Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:55:24.351Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neuroscience in Nazi Europe Part II: Resistance against the Third Reich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

Lawrence A. Zeidman
Lawrence A. Zeidman*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, (M/C 796), Chicago, Illinois, USA
*
University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation (M/C 796), Neuropsychiatric Institute, 912 S. Wood Street, Room 855N, Chicago, IL, USA, 60612-7330.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Previously, I mentioned that not all neuroscientists collaborated with the Nazis, who from 1933 to 1945 tried to eliminate neurologic and psychiatric disease from the gene pool. Oskar and Cécile Vogt openly resisted and courageously protested against the Nazi regime and its policies, and have been discussed previously in the neurology literature. Here I discuss Alexander Mitscherlich, Haakon Saethre, Walther Spielmeyer, Jules Tinel, and Johannes Pompe. Other neuroscientists had ambivalent roles, including Hans Creutzfeldt, who has been discussed previously. Here, I discuss Max Nonne, Karl Bonhoeffer, and Oswald Bumke. The neuroscientists who resisted had different backgrounds and motivations that likely influenced their behavior, but this group undoubtedly saved lives of colleagues, friends, and patients, or at least prevented forced sterilizations. By recognizing and understanding the actions of these heroes of neuroscience, we pay homage and realize how ethics and morals do not need to be compromised even in dark times.

Type
Historical Review
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 38 , Issue 6 , November 2011 , pp. 826 - 838
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2011

References

1.Zeidman, LA.Neuroscience in Nazi Europe Part I: eugenics, human experimentation, and mass murder. Can J Neurol Sci. 2011;38(5):696–703.Google Scholar
2.Cohen, MM Jr. Genetic drift: overview of German, Nazi, and Holocaust medicine. Am J Med Genet A. 2010;152A(3): 687–707.Google Scholar
3.Hughes, JT.Neuropathology in Germany during World War II: Julius Hallervorden (1882-1965) and the Nazi programme of ‘euthanasia’. J Med Biogr. 2007;15(2):116–22.Google Scholar
4.Burleigh, M.‘Wheels must roll for victory!’ Children’s ‘euthanasia’ and ‘Action T4.’ In: Death and deliverance: ‘Euthanasia’ in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1994. p. 93–129.Google Scholar
5.Shevell, MI.Neurosciences in the Third Reich: from Ivory Tower to death camps. Can J Neurol Sci. 1999;26(2):132–8.Google Scholar
6.Peiffer, J.Phases in the postwar German reception of the “euthanasia program” (1939-1945) involving the killing of the mentally disabled and its exploitation by neuroscientists. J Hist Neurosci. 2006;15(3):210–44.Google Scholar
7.Proctor, R.Medical Resistance. In: Racial hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1988. p. 251–81.Google Scholar
8.Proctor, R.The sterilization law. In: Racial hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1988. p. 95–117.Google Scholar
9.Lifton, RJ.Sterilization and the Nazi biomedical vision. In: The Nazi doctors: Medical killing and the psychology of genocide, 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books; 2000. p. 22–44.Google Scholar
10.Lifton, RJ.Resistance to direct medical killing. In: The Nazi doctors: Medical killing and the psychology of genocide, 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books; 2000. p. 80–95.Google Scholar
11.Kondziella, D.Thirty neurological eponyms associated with the Nazi era. Eur Neurol. 2009;62(1):56–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Strous, RD, Edelman, MC.Eponyms and the Nazi era: time to remember and time for change. Isr Med Assoc J. 2007;9(3): 207–14.Google Scholar
13.Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ.Transfer to a small arena: Neustadt before and during the war. In: Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ. Cécile and Oskar Vogt: The visionaries of modern neuroscience. Vienna: Springer-Verlag; 2002. p. 59–63.Google Scholar
14.Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ.Head on collision of ideologies. In: Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ. Cécile and Oskar Vogt: The visionaries of modern neuroscience. Vienna: Springer-Verlag; 2002. p. 42–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.Van Gijn, J.The Vogts: Cécile (1875-1962) and Oskar (1870-1959). J Neurol. 2003;250:1261–2.Google Scholar
16.Wolf, JH, Foley, P.Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885-1964): a life in neuropathology. J Neural Transm. 2005;112:1–97.Google Scholar
17.Beighton, P, Beighton, G.The man behind the syndrome. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1986.Google Scholar
18.Beighton, P, Beighton, G.The person behind the syndrome. London: Springer-Verlag; 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Firkin, BG, Whitworth, JA.Dictionary of medical eponyms. Boca Raton, FL: Parthenon Publishing Group; 2002.Google Scholar
20.Goddemeier, C.Alexander Mitscherlich: “Diese extrem naturwissenschaftliche Konzeption der Medizin ist gescheitert.” Dtsch Arztebl. 2008;105(38):A-1968-70.Google Scholar
21.Winnik, HZ.A 70th birthday tribute to Alexander Mitscherlich. Isr Ann Psychiatr Relat Discip. 1978 Dec;16(4):339–40.Google Scholar
22.Mitscherlich, A, Mielke, F.Cover jacket. In: Doctors of Infamy: The Story of the Nazi Medical Crimes. New York: Henry Schuman Publishing; 1949. p. cover jacket.Google Scholar
23.Kater, MH.Students of Medicine. In: Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; 1989. p. 150–76.Google Scholar
24.Burleigh, M.Learning from the past? The Singer Debate. In: Death and deliverance: ‘Euthanasia’ in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1994. p. 291–8.Google Scholar
25.Proctor, R.Epilogue: postwar legacies. In: Racial hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1988. p. 298–312.Google Scholar
26.Kater, MH.Introduction. In: Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; 1989. p. 1–11.Google Scholar
27.Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ.Synopsis. In: Klatzo, I, Rhein, GZ. Cécile and Oskar Vogt: The visionaries of modern neuroscience. Vienna: Springer-Verlag; 2002. p. 109–16.Google Scholar
28.Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (German Research Institute of Psychiatry). [History of the Institute page on the Internet]. Munich: Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry; c2011 [updated 2011; cited 2011 Jan 25]. Available from: http://www.mpipsykl.mpg.de/en/institute/history/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
29.Walther Spielmeyer to Friedrich Ast. “Karl Neüberger.” Original letter dated April 3, 1933. Copy provided by Prof. Dr. Matthias M. Weber, Head of the Historical Archive, Max Planck (German Research) Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.Google Scholar
30.Weber, MM.Psychiatric research and science policy in Germany: the history of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Psychiatrie (German Institute for Psychiatric Research) in Munich from 1917 to 1945. Hist Psychiatry. 2000;11:235–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
31.Hippius, H, Möller, H-J, Müller, N, Neundörfer-Kohl, G.The Munich Hospital managed by Emil Kraepelin. In: The University Department of Psychiatry in Munich: From Kraepelin and his predecessors to molecular psychiatry. Berlin: Springer; 2008. p. 71–100.Google Scholar
32.Clark, D.Jules Tinel and Tinel’s sign. Clin Plast Surg. 1983;10(4): 627–8.Google Scholar
33.Davis, EN, Chung, KC.The Tinel sign: a historical perspective. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2004;114(2):494–9.Google Scholar
34.Melvin, JJ.Pompe’s disease. Arch neurol. 2000;57:134–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. [NINDS Pompe Disease Information Page]. Bethesda, Maryland: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health; c2010 [Updated 2010 May 28; cited 2011 Feb 21]. Available from: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/pompe/pompe.htmGoogle Scholar
36.Reese, HH.Max Nonne, MD (1860-1959). Arch Neurol. 1960;3: 610–1.Google Scholar
37.Nonne, M, Apelt, F.Über fractionierte Eiweissausfällung in der Spinalflüssigkeit von Gesunden, Luetikern, functionell und organisch Nervenkranken und über ihre Verwertung zur Differentialdiagnose der Dementia paralytica, Tabes dorsalis, tertiären und abgelaufenen Syphilis. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin. 1908;43:433–60.Google Scholar
38.Nonne, M.Über Fälle vom Symptomenkomplex «tumor cerebri» mit Ausgang in Heilung (pseudotumor cerebri). Über lethal verlaufene Fälle von (pseudotumor cerebri) mit Sektionsbefund. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde, Berlin. 1904;27: 169–216.Google Scholar
39.Nonne, M.Über das Vorkommen von starker Phase I-Reaktion bei fehlender 6 Fällen von Rükenmarkstumor. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde, Berlin. 1910;40:161–7.Google Scholar
40.Peiffer, J.Zur Neurologie im “Dritten Reich” und ihren Nachwirkungen. Nervenarzt. 1998;69(8):728–33.Google Scholar
41.Ströhle, A, Wrase, J, Malach, H, Gestrich, C, Heinz, A.Bonhoeffer, Karl (1868-1948). Am J Psychiatry. 2008;165:575–6.Google Scholar
42.Kater, MH.Medical faculties in crisis. In: Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; 1989. p.111–49.Google Scholar
43.Hippius, H, Möller, H-J, Müller, N, Neundörfer-Kohl, G.Bumke, Oswald and his Munich workgroup: Changing the Psychiatric Hospital into a “Hospital for Nervous Disorders.” In: The University Department of Psychiatry in Munich: From Kraepelin and his predecessors to molecular psychiatry. Berlin: Springer; 2008. p. 111–33.Google Scholar
44.Burleigh, M.Winter landscapes: Psychiatric reform and retrenchment during the Weimar Republic. In: Death and deliverance: ‘Euthanasia’ in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1994. p. 11–42.Google Scholar
45.Shevell, MI.Neurology’s witness to history: The combined intelligence operative sub-committee reports of Leo Alexander. Neurology. 1996;47:1096–1103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
46.Kater, MH.The challenge of the Nazi movement. In: Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; 1989. p. 54–88.Google Scholar
47.Alexander, L.Medical science under dictatorship. N Engl J Med. 1949;241:39–47.Google Scholar
48.Yad, Vashem. [Righteous among the nations page on the Internet]. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem; c2011 [updated 2011; cited 201 Feb 24]. Available from: http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/about.aspGoogle Scholar