First,
Do No Harm
The mission of the Center for Medicine after the Holocaust (CMATH) is to challenge doctors, nurses, and bioscientists to personally confront the medical ethics of the Holocaust and to apply that knowledge to contemporary practice and research.
Without the enthusiastic support of the German healthcare community, the Holocaust might not have happened.
From 1933 to 1945, German physicians, bioscientists, and nurses – the best in the world at the time – willingly committed the most egregious violations of medical and professional ethics.
Guided by eugenic theories of race, they sterilized 400,000 citizens against their will, euthanized 200,000 disabled German children and adults, and created the gas chambers and crematoria that were used for the mass murder of 4.5 million Jews in the “final solution.”
For patients, medical professionals and Holocaust survivor families, it is important to remember this time period and learn from it, so we will do no harm in the future.
Without Considering the Past, The Future Will Repeat Itself
Indiana passes the first involuntary sterilization law in the world
Hitler becomes chancellor and Germany legalizes coercive sterilization
First use of a gas chamber to “euthanize” disabled German adults
Mengele, nicknamed “Angel of Death” becomes “Chief Camp Physician” of Auschwitz II
1883
1927
1939
1941
1947
1907
1933
1940
1943
The term “Eugenics” coined by English naturalist Sir Francis Galton
United States Supreme Court legalizes coercive sterilization
Child euthanasia programs begins killing disabled German children
German adult euthanasia T-4 program ends after 70,000 gassed to death in six “euthanasia centers”
Nuremberg Medical (or Doctors’) Trial ends
