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Carl Clauberg | Sterilization experiments | 25 years | ||||
| Leonardo Conti | None (suicide) | [32] | ||||
| Hans Delmotte | Injections | None (suicide) | ||||
| Erwin (Oskar) Ding-Schuler | Injections | None (suicide) | ||||
| Hans Eisele | Surgical experiments | Death | ||||
| Friedrich Entress | Injections | Executed | [33] | |||
| Hans Eppinger | Sea water experiments | None (suicide) | ||||
| Fritz Fischer | Surgical experiments | Life | ||||
| Karl (Franz) Gebhardt | Injections & surgical ex. | Executed | ||||
| Karl (August) Genzken | Injections | Life | ||||
| None directly | None | |||||
| Injections | 20 years | |||||
| Julius Hallervorden | Post-mortem brain research | None | ||||
| Siegfried Handloser | None directly | None | ||||
| Aribert (Ferdinand) Heim | Injections | Escaped | ||||
| Injections | Executed | |||||
| Erich Hippke | None directly | None | ||||
| Ernst Holzlöhner | Freezing experiments | None (suicide) | ||||
| Waldemar Hoven | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Emil Kaschub | Injections | None | [34] [35] | |||
| Hans Wilhelm König | Injections | Escaped | ||||
| Eduard Krebsbach | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Johann (Paul) Kremer | Starvation experiments | Death | ||||
| Josef Mengele | Multiple | Escaped | ||||
| Joachim Mrugowsky | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Heinrich Mückter | Escaped | |||||
| Herta Oberheuser | Sulfonamide experiments | 20 years | ||||
| Helmut Poppendick | None directly | 10 years | ||||
| Sigmund Rascher | Multiple | None | ||||
| Hans (Conrad Julius) Reiter | None directly | Minimal | ||||
| None | ||||||
| High-altitude experiments | Acquitted | |||||
| Gerhard Rose | Injections | Life | ||||
| Injections & surgical ex. | Executed | |||||
| Paul Rostock | None directly | Acquitted | ||||
| Poison gas experiments | Death | |||||
| Siegfried Ruff | High-altitude experiments | Acquitted | ||||
| Konrad Schäfer | Acquitted | |||||
| Injections & surgical ex. | Executed | |||||
| Klaus Schilling | Malaria experiments | Executed | ||||
| Sea water experiments | Life | |||||
| Horst Schumann | X-ray sterilization ex. | None | ||||
| Biochemical experiments | 10 years | |||||
| Walter Sonntag | Injections | Executed | ||||
| None (suicide) | ||||||
| Alfred Trzebinski | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Carl (Peter) Værnet | Injections | Escaped | ||||
| Helmuth Vetter | Injections | Executed | ||||
| Bruno (Nikolaus Maria) Weber | Injections | None | ||||
| High-altitude experiments | Acquitted | |||||
| None directly | Death | |||||
| Eduard Wirths | None directly | None (suicide) |
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Short summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kurt Albrecht | Albrecht was a professor at the University of Berlin, and Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague. | |||
| Eugen Fischer | Fischer developed the physiological specifications such as skull dimensions which were apparently used to determine racial origins and he also developed the so-called Fischer–Saller scale for hair colour. He and the members of his team experimented on Gypsies and African-Germans, drawing their blood and measuring their skulls (see Craniometry) to attempt to scientifically validate his theories. | |||
| Wilhelm Frick | He achieved a doctorate of law and began working for the police in 1903. Later became a politician of the Nazi Party, joining September 1, 1925. He was a contributing creator and writer of the Nuremberg Laws . He was tried and executed after the war.[36] | |||
| Rudolf Hippius | Hippius is best known for his work in "racial psychology" carried out under the auspices of the Nazi regime, and specifically his study of the "suitability" of people of mixed German and Slavonic descent. | |||
| Alfred Ploetz | Ploetz was a eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany. | |||
| Robert Ritter | Ritter was appointed head of the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police. He was the "architect of the experiments, the Roma and Sinti were subjected to." His pseudo-scientific "research" in classifying these populations of Germany aided the Nazi government in their systematic persecution toward a goal of "racial purity". | |||
| Ernst Rüdin | While Rüdin has been credited as a pioneer of psychiatric inheritance studies, he also argued for, designed, justified and funded the mass sterilization and clinical killing of adults and children.[37] | |||
| Wilhelm Stuckart | He achieved a doctorate of law in 1930. He worked as a lawyer for the Nazi Party and helped to create and write the Nuremberg Laws. | |||
| Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer | Verschuer was a Nazi-affiliated eugenicist with an interest in racial hygiene. He was an advocate of compulsory sterilization programs in the first half of the 20th century.[38] [39] |
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Short summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Hellinger[40] | Hellinger was a member of the Nazi party, who primarily dealt with removing dental gold from those killed at Ravensbrück. During his trial he claimed that he believed the deceased were legally executed. On February 3, 1947 he was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was later reduced to time served on May 20, 1954. He re-established his dental practice afterwards until his death. | |||
| Wilhelm Jobst | Jobst was a physician accused of giving injections to terminally ill prisoners in his capacity as camp doctor in Ebensee from 1944 to 1945. He was sentenced to death by hanging on May 13, 1946 and was executed in the following year. | |||
| Bruno Kitt[41] | Bruno Kitt was a camp doctor at Auschwitz and Neuengamme after being drafted into the Waffen-SS in March 1942. He was found guilty of participating in the murder and mistreatment of prisoners at the Neuengamme concentration camp, and was sentenced to death by hanging on May 3, 1946. | |||
| Fritz Klein | From December 15, 1943, to January 1945, Klein worked at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Neuengamme, and finally Bergen-Belsen as a camp doctor. During his trial, Anita Lasker testified that Klein took part in selections for the gas chamber.[42] Klein was found guilty and was executed by hanging on December 13, 1945. | |||
| Franz Lucas | Franz Lucas worked at Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, Stutthof, and Ravensbrück from mid-December 1943 to late summer 1944. After fleeing west from the Battle of Berlin he was later arrested, and stood trial in Frankfurt. Lucas was found guilty of selecting at least one thousand people in at least four separate selections, and was sentenced on August 20, 1965 to a total of three years and three months imprisonment. After his release, Lucas worked in his own private practice until his death on December 7, 1994. | |||
| Hans Münch | Physician | |||
| Ernst (Heinrich) Schmidt | Physician | |||
| Heinz Thilo | Physician | |||
| Adolf Winkelmann | Physician |
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Known for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otto Ambros | Chemist and slave labor | |||
| Hans Ehlich | Physician | |||
| [43] | ||||
| Carl (Karl) Krauch | Chemist and slave labor | |||
| Theodor (Gilbert) Morell | Adolf Hitler's physician | |||
| Walter (Paul Emil) Schreiber | Physician and witness | |||
| Erich Traub | Lab chief - bioweapons | |||
| Gerhard Wagner | Compulsory sterilization | |||
| Friedrich Wegener | Autopsies on Jewish concentration camp inmates |
While the following people were never members of the Nazi Party, their names are included here as they are known to have contributed or are mentioned in a notable way.
| Doctor | Birth | Death | Short summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hans Asperger | Asperger's alleged Nazi involvement has been hotly debated as his knowledge and involvement remains unknown. | |||
| Alfred Erich Hoche | While never a party member, Hoche is known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia. | |||
| Yusuf (Bey Murad) Ibrahim | Ibrahim was associated with Action T4 to an unknown extent. He could not become a member of the Nazi Party due to his half Arabic background | |||
| Adolf Pokorny | Pokorny's entry into the NSDAP in 1939 failed because of Lilly Pokorná's (his ex-wife) Jewish origins. | |||
| Gustav Wilhelm Schübbe | While Schübbe was a witness during the Nuremberg trials, he also self admitted to killing thousands of people. He was never a party member himself, and charges against him were later dropped. | |||
| Hubertus Strughold | While Strughold never joined the Nazi Party, his association permanently tarnished his legacy. | |||
| Türk was involved with Child euthanasia. During her interrogation at the Vienna People's Court on October 16, 1945, the doctor stated that she was neither interested in politics nor belonged to a political organization. She was given a 10 year sentence for being dependent on her superior. |