Neuroscience in Nazi Europe. Parts 1-3

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21856571

Can J Neurol Sci. 2011 Sep;38(5):696-703.

Neuroscience in Nazi Europe part I: eugenics, human experimentation, and mass murder.

Zeidman LA.

Source

Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation (M/C 796), Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Abstract

The Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 to 1945 waged a veritable war throughout Europe to eliminate neurologic disease from the gene pool. Fueled by eugenic policies on racial hygiene, the Nazis first undertook a sterilization campaign against "mental defectives," which included neurologic patients with epilepsy and other disorders, as well as psychiatric patients. From 1939-41 the Nazis instead resorted to "euthanasia" of many of the same patients. Some neuroscientists were collaborators in this program, using patients for research, or using extracted brains following their murder. Other reviews have focused on Hallervorden, Spatz, Schaltenbrand, Scherer, and Gross, but in this review the focus is on neuroscientists not well described in the neurology literature, including Scholz, Ostertag, Schneider, Nachtsheim, and von Weizsäcker. Only by understanding the actions of neuroscientists during this dark period can we learn from the slippery slope down which they traveled, and prevent history from repeating itself.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22030419

Can J Neurol Sci. 2011 Nov;38(6):826-38.

Neuroscience in Nazi Europe part II: resistance against the third reich.

Zeidman LA.

Source

Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois 60612-7330, USA.

Abstract

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.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23230611

Can J Neurol Sci. 2012 Nov;39(6):729-46.

Neuroscience in Nazi Europe part III: victims of the third reich.

Zeidman LA, Kondziella D.

Source

University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation (m/C 796), Neuropsychiatric Institute, 912 S. Wood Street, Room 855N, Chicago, Illinois 60612-7330, USA. lzeidm1@uic.edu

Abstract

In Part I, neuroscience collaborators with the Nazis were discussed, and in Part II, neuroscience resistors were discussed. In Part III, we discuss the tragedy regarding european neuroscientists who became victims of the Nazi onslaught on “Non-Aryan” doctors. Some of these unfortunate neuroscientists survived Nazi concentration camps, but most were murdered. We discuss the circumstances and environment which stripped these neuroscientists of their profession, then of their personal rights and freedom, and then of their lives. We include a background analysis of anti-Semitism and Nazism in their various countries, then discuss in depth seven exemplary neuroscientist Holocaust victims; including germans Ludwig Pick, Arthur Simons, and Raphael Weichbrodt, Austrians Alexander Spitzer and Viktor Frankl, and Poles Lucja Frey and Wladyslaw Sterling. by recognizing and remembering these victims of neuroscience, we pay homage and do not allow humanity to forget, lest this dark period in history ever repeat itself.