Extraordinary evil involves a total moral collapse across society caused by failure of individual humanity and ethical judgment. This was the conclusion of the philosopher Hannah Arendt after witnessing the trial of Adolf Eichmann – the chief architect of the Holocaust – in Jerusalem.
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Medicine, which is supposed to alleviate human suffering, became a willing accomplice in Nazi mass murder. Although medical professionals had been involved in abusive practices on human subjects and populations before, under Nazi rule the scale of their professional lapse was extreme in every respect.
Even before they launched the “final solution” against the Jews, Nazi authorities had already engaged in a covert, murderous project directed at people with disabilities in Germany. The T-4 “euthanasia” programme marked a terrifying climax of trends in medicine that was long in the making – and not unique to Germany.
These and other related failings of medical practice in the Third Reich were the subject of the Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust. The conclusions were recently published in a comprehensive report. The report was accepted for publication before October 7 – the date of the Hamas attack on Israel.
The report highlights the urgent need to expand our understanding of the history of medicine in Nazi Germany in order to “emphasise the unique opportunities and responsibilities of health professionals” to eliminate antisemitism and racism, and to protect “vulnerable populations against stigmatisation and discrimination”.
Learning about this dark episode in the recent past is not only crucial for fostering a “history-informed professional identity” but serves as a poignant cautionary tale of the fragility of core values of healthcare.