Medicalized killing in Auschwitz

Since late 1977 I have been conducting a psychological study of medical behavior in Auschwitz, and of Nazi doctors in general. I have been especially interested in the relationship of doctors, SS doctors in particular, to the killing process--in the transformation from healer to killer. I am concerned with the importance of the medicalized pattern for the overall Nazi project of mass murder and have therefore tried to examine the interaction of biomedical ideology, political ideology, and individual behavior. Finally, the work raises questions of more general significance: for doctors and medicine elsewhere; for scientists, other professionals, and institutions of all kinds; for approaches to "triage" and control over life and death; and for our understanding of human nature and human values. After describing how I did the study, I will discuss what I call the Nazi "biomedical vision" and its relationship to the killing of mental patients as well as to Auschwitz. Next I will suggest features of the Auschwitz atmosphere, particularly in regard to the psychological factors, or mechanisms, that enabled the Nazi doctors to do what they did. Finally, I will turn very briefly to the more general problems raised by the study.