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The SS x-ray unit as an instrument for "total registration" and "race selection"
Mathias Schmidt1, Tina Winzen, Dominik Gross
1Institute for the History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Wendlingweg 2, MTI II, 52074, Aachen, Germany, maschmidt@ukaachen.de.
Objectives:
The aim of this article is to show that, after the onset of World War II at the latest, the central task of the x-ray unit of the Nazi-SS (Schutzstaffel) led by Prof. Hans Holfelder was by no means the early diagnosis of tuberculosis. Its primary purpose, rather, was to serve the various "racial" and inhuman aims of the SS itself.
Methods:
Main historical sources and information about the SS x-ray unit are surveyed and analyzed.
Results:
Clearly, the significance of the x-ray storm unit was increasingly subordinated to the necessities of the war until its original objectives disappeared from focus completely. The main purpose of operation of the x-ray storm unit thus by no means lay in the early detection of tuberculosis and did not therefore serve tuberculosis control.
Conclusion:
The actual objective lay, rather, in the implementation of SS aims in terms of Volk politics, genetics, and "racial hygiene".