1988 issue 12 - a 'scientific gloss' that can be deadly - counsel of chalcedon
TRANSCRIPT
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8/12/2019 1988 Issue 12 - A 'Scientific Gloss' That Can Be Deadly - Counsel of Chalcedon
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"when will all this extermination
cease?" Dr.
Nyiszli
asked
Dr
Mengele
in Auschwitz.
And
Dr Mengele
answered: "My riend It will go on, and
on, nd on."
Murderous Science: Elimination by
Scientific Selection
of
Jews, Gypsies
and Others, Germany 1933-45 (Oxford
University Press, 1988) by Benno
Muller-Hill, professor
of
genetics at the
Institute of Genetics at the University
of
Cologne, is the kind of book -- and
the above quote is from it -- that will
keep you up late reading
it (for me
4:05 a.m.). Then, when you've read it,
you can't sleep.
And this book will certainly
not
be a
favorite of the fetal-tissue experimenters
and their supporters, who foam
at
the
mouth when Nazi analogies are men
tioned.
But the Nazi analogies are right on
target. They are frighteningly accurate.
For example, in writing about his ex
amination
of
what he calls this aberra
tion in the history of science which
involved some of the leading figures in
the German academic establishment, es
pecially in the fields
of
anthropology
[including human genetics] and
psychiatry -- and how these individuals
aided and abetted the racial policy
of
the Nazi state --
Mr.
Muller-Hill ex
plains just exactly who did what:
. The division of labor during the
scientific process also reinforced its ob
jectivity. The medical expert did not
make a report on his own patients
which might lead to their death.
Nor
did
the expert who gave the opinion carry
out .the killing to which it led. If he
gave no opinion at all, then others
would give it, perhaps with fewer
scruples. Thus, the expert plays a part
in extermination, but can do
so
without
facing up to the end results.
Professors C. Schneider
[a
medical
doctor and Nazi Party member who
committed suicide in 1946] and von
Verschuer [a medical doctor and anthro
pologist] did not kill anyone them
selves in order
to
obtain the eyes, blood
and brains which they wanted. Others
i it for them (emphasis mine). Even
their assistants, who did the scientific
work, did not do the killing. In this
respect, Dr. Mengele was an exception.
For these scientists, objectivity
opened the door to every conceivable
form ofbarbaric practice. These German
scientists and physicians lived in a
world without values. Jewish values
were not theirs. Neither were Christian
values upheld by their peers . . these
scientists and physicians were ready to
do anything at all, motivated by their
belief in pure objectivity.
Sound familiar? You bet
it
does.
Very familiar. Today, those, most
of
them, who would use the tissues of
aborted, murdered, unborn human be
ings, would
not
actually murder these
little images of
od
Somebody else
would do that. The fetal-tissue users
would simply use the tissues from
these dead babies.
Writing about the massive killing by
the Nazis of mental patients, Jews,
Gypsies, Slavs and other asocial
individuals -- which, as he puts it,
opened up new perspectives for psy
chiatric and anthropological research -
- Mr. Muller-Hill says that the De
partments of Brain Anatomy [Psychia
try) and Brain Research
of
the KWI
[Kaiser Wilhelm Society
for
the Ad
vancement
of
Science] had no scruples
about working with the brains
of
mur
der victims. A research report
of
the
KWI [Psychiatry] reads:
The
number
of
post-mortems on
children in the mental hospital in Haar
has risen substantially. As a result it
has been possible to obtain much rare
apd valuable material pertaining to the
problems
of
brain injuries in early
infancy and
to
congenital malformation.
t
In a report on Dec. 8, 1942, a
Professor Hallervorden of the KWI
[Brain Research] wrote that in the
course of that summer,
I
have been
able to dissect 500 brains from feeble
minded individuals and to prepare them
for examination.
n
March 9, 1944,
he wrote to another professor that I
have received 697 brains
in
all, in
cluding those which I took out myself
in Brandenburg whether I will be
able to make a histological study
of
them
all,
only time will tell.
Mr. Hallervorden later said to his
American interrogators who did some
of
this killing, I heard that they were
going to
do
that and so I went up to
them (and said]: 'Look here now, boys,
if you are going
to
kill all these people
at
least take the brains out,
so
that the
material could
be
utilized.' They asked
me:
'How many can you examine?' And
so I told them
an
unlimited number -
-'the
more the better.' I gave them fiXa-
tives, jars and boxes, and instructions
for removing and fiXing the brains and
they
came
bringing them like the de
livery van from the furniture company.
. . . . There was wonderful material
among those brains, beautiful mental
defectives, malformations and early in
fantile diseases
.''
A Professor
C.
Schneiderhad what
is
called
a
weightier project in mind.
He, with another professor, wanted to
create research centers in the mental hos
pitals ofWiesloch [near Heidelberg] and
Gorden in which patients could undergo
thorough psychological and physiologi
cal investigations before being killed.
And a Professor Lenz wrote, in 1931,
that
we
cannot doubt that National
Socialism is honestly striving for a
healthier race.
Mr. Muller-Hill say that anthropolo
gists and psychiatrists gave a scientific
. gloss and tidiness to the Nazi program
because, among other reasons, they
The Counsel of Chalcedon, December, 1988
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8/12/2019 1988 Issue 12 - A 'Scientific Gloss' That Can Be Deadly - Counsel of Chalcedon
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hoped for an enonnous expansion of
their research and they believed Hitler
would realize and give due prominence
to their ideas.''
Regarding what he calls the most
important question of all -- that is,
what cati
we
learn from all of this.
carnage? -- Mr. Muiler-H:lll writes that
the problem was not with "defects in
the character of a few individuals, but
rather with defects
in
psychiatry
and
anthropology as a whole" {emphasis
mine). He concludes:
It seems
to
me that the inexorable
encroachment of science, which began
iTi the 18th century during the Age of
the Enlightenment. has had unfore
seen and devastating effects. In science
. .all_ t ; h ~ t
r e a l l y
r n a J ~ ~ n Js
g ~ t t i n g
i n t e ~ ~
estirig, accurate results as qu,ickly as
possible; there is simply no time to
talk
to patients. . . . . This attitude
reduces the person to a subservient
de -
personalized object Such a process
formed the bond which held the psy
chiatrists, anthropologists and Hitler to
gether.
Like I said, using the Nazi analogy
regarding today's fetal tissue experi
menters, and their supporters, is right
on
target. This book is chilling and, as
current as today's headlines and nightly
TV
news programs. But start
it
early in
the evening. Because you won't put it
down until you've ftnished
i t
[Reprinte