1940–1945: Medicine in National Socialism

The pursuit of a “racially pure” collective national body (Volkskörper) that would also be “free of hereditary illness” was an important element of National Socialism; medicine played a central role therein. With the use of propaganda, doctors were elevated in status to the “health leaders of the German people”, finding new fields of work in “hereditary care” (“Erbpflege”) and “race maintenance” (“Rassenpflege”); these domains became a focal point for the health authorities and for the Nazi apparatus. At the beginning of 1934, the “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” was passed in Germany, on the basis of which approx. 360,000 people had to undergo forcible sterilisation. In the “Ostmark” (Nazi name for Austria as of 1938), the law was introduced at the start of 1940, but due to wartime restrictions, the number of those affected was relatively lower at approx. 6,000. Implementation of this practice of “destruction of life unworthy of life” in the former Austrian territory was, however, significantly more radical than in the “Old Reich”, as could be seen in the significantly higher number of victims in relation to the population. As part of the racist demographic policy, numerous foreign forced labourers were forced to have abortions and were abused in inhumane experiments. If nothing else, the inhumane character of Nazi medicine revealed itself in widespread criminal human experimentations, conducted, for example, by the Viennese internist, Hans Eppinger Jr. and Wilhelm Beiglböck at the Dachau concentration camp.

External Resources:

www.gedenkstaettesteinhof.at