The Central Role of Neuroscientists under National Socialism

Abstract

Neuroscientists played central roles in the victimization of colleagues and their patients during the era of National Socialism from 1933 to 1945. After helping dismiss Jewish and nonideologically aligned colleagues, German neuroscientists were among the physicians and researchers who joined the Nazi Party and affiliated groups in record numbers. Forced sterilization and then so-called 'euthanasia' of neurological and psychiatric patients were planned and executed by prominent German and Austrian neuroscientists. Other neuroscientists collaborated indirectly by using patients for unethical experimentation to discover the cause of multiple sclerosis or to try to induce epileptic convulsions in a hypoxic state. Some merely used neuropathological material from murdered patients for publications in scientific journals. In the totalitarian state, research funding and academic advancement were awarded to physicians engaged in eugenics research. Opportunism and ideologically tainted science without regard to medical ethics were the motivating factors for collaborating neuroscientists. Some German and Austrian neuroscientists tried to resist Nazi policies, although much more passively than their colleagues in German-occupied countries. French, Dutch, Norwegian, and Danish neuroscientists actively resisted the Nazification of their profession from the beginning and helped to save some patients and colleagues, at great personal risk. Many German, Austrian, Czech, and Polish neurologists were murdered in the Holocaust, and hundreds of thousands of neurological and psychiatric patients were sterilized or murdered in just 12 years. The Nazis used the 'successful' techniques developed in the 'euthanasia' programs to carry out the mass murder of millions in the Holocaust. Today's neuroscientists are obligated to learn of the ethical violations of their predecessors 70-80 years ago. No law will prevent abandonment of the basic principles of ethical patient care and professionalism that can occur in any totalitarian state, but neuroscientists can possibly prevent it.

Unsettling Realities of Nazism and the Legacy of the German Neurological Society

“…It should never, however, be forgotten that these were deliberate acts made with free will, not accidents or forced acts—regardless of the later testimonies and self‐serving declarations put forward, above all, by neurologists after the end of the “Thousand‐Year Reich”. All supporting actions and all taken chances offered by NS politics ultimately stabilized the regime 56 . The claim still championed in 1982—as seen in an official publication of the DGN on the occasion of its 75th anniversary—that the years between 1933 and 1945 had been “years of resistance” for the neurological association and its members 57 must be labeled as outdated and false in view of the historical facts available.…”

“…All supporting actions and all taken chances offered by NS politics ultimately stabilized the regime. 56 The claim still championed in 1982-as seen in an official publication of the DGN on the occasion of its 75th anniversary-that the years between 1933 and 1945 had been "years of resistance" for the neurological association and its members 57 must be labeled as outdated and false in view of the historical facts available. The Nuremberg Declaration made at the annual meeting of the German Federal Medical Association in 2012 appears to be more correct and more realistic with reference to the whole medical profession, neurology and neuroscience included.…”

German Neurology and the ‘Third Reich'

“…'Nazi neurology', in particular, leaves no doubt that medical research on people can come into conflict with ethical values related to therapeutic relationships, human dignity and general respect between people [43] . Ever since medicine became linked to natural sciences, there has been a potential for destruction in this association.…”

Ethical aspects of teaching of nervous diseases

“…Лояльная нацистской власти медицинская общественность обеспечивала создание научной базы для проведения бесчеловечных программ, включая программу «расовой гигиены» [17]. Именно эти специалисты в области нейронаук проводили бесчеловечные эксперименты на узниках концлагерей, изучая, например, патогенез рассеянного склероза или пытаясь вызвать судорожные приступы при гипоксических состояниях [18]. При этом к 1945 г. членами нацистской Национал-социалистической германской рабочей партии (нем.…”

“…При этом к 1945 г. членами нацистской Национал-социалистической германской рабочей партии (нем. : Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) было свыше 41 000 врачей (45-50% всех врачей) [18]. Врачи были обязаны сообщать властям о каждом случае выявленного наследственного заболевания (кроме случаев у женщин старше 45 лет), при этом за 1 больного, о котором сообщалось властям, они получали вознаграждение в размере 150 рейхсмарок [18].…”