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