Commentary: The Third Reich—German physicians between resistance and participation

To evaluate the role of the medical profession in the Third Reich is a delicate and difficult task. Its participation in major atrocities was, to a large extent, hushed up and recent reports of medical opposition may, in many cases, be exaggerated. Much of the evidence has been destroyed or is not easily accessible. Furthermore , an objective view is potentially clouded by a number of issues related to the past or outlook of the evaluator. Finally, when looking at history with hindsight, there is the danger of arrogance in those who have not actually lived through it. The following account therefore makes no claim to be either objective or complete. It is a personal analysis of a (non-Jewish) German physician who was born after the war and struggles to understand what happened. In the second half of the 19th century, 'Social Darwinism' had spread throughout Europe. This theory assumed that nations, like animal species, fight for the survival of the fittest. The fittest nation would be the one that is genetically the 'purest'. German A number of scientists from outside the University of Jena contributed to research at the Institute. In addition to Günther Just, other scientists such as the Director of the Institute for Racial Hygiene at the German University in Prague, Professor Karl Thurns and the pharmacologist, Professor Gustav Kuschinsky, also from Prague, conducted research in collaboration with the Institute and received financial support from the Institute. Karl Astel also invited one of the best known tobacco researchers of the time, Fritz Lickint, to collaborate with the Institute. 20 The gynaecologist, Paul Bernhard from Duisburg, made use of the focus on tobacco at the University of Jena and submitted his habilitation on 'The effects of tobacco poisons on the health and fertility of the woman' in January 1942. The process was successfully concluded in March 1942 and the revised version of Bernhard's text was published less than a year later. 21 Despite all the activities of Karl Astel, the Scientific Institute for Research into the Dangers of Tobacco achieved only marginal scientific significance and reputation. Astel committed suicide ten days before the end of the war, presumably to avoid facing the consequences of his activities as a leading racial hygienist in the Third Reich and the Institute was disbanded and remained forgotten for half a century.