The doctors of Death (Translated)

By Philippe Aziz and David De Angelis

Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it.
More than seventy years after the end of the Second World War, reading this book has never been more important.
The Doctors of Death is a historical document about the horrors of Nazi medicine during the Second World War. From the social and ideological context that allowed the role of the doctor to be utterly corrupted, to those responsible on the ground for the most heinous acts, this is a work based on the testimonies of survivors, the confessions of SS doctors and thousands of documents that the Nazis were unable to destroy before their final defeat.
Thousands of children, disabled people, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews and even dissident Germans, prisoners of an ideology that denied them their human condition, were subjected to atrocious medical experiments with the aim of annihilating inferior races or helping the war effort. It was the height of the Third Reich's cruelty, a scientific delirium that shocks and disgusts. And it must be read so that it is never forgotten.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stargatebook
• Release date: Jan 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9791222494906

Book preview

JOURNEY INTO THE REALM OF SHADOWS

Hamburg, November 12, 1972...

The city of 100,000 dead, the battered Hamburg, disappeared behind me.... The Lüneburg region presented itself, on that cold and gloomy October morning, boundless and motionless in silence. Itsohoe suddenly loomed up, like a ghostly witch town.

The desolate landscape, the barren, bleak moorland surrounding me, increased that heavy sense of oppression I already felt after Hamburg, where I began this painstaking reconstruction of events.

A low, rustic, red-brick house at the beginning of the deserted village.... The first smile: that of a swarthy weasel who opened the door for me.

... At that moment I did not notice the frail little figure lying among the pillows and wrapped in shawls, by the huge cast-iron stove. I only knew that my journey ended there, in that cramped and too hot place, with faded walls, in front of that immense paper of old Germany, in the midst of those heavy and useless pieces of furniture, before that bald old man with the blank stare and the nervous hands, which did not cease to tremble convulsively throughout the interview.

Dr. Darnhoff1?

The deep voice spoke for a long time, a very long time.... Lost echoes of Germany's darkest days, of its most incomprehensible hero: Karl Brandt, doctor in Hitler's retinue and Reich Commissioner of Health. Darnhoff was his colleague and friend.

And when that one stopped talking, covering with the dark cloak of silence some secrets inviolable to him, I was left with a bitter taste of ashes....

TESTIMONY ON BEHALF OF A FRIEND

" I agreed to speak only now that a whole generation separates us from the war ...

I met him in Munich, around 1925. We were the most enthusiastic students of Professor Sauerbruch, but he was the most gifted and the most intelligent of all of us.

A pale smile brightened, for a moment, the gaunt face of my interlocutor.

"Who knows how many girls would have liked to make his acquaintance! But he was so shy that, when he spotted one on his way out of class, he would keep me near him in the corridors.... He had an extraordinary, harmonious voice that fascinated us when we listened to him discuss medicine. In fact he already passionately loved his future profession and I admired his enthusiasm, his blind faith in his vocation.

'You see, Henry,' she told me, 'I am an atheist, and yet when I think back to my first scalpel, my first operation, well I really believe that it is a prayer of thanksgiving that my lips murmured in silence...'"

The smiling girl who had received me a few moments earlier placed the traditional bottle of Steinhèger and two glasses in front of us. We did not then hear her close the door again, but Darnhoff did not seem to mind.

Karl Brandt, like me, came from a family of physicians, but while I wished to become a doctor more to follow tradition than as a vocation, he, on the other hand, could not imagine anything that was more beautiful and gave a greater sense of accomplishment than the practice of medicine. My friend's personality and his future behavior already find an explanation in this love of medicine and surgery in particular. Even when he became Reich commissar, a kind of minister of health, he never abandoned his profession as a surgeon. Without allowing himself a moment's rest he continued to operate in the Berlin polyclinic.... As if this activity should compensate him for the obscure administrative work he was forced to do under Hitler's direct orders...

When I asked him for explanations of such work, which he himself had described as obscure, Darnhoff replied indirectly.

"At that time we were in our twenties, and our love for Germany drove us to justify all our actions.

The war had dealt us a terrible blow, and the defeat, the frightening economic crisis, the inflation, the death of millions appeared to us as a monstrous injustice. Outside was shame, carnage; inside was ruin, fratricidal war, fear and hatred of communism and capitalism. We were living in Munich, the heart of Bavaria! National Socialism represented the only path of salvation toward which our hopes turned.... And my friend Brandt was originally from Alsace! One of those German exiles forced to flee their countries after the war..."

MY LAND THAT NO LONGER BELONGS TO ME

Mulhouse, January 8, 1904. A man lifted the heavy velvet curtain that hid a gloomy night sky disrupted by the storm. The quiet warmth of the room created a violent contrast to the continuous roar of the rain. Of the imposing St. Stephen's Church, only the dark, blind shadow of the stained glass windows could be discerned. Suddenly the muffled, distant echo of a wailing was heard: the man jerked, abruptly letting the curtain fall back and turned around apprehensively.

A moment later a door opened and a man in a black pastern entered the room, his face lit by a broad smile:

Congratulations Mr. Brandt: you are the father of a magnificent boy!

Karl Brandt had been born. The land that saw him born, German since 1871, would remain so for fifteen more years: just long enough to come out of childhood.

Wishing to understand thoroughly, I then asked Dr. Darnhoff whether, in his opinion, Karl Brandt's adherence to National Socialism could partly stem from the fact that he, an Alsatian by birth, was then forced to emigrate to Germany in 1919.

I not only think so, I categorically affirm it, the old man replied. Brandt suffered terribly from the French occupation of Alsace: he was fifteen years old and had just finished secondary school.... Excuse me for speaking in these terms about Alsace, but for thousands of German Alsatians, it was an integral part of Germany...

Darnhoff suddenly seemed more upset and began to gesticulate, tracing strange gestures in the air. Then he continued in a low voice:

For Brandt and for most of us, the desire to regain this province had turned into the most beautiful or perhaps the craziest of plans.... Should Hitler's inordinate ambition not have been used?.... But nostalgia and love for the land of our birth are feelings strongly anchored in our hearts.... The National Socialist Party would become for Karl Brandt the avenging party, the party of hope. To be able to walk again, one day, through the streets of Mulhouse...

PROFESSOR PLATE'S STATEMENT

We were desperate rebellious young men, destined for unemployment, so we welcomed anti-Semitic propaganda as something right and expected.... I need a lot of courage today to confess things that made me suffer in silence for so long.... Karl had begun his studies in Jena, Thuringia, and like all of us he was under the influence of his professors.

1923: The large amphitheater of the Medical University of Jena was packed; here and there bursts of laughter could be heard among the students. The questioning was taking place in a relaxed atmosphere, amid the hubbub characteristic of all university gatherings: suddenly Professor Plate, whose zoology course was among the most popular, appeared. Gloomy and stern, he headed for his own chair, and gradually in the various crouds of students there was silence.

Before classes begin, I need to make a communication to this student assembly.

A sepulchral silence fell over the entire amphitheater: Professor Plate was known as a very serious person, so his communication must have been really important.

Concise and sharp his voice began:

I must warn students of the non-Aryan race and in particular Jews, that from now on they must refrain from attending my courses and seminars. From next week I will begin to explain to you the absolute contradiction inherent in the mixing of races and I will also explain to you the inescapable principle of the superiority of the pure German race...

Stunned, the students looked at each other, then, in the oppressive silence, a brown student slowly stood up, pointing an arm toward the desk with an accusatory gesture.

Plate, he shouted, I no longer recognize you as having the right to continue as the eminent professor I respected and followed; I deny you the right to publicly expound theories that can undermine the future of Germany. I accuse you of racism, anti-Semitism and fascism; I accuse you of Nazi propaganda in the service of the worst enemies of our democracy.

An indescribable roar erupted at the end of this speech: there was shouting, altercations, and even came to blows. The amphitheater in Jena turned into a battlefield.

Indeed, provincial authorities would later demand disciplinary sanctions for Professar Plate, but the outcome of the trial was a nonsuit, fraught with consequences...

When I asked him if Brandt was present that famous day, Darnhoff replied:

No, Brandt was not taking Plate's courses that year; however, in Munich he participated in a few events in line with Plate's statements.

As I looked at the old man, I was burning with the desire to ask him what his behavior had been, and he, sensing my hesitation began to explain in a thread of voice:

Had I had Brandt's character and nationalistic motives, I certainly would have behaved as he did; instead I had the good fortune to be from Hamburg. The future looked more certain to me than his: I was to inherit my father's medical cabinet ... and then among my closest friends were Jews.

THE GALLOWS AND THE HANGED MAN

April 1925. The Munich Medical Students' Association made a resounding demonstration in front of the Rector's Office premises: as a consequence the numerus clausus of the subsequent examinations was particularly severe. The fascists did not miss an opportunity to protest against the number, too high for them, of Jewish students admitted to the examinations...

Two students, standing on the sidelines, watched their fellow students demonstrating; the youngest, seized with dismay and disquiet, murmured in a low voice:

I am sorry, dear Hirsch, you are as German to me as any of us; however, I am frightened by National Socialist propaganda. It wants a scapegoat to pay for all the evils of Germany and seeks nothing but victims: racial theories are like the tree that hides the forest.

The other boy, tall and dark-haired, did not respond: he simply shook his head sadly.

Suddenly a student emerged from the crowd and rushed toward them waving a book.

Hirsch, he shouted in a mocking tone. I return this to you-with many thanks and congratulations.

The tall boy grabbed the book on the fly, which abruptly opened to the last page.

There was drawn in black ink a gallows with a hanged man and, below, this epitaph: The End of Hirsch, 19...?

The student, said Darnhoff, who had drawn the gallows was Karl Brandt. The one accompanying Hirsch that day, on the other hand, was me!

Darnhoff's gaze crossed with mine, and the old doctor shook his head: before long Hitler's frightening deception, which time has not yet managed to make forget, would be revealed. We stood in silence, as if adjusting to the monotonous grayness of the moors we glimpsed through the window. Then Darnhoff slowly resumed:

However, Karl Brandt was not a fanatic: I never heard him make anti-Semitic speeches, and I believe he had many secretaries in his Berlin office who were Jewish or of Jewish origin. But he was deeply disgusted with the political corruption that reigned at that time and he too sought scapegoats.... What I am about to tell you may sound incredible, but, following his ideals and his faith in medicine, he was on the verge of leaving for Africa with Albert Schweitzer.

LEAVING FOR CONGO WITH DR. SCHWEITZER

I urged Darnhoff to provide clarification on what I called the Schweitzer affair.

"The 'Schweitzer' period was decisive in Brandt's life.... We worked together, after 1928, in the industrial Ruhr, in Bochum, in the Bergmannsheil hospital, following Professor Magnus.... But I will tell you more about that later.... The passage to Bochum is also very important in order to understand his adherence to the National Socialist Party and Hitler.

Kari Brandt was an admirer of Professor Schweitzer (also from Alsace) and his work; I know that he visited him many times during our stay in Bochum. The professor's scientific background, intelligence and spirit of self-sacrifice seemed to exert an extraordinary influence on him. He spoke of him to me as a man from whom there was everything to learn. One day he came to see me with a happy expression that amazed me, and 'Heinrich,' he said as he walked in like a madman, 'I'm leaving...' and before I could say a single word he continued 'I'm leaving, I'm leaving for the Congo with Schweitzer: by now we've agreed, he's going to take me with him...' Alas!... At least he had left! But fate, because of an issue of nationality, would have decided otherwise for him: for French law, in order to allow him to leave, required that he first serve in the French army, and in order to do so, he would, of course, have to take French nationality. That's right, a German Alsatian!... He confided to me at that time, almost having a foreboding of what would be his fate, that never had he experienced a more bitter disappointment. ''Patience,'' he had then added bitterly, ''if I cannot put my science, my self-denial and my courage at the service of the lepers of Lambaréné, it will mean that I will put them at the service of the German lepers!'' He was referring to those unfortunate miners whom we were treating in the Bochum hospital. No doubt it was on that occasion that Karl Brandt had a foreboding of what would be his fate. I think I can say today that Schweitzer and Hitler were the two figures who most influenced his personality: they were the examples by whom he was inspired and in whom he mirrored himself.

I thought of Karl Brandt, his sense of organization, his passion for medicine, his doggedness in carrying out to the end the mission assigned to him... What great things he could have accomplished next to a man like Schweitzer!

WE ARE SO USED TO THE DEATH OF OTHERS!

Darnhoff's voice brought me back to reality.

"In Bochum we were exhausted with work: we were operating every day, both with Professor Magnus, and with Professor Rostock, whom you may have heard of, as he was acquitted at the Nuremberg trial....

"One day we were on duty together in the emergency room when we were notified by telephone that a sudden cave-in of support girders had caused a serious misfortune in the Bertinghem mines. We prepared to receive the injured. It was a painful sight: ambulances were constantly transporting us very seriously injured people, and neither Brandt nor I had ever witnessed such a tragedy.     

"Some wounded were unconscious or even in horns, but others were still lucid and suffering beyond. human endurance.... You know... The most tragic thing was that we doctors knew right away that many of them were going to die. I remember a scene that troubled us both: we were walking through the emergency room when a man, heinously wounded in the legs and pelvis, clung convulsively to Brandt's gown and started screaming:

"' Doctor, I beg you, let me die soon.... I can't take it anymore... It's too late, there's nothing you can do for me now.... 'Doctor, I want to die, do you understand me? I want to die!'

"His words then became unintelligible and he continued to suffer and scream, despite the morphine, and Brandt had to forcibly open his hands for the wretch to let go of his gown. The unfortunate man died a few moments later.

We later learned from the stretcher-bearer that the poor man had been under the landslide for three hours before they released him. Brandt was waxy, and as for me, I didn't know what to do anymore. But still, we were so used to seeing people die!.... I don't know if you can understand, I don't want to justify the actions Brandt took later, but it may be that if he a few years later agreed to deal with Boulher on the terrible problem of euthanasia, it was partly because of what we had seen every day in the hospital in Bochum. Have you ever heard the heartrending cry of a dying person, when you, the doctor, can do nothing but grant him a few more moments of suffering? I do not know what considerations were behind Brandt's subsequent attitude, however, the memory of that terrible evening is fixed in my mind; I cannot explain myself, it is impossible.

As much as Darnhoff did not want to admit it, I understood perfectly well that he was trying to justify, with this argument, Karl Brandt's participation in the euthanasia operation. I then asked him if.he had given a deposition at the Nuremberg trial.

Testify?... My God, and about what? he replied, jerking his head in surprise. "The Nuremberg judges were only looking for the direct or indirect perpetrators...I could only have been talking about motives, while they wanted to hear testimony about Nazi actions, facts, dates, experiences...Instead, I am just trying to understand the causes of a friend's behavior and all the components of his personality....

From the year 1934 Brandt disappeared completely from my life. While I remained in Hamburg as a doctor and district surgeon, he became a doctor in the Führer's retinue: I continued to be an obscure professional, he became one of the most eminent figures of the Third Reich.... What could I have testified about? (At this point the tone became uncertain. It seemed that suddenly Darnhoff felt upset.)

And then, he resumed, Karl Brandt was tried as a war criminal, at Nuremberg.... They say he was crushed by the weight of irrefutable evidence, but I know for a fact that the Americans themselves did everything they could to get him a pardon after the Nuremberg judges had sentenced him to death. Unfortunately, the order to carry out the execution reached the military command before the authorities in Washington could come to a decision.... When I learned about it ... I was shocked. I did not understand. But what I assert now in all conviction Karl Brandt had said before me, and those were his last words, and that was that that American tribunal, under the pretense of issuing a verdict, had instead merely carried out an act of political revenge.

Darnhoff abruptly stopped speaking, but the harsh tone of his last words did not surprise me all that much; in fact I already knew, when I had decided to listen to him, that he strongly disagreed with the sentence handed down at Nuremberg against Karl Brandt.

At that moment, the old doctor was thoughtful and seemed to be in conversation with himself: I dared not interrupt him.

THE SINISTER RUMBLE OF FLYING FORTRESSES

"I saw him again only once, on July 15, 1944, right here in Hamburg, after some air raids that caused many casualties. That day the warning sirens alerted the civilian population a half-hour late, so everyone rushed en masse to the underground shelters scattered by the hundreds around the city. After a quarter of an hour, the dull roar of Allied bombing planes heralded what would be the most nefarious incursion ever into northern Germany...

"Seventy percent of the shipyards, 80 percent of the steel and industrial complexes were destroyed; for three hours the city center, residential neighborhoods, hospitals and schools were bombed breathlessly.

"When the flying fortresses left, and with them their roar of death, they left behind them a sky ominously lit by the flames of fires.

"... One man in uniform was working to keep the panic from escalating, and it was the same person who would later organize all the rescue operations in what had been the largest and most important port in Hitler's Germany: that man was Karl Brandt.

"For miles and square kilometers, the city was in flames from the phosphorus incendiary bombs, and the bitumen of the street pavements, melting, went to clog the air intakes of the underground shelters; there were thousands of deaths from asphyxiation, thousands of wounded and tens of thousands of homeless. For days on end the screams of ambulance sirens and maritime police lookouts resounded. In Hamburg all the people still valid, from doctors to nurses, from soldiers to distraught civilians, all obeyed the precise and effective orders of a doctor in the Führer's retinue.

"This man who organized the mass evacuation of the wounded was about to be called by Hitler to the highest office of the state in the sphere of health. He would, at Nuremberg, declare:

' In this service I represented the highest authority of the Reich: that decree provided me with the power to exercise the coordinating functions and to issue directives. I can cite, for example, the evacuation by air of the wounded, medical convoys, cooperation with industry, the establishment of new hospitals in places where they had been destroyed, the assignment to take charge of the most bombed cities in West Germany...'

I heard Darnhoff murmur, And no doubt he had to solve far more terrible health problems as well...

On that July 15, 1944, Brandt, on an inspection tour of the northern part of the city, had to witness the most complete disaster, the most total lack of organization in transportation services on the part of the city's police. it even took him several hours to ferret out the police chief, who had gone absent without leaving any orders.

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WILL GET THE MOST CREDIT.

The old man sank even deeper into his chair: the years had failed to erase the drama he had experienced as a person and as a doctor. Then, in a rough voice, he began to speak again, while his hands were shaken by a slight tremor.

"On the evening of that damned day Karl Brandt came to see me.... He was so aged that I could hardly recognize him.... The drawn features ... certainly from fatigue ... but he seemed to me above all tired ... morally. I wished I could have talked to him about the times we were living, about the anguish that assailed me when I thought about the future; but he spoke little, in fact to tell the truth we just exchanged banal phrases. He seemed to be somewhere else with his thoughts.... And I did not dare to ask him too many questions about his new responsibilities and what he must surely know about the general condition of Germany. Besides, he was not alone... With him were officers. In fact, no one dared to speak, as if, by our silence, we had been able to stave off catastrophe from that city ravaged by suffering.

"When he got up to leave, my heart clenched: he held my hand tightly for a long time, and I read on his face an emotion I would never have believed him capable of. At the door he turned and said to me:

"' You know, Heinrich, between the two of us you will be the one with the most merit.'

"I probably assumed such an astonished air that he hastened to add, 'As for me.... I regret nothing ... whatever may happen, you know ... what I did I had to do. Our people and our Führer know this and I will remain loyal to them to the last.'

Then he fell silent visibly emotional and I did not know what to reply; we shook hands for the last time, then his car and military escort disappeared into the devastated streets. I would never see him again.

From the kitchen the familiar clatter of dishes brought us back to the present reality and Darnhoff sighed. Later, sitting at the table in the large dining room, we resumed the interrupted conversation more calmly and Darnhoff showed me a letter from Brandt, dated December 16, 1931. That letter confirmed that it was precisely during his stay in Bochum that he had adhered to National Socialist ideas.

THE BLACK YEAR OF AWAKENING TO POLITICS: 1931

Christmas is near, Heinrich, (...) and I can't stand the look of people on the street anymore (...) everywhere there is black misery (...) Tails of people in front of workshops and in front of stores (...) at the doors of churches (...) I have attended a few meetings of the National Socialist Party and I am in contact with an important group (....) Something must be done: Germany is on the brink of the precipice (...) There have been some very violent clashes between National Socialists and Communists (...) Those people are crazy (...) They would like to ally themselves, as they did in the last war, with our worst enemies (...) And our bourgeoisie is composed almost entirely of Jews (...) There is no agreement! (...) Why then are the Communists also Jews? (...) And France all this time that occupied Alsace...

Indeed, the period referred to in this letter was the blackest in all of Germany's history: for it would never have known such misery, not even after the unconditional surrender of 1945; suffice it to say that that was the moment when the mark lost all its value. Historians have handed down the anecdote of the briefcase full of marks to go and buy a loaf of bread: this anecdote reports the truth.

The crisis deepened from September 1930, when the National Socialists won 18 percent of the vote, until the 1932 elections, when they got 230 of their deputies elected to the Reichstag. The specter of starvation terrorized all of Germany, and the world crisis was bearing down hard on this country still prostrate from an unaccepted defeat. The war debts were not yet paid off nor would they ever be. There was no shortage of scapegoats denounced with great skill by National Socialist propaganda: traitorous politicians, communists and Jews.

In January 1932, in the tense atmosphere of a Nazi party meeting attended by unemployed, theorists and men of action, Karl Brandt decided to join the party. Fiery speeches against those who had killed Germany were interspersed with promises to the Germans, a people of rulers. The young surgeon lived in the hospital, daily in contact with moral and physical miseries; in the streets he then encountered the long lines waiting in front of store doors. He never denied what he judged to be the only way to salvation and in fact would affirm before the Nuremberg tribunal:

In 1932 I joined the party driven by social motives: at that time I was an assistant surgeon in the Ruhr, where unemployment and insecurity reigned supreme.

At the same time he also became a member of the National Socialist League of Physicians, however, placing a condition fraught with consequences: that of never exercising any activity in either the SS or the SA. A few years later Nazi physician Conti, one of his fiercest opponents, and Bormann, the regime's gray eminence, would use this very condition to discredit him in Hitler's eyes.

A CASE OF FATE

Resuming the course of our conversation, I asked the old man under what circumstances Karl Brandt had become Hitler's personal physician.

Fate plays strange tricks: it all began by chance, Darnhoff murmured.

On June 10, 1933, the Führer's black Mercedes crossed the German countryside at breakneck speed: Hitler and his entourage had just left Berchtesgaden to move to Berlin. The new Reich Chancellor was in a hurry and therefore ordered them to speed up; his niece, who was accompanying them on the trip, had climbed with her friends into the second car, driven by the Führer's aide-de-camp Wilhelm Brüchner.

Completing the procession was a third car carrying two staff officers, Karl Brandt and his fiancée Annie Rebhorn...

A year earlier, in 1932, Annie Rebhorn, a champion swimmer and personal friend of Hitler's, who admired her for her beauty and strong character, had introduced the Führer to her young fiancé, still a surgical assistant in Bochum. From that moment the two young people began to associate with the new head of state, accompanying him on his unofficial travels and frequently attending his intimate little parties...

Suddenly on leaving Reit-im-Winkel, Bhichner's car went off the road: a front tire had burst. The driver tried, swerving, to get back on track, but the car, now out of control, first climbed an embankment, then rolled over grass and finally plunged into a ditch. The other two Mercedes braked abruptly, and all the travelers, violently opening the doors wide, rushed around the car off the road. Hitler's alarmed voice was heard, shouting his granddaughter's name.

Frehel! Frehel!...

Poor Bhichner, half unconscious, was bent over the steering wheel and bleeding from his left ear.

Be careful, Brandt shouted as he approached, don't pull him out like that.... There may be a skull fracture...

While Hitler, his driver and Annie Rebhorn tended to the slightly bruised young Frehel and her friends, Brandt and one of the officers carefully laid the aide-de-camp on the ground. The other officer had gone in a hurry to get help.

At the hospital in Traunstein, the nearest town, it was Brandt himself who performed the operation. The hospital staff, thrilled by the arrival of such important figures, cooperated unconditionally. When the operation was over, which lasted two and a half hours, Brandt emerged from the operating room visibly relieved: Bhichner was safe.

Waiting for him was Hitler, who had not wanted to leave specifically to see the young surgeon.

Karl Brandt, she said as she shook his hand, I congratulate you: you have just given us a demonstration of mastery of nerve and readiness of decision, but, above all, you have proved to me that you are an excellent surgeon. I wish you to remain by my side from now on in all my movements: you will be my escort doctor.

Then he added, smiling in a confidential tone:

With a skull and spine specialist by my side, the most that can happen to me can be a broken leg, right? I therefore ask you to stay by my faithful Brüchner's side until he is fully recovered.

Karl Brandt was completely won over by the warmth with which the Führer had expressed his admiration to him: his fate was decided that day.

It was chance that determined who should follow: Schweitzer" the doctor of the godforsaken, or Hitler, the future exterminator of the weak. He, an influential man in search of a role model to follow, succumbed to the leader's charms as one accepts evidence: blindly.

From then on, his life belonged to the Führer: by the time he was 29, he had found his role model and guide.

A BRILLIANT SCIENTIFIC CAREER

Darnhoff continued:

"In the fall of 1933 Brandt returned to Bochum: I found him changed. His meeting with Hitler at the time of the Brüchner incident had completely transformed him: an entirely new sense of security animated him and he was now completely reassured about his future, blindly confident in the one who 'was going to restore Germany's dignity and supremacy.' More determined than ever to pursue his scientific and surgical career, he went back to work with a commitment and impetus that impressed me.

" It was during this period that he began to write in collaboration with Professor Magnus a number of articles of indisputable value on skull fractures and spinal injuries.

"Brandt was on his way to becoming not only one of the Reich's most talented surgeons, but also one of the most influential exponents in the field of medical research.

"... I was very proud to be his friend.... He had just married Annie Rebhorn and very often I would spend entire evenings with them chatting and listening to music, since Karl Brandt loved classical music.... Both of them had educated and refined tastes and this was, in my opinion, one of the causes of the future jealousy of guys like Himmler and Conti toward Brandt...

"I remember a discussion that took place one evening also around that time, in Brandt's quiet living room. He said something that struck me; later, learning of his contrasts with Hitler's political entourage, his words would often come back to me:

"'You see Heinrich,' he told me, 'you try too hard to make politics prevail in the university and you don't realize that science and research have nothing to do with politics.'

"He always fought, against the party members, for the autonomy of science: I myself saw him many times clash violently with them because of this.... You certainly know that he opposed in 1944 the closure of the universities.... How could his beliefs be reconciled with Hitler's directives? I don't know... But Brandt was too much of integrity to accept any of the Führer's decisions in this regard.... No, I rather believe that Hitler confided in him only the strictly sanitary measures. The more lurid tasks were taken care of by Himmler and Conti, the Nazi doctor.

This conversation took place shortly before Brandt moved permanently to Berlin with Professor Magnus and Professor Rostock, in 1934, the same year I returned to Hamburg. I often heard from him, but I saw him again only once -- in 1944 as I told you. He wrote me that he was in close contact with Hitler's general staff and yet he was doing his work in collaboration with the most distinguished medical luminaries-Lexer, von Müller, Hiess. He had absolutely no intention of giving up his work as a surgeon at the Berlin polyclinic...

After coffee we remained somewhat numbed by the Steinhàger's warmth, and Darnhoff, more relaxed than at the beginning of our interview, even seemed to take a liking to his tale.

CALL BRANDT IMMEDIATELY!

In 1934, shortly before leaving Bochum, Brandt waited for news from Berlin before accepting one of several proposals made to him.

But in Berlin Hitler was completely absorbed by two major problems: an opposition from the leftists, which he then fiercely repressed, and the need to restore the German economy... Had he forgotten about the young surgeon who had saved the life of his aide-de-camp? Perhaps. But Brüchner certainly had not forgotten him.

One day in June 1934, Hitler was preparing in his chancellery office to join Mussolini in Venice. Since the previous day he had held a series of meetings with Goebbels and Goering: this first meeting with the Duce, the fascist brother, had been meticulously prepared. Hitler exulted over the blow struck against the Franco-English.... But privately he told Brüchner that he feared an attack like the one, not too far away, in Munich....

Führer, replied the aide-de-camp, a faithful escort must be arranged: allow me to ask Karl Brandt to accompany you as your personal physician.

Hitler tapped his forehead and exclaimed:

Right, call Brandt immediately and tell him to join us in Munich; you can also inform him that I desire his presence in my retinue in Berlin.

Brüchner rushed to the phone:

Brandt? This is Brüchner speaking. I am calling you from the Reich Chancellery, come to Munich. You will join the Führer's escort going to Venice.... No... Don't thank me... A blessed scar on my head makes me your debtor...

The old man sitting next to me lit a cigarette and then gazed through the tarnished window at the monotonous expanse of moorland mingling with the gray sky.

You must know that I saw Karl Brandt again only two or three times after his trip to Venice: he was preparing to move and, although he was very concerned about his new duties, the importance of which he presented, he spoke to me at length about what that first contact with the Führer's political life would represent for him.

AFTER THE CONCERT AT THE DOGE'S PALACE

Dictators do not always agree with each other....

June 14, 1934: Beneath the wings of the plane on which Hitler and his escort were standing, the fabulous lagoon of Venice seemed to be waiting for them. After a final turn and a final shake, the plane rolled onto the runway of the San Nicolo airport. It was ten o'clock. Mussolini, in great uniform, welcomed his guest. Hitler, swaddled in a long yellow raincoat and holding a brown felt hat, headed with his entourage toward a speedboat: the embrace between the two was brief.

Everywhere, as the two dictators passed, shouts of Duce, Duce rang out! The Venice crowd was in a frenzy; Mussolini, beaming, raised his hand in salute, Hitler, on the other hand, serious, stood silent. Karl Brandt, seated next to the SS commander, Sepp Dietrich, listened thoughtfully to the people's cheers; no doubt he was thinking how Germany would become once National Socialism had completed its work... Mussolini had now been in power for twelve years. The Duce received the Germans with great pomp and cleverly used the resplendent setting of Venice for this meeting, which he considered historic.

On June 14, at 1 p.m., he offered a lunch at the royal villa in Strà, where Napoleon had already stayed.

In the evening they attended a concert in the sumptuous hall of the Doges' palace, where the cheers of the crowd and cries of Duce, Duce prevented them from hearing even a single note!

On June 15 Hitler and Mussolini met again in private conversation on the Alberoni golf course; the tone of the conversation became more excited.

In the evening Hitler offered a dinner followed by a dance. The Führer was nervous and approached Karl Brandt to whom, ironically imitating the Italian accent, he said, Duce, Duce, then added, The Italians must get used to coming to terms with the reality of Germany! Karl Brandt who understood replied smilingly, National Socialism is still young, Führer, but we will one day invite Mussolini to Germany and show him what we were able to do. Hitler nodded his head and added punctuating the words, The German people have a way forward, let what has to happen happen happen...

The next meeting between Mussolini and Hitler, in 1937 in Munich, proved Brandt right; in fact on that occasion the sides were reversed.

THE SS UNIFORM: MORAL OBLIGATION AND PRIDE

Since I was interested in understanding exactly what Brandt's relationship with the SS was, I asked Darnhoff to tell me what he knew about it....

Like all young Germans who gravitated in Hitler's orbit, he replied, "Brandt too soon unreservedly admitted that it was an honor to belong to the SA and then to the SS. Joining the National Socialist League of Physicians, he had initially refused to engage in any activity within these two organizations, perhaps simply for lack of time, or perhaps because his membership was based primarily on those 'social reasons' he would later speak of. But regardless of his hostility to Himmler, he would later declare at Nuremberg, when everyone was condemning the chosen body of Nazism:

"' I never considered the SS to be a gang of murderers, especially then the Waffen SS. When I think of the young Waffen SS officers who served as relays to Hitler's headquarters, I only remember that three of them were killed and the fourth wounded. That is why when I wear this uniform I always feel a sense of pride and moral obligation.

This phrase, Darnhoff resumed, "was characteristic of Karl Brandt: even accused of trying to cover up the worst crimes, he never disavowed the past. Some considered him blind to the point of bordering on stupidity; as for me, I consider his behavior quite logical and consistent with his spirit, true to his own convictions and to the one who embodied them....

"I know that, after the trip to Venice, he was transferred to the SS and that, for the duration of the war, starting in 1940, he was assigned to Hitler's headquarters and then to the Waffen SS, without ever exercising command functions or directing military units, as he himself wished. He remained in the army but, let us be clear, his activities were solely medical and surgical, except when he had to deal with the coordination and development of all the sanitary measures that were necessary because of the war. In 1943 he obtained the rank of army and SS general physician, which shows Hitler's exceptional attachment to him.

On the other hand, although he respected the Waffen SS fighters, his relations with Himmler were always as strained as ever; I believe Himmler resented the presence of the young doctor at the Führer's side, so much so that some insinuate that it was he who indirectly sent Hitler, through the Führer's photographer, the famous Dr. Morell, so that he could supplant the young Brandt. In any case, if these insinuations are true, he later had to bitterly regret it, because dear Morell, a skillful trickster, organized more than one intrigue ... and, by the way, precisely to his own detriment, that of Himmler!

FIRST MISSION AND TRIUMPH OF QUACKERY

I am reminded of another fairly important fact, I think, in this portrait of a friend that I am recalling for you. He mentioned it to me in one of his letters dated 1936.

On April 2, 1936, Dr. Brandt appeared at the Chancellery summoned there in the morning by Hitler. The faces he encountered were impassive and even the picket officer who introduced him greeted him without a word. The doctor frowned thoughtfully: the atmosphere seemed tense to him. Sitting behind the desk, Hitler was writing hastily, as was his habit, and Brandt waited in silence. Finally the Führer looked up, remained thoughtful for a moment, and then said quickly:

I need your opinion as a doctor: I have just been informed through Marshal Goering that a certain von Brehmer, from Nuremberg, would have discovered the cause of the cancer. Are you aware of this?

Brandt's blue eyes remained fixed for a moment in astonishment, then he replied:

No, Retirar, I didn't know about it.

It may be that this story is completely made up, muttered Hitler. But if it were true, this discovery would be of paramount importance for Germany! I want to know on what scientific basis it is based.... If this Brehmer has discovered something, we will show the whole world what Germany is capable of under the leadership of National Socialism.

Brandt looked puzzled at Hitler, who was raging: his experience as a doctor and what he knew about the success of quacks at that time advised caution, but Hitler, without giving him time to state his opinion, approached him:

Go and inquire on the spot-I want this matter cleared up within a month at the latest.

Karl Brandt rushed to Nuremberg, where he discovered that von Brehmer was a charlatan; he had managed to secure Goering's support, but his alleged discovery remained an outright fraud. He had taken x-rays of women with breast cancer and published their photographs with the caption: FIRST. After that, using the x-rays of healthy people, he had published them with the caption: AFTER.

Brandt, scandalized, openly denounced the imbroglio, just as the ideologue Streicker published articles extolling von Brehmer's work... as for Brandt he was almost denied a stay in Nuremberg. In fact, the city's police chief advised him never to set foot there again, and Hitler, when Brandt made his report to him, suggested confidentially:

Never go to Nuremberg without me.

The Führer accompanied this advice with a friendly handshake. But the evil seemed too entrenched: who would win it in the future? The quacks or the doctors?

In reporting this scabrous episode, Dr. Darnhoff made an annoyed gesture:

We can perhaps say today, in answer to that question, that National Socialist medicine, judging by the turn it took as early as 1925, contained in germ the bad grass of that quackery which then alluded abundantly later ... and which, without the energetic opposition of men like Karl Brandt, would have destroyed the university.

AS AN ADOPTED SON

It was late, dusk shrouded the countryside in shadows, and I understood that our meeting was coming to an end.

But there was one issue that had been bothering me for a long time, so I asked the old doctor what he thought had been the nature of the relationship between Hitler and Karl Brandt. He smiled and made a lively gesture:

"I will answer with an anecdote: Albert Speer, one of Karl Brandt's closest friends, tells in his Reminiscences that one day the latter made Hitler laugh a lot behind the back of Molotov and his entourage, who had come to Berlin in 1940. The Russians in fact had all their plates and cutlery sterilized for fear of microbes.... This matter impressed him greatly.

"Brandt met almost every day with Hitler, in an atmosphere quite different from the political scene, I don't know if you understand me, an almost familiar atmosphere....

Hitler had made him his personal physician because he had saved Brüchner's life, and this was a spontaneous gesture of trust.... Brandt lived until 1945 as an 'adopted son,' in complete intimacy with the Führer.... And all because the latter had one day wanted him close to him ... out of a sudden impulse ... Just as impulsively, in 1945 he believed himself betrayed by his doctor and condemned him to death... without thinking twice about it, and the rest was done by the intrigues of the various Bormanns and Conti... It is very strange: if Speer had not saved his life by hiding him in his home, Brandt would have died on the orders of the same person who, one day in 1933, had admitted him to his circle of close and loyal friends and had considered him as such for eleven years. Five years of war had changed many things....

GERMAN MEDICINE: A GIANT WITH FEET OF CLAY

There is one sentence that may justifiably amaze us and is found in a letter that Dr. Conti, president of the Reich Medical Board, wrote before committing suicide to the American officer who questioned him, It is sad to have to end in this way a life of good intentions and attachment to duty...

It sounds like dreaming: how could one of the highest officials, with Karl Brandt, of the Nazi health services, be convinced of his own bona fides? In fact, the paradox is only apparent: the organization of National Socialist medicine, which was nothing but an industry of death, was founded on very clear principles. Its first intent and true purpose was above all to serve the Race.

IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS THE RACE

The existence and supremacy of the Aryan race was, for National Socialism, a fundamental principle, and for those who rejected this principle there was no salvation: it was beyond all ethical considerations. For Nazism before ethics came this principle....

Professor Gebhardt, SS brigadier general, Himmler's childhood friend and one of the main defendants at the Nuremberg trial, will say:

I believe I can say that every morality is derived from a philosophical principle, and that every philosophical principle arises from one's own epoch, the ways of life and the scale of values that that epoch has imposed on itself...

Is it ever possible to posit, as did this SS doctor, whose responsibilities carried so much weight throughout history, the concept of race as a philosophical principle for the establishment of a new order? Thousands of National Socialist doctors believed this in good faith. What occult forces made them so blind that they believed it? That is what we will try to find out.

They were then pushed permanently toward this dead end by the heated speeches of the ideologues and the massive and theatrical displays of power of National Socialism.

On October 4, 1943, the Gruppen Führer SS, division generals of the Black Order, in their tight uniforms, gathered to report to their commander: Himmler. He, in the high uniform of Reichsführer, took the stand and delivered in a harsh voice a speech made to galvanize his employees. It was a relentless succession of relentless slogans:

"The day when we have forgotten the fundamental law of our race, the sacred principles of selection and austerity, that day we will have welcomed within us the germ of death....

Let us remember our doctrine: blood, selection, hardness.

The Grüppen Führer SS, whose men would impose terror first in Germany and then throughout Europe, listened in religious silence to their leader's speech. Among them were those doctors who would later be responsible for the greatest atrocities.

But it was not only SS doctors, unfortunately, who bore the brunt of the guilt of Nazi medicine. The organization of civilian physicians, namely the National Socialist League of Reich Physicians, chaired, like the Medical Association, by Edoardo Conti, became as early as 1932, before Hitler came to power, one of the most valuable supports of the new regime.

The purpose of the Nazi doctor was no longer to help man, but to help the Aryan race, the chosen race, prevail over the races defined as inferior. The Hippocratic oath was now reduced to a very poor thing: first came the Race...

From 1933 to 1945, Nazi doctors, loyal to a regime that dictated to them, were never in any doubt about what their duty was.

Those few who wanted to oppose were eliminated mercilessly.

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BRANDT AND HIMMLER

As early as 1932 Karl Brandt became a member of the National Socialist League of Physicians, and in that period of violence that preceded and followed Hitler's rise to power, he was an ardent follower of the ideas of Germany's new leader.

A member of the SA in 1934, a period when repression against opponents and non-Germans was unleashed, he joined the SS at the end of the same year. Recall the oath that those who would play the role, in Hitler and Himmler's mad adventure, of torturers of the people had to take:

To be absolutely faithful, no matter what happens.... To obey blindly to help our Führer and Germany.

But Brandt, when he joined first the SA, then the SS, confirmed the condition he had already set upon joining the National Socialist League of Physicians: not to engage in any activity within the two Nazi paramilitary formations. As already mentioned, this incredible attitude of his, which unquestionably revealed his prudence and desire for independence, was not at all appreciated by Himmler. In spite of this, Brandt would end the war with the rank of SS general medic.

One day in 1936, on the terrace of the Berghof, Hitler's residence in the Bavarian Alps, Himmler apostrophized that unorthodox and privileged SS man who was the Führer's private physician:

Always in civilian clothes Dr. Brandt.... Do you have any qualms about wearing the black uniform?

Not at all, ReichsFührer, Brandt retorted briskly. I am very proud of this uniform, which, by the way, I wear often; but right now I consider myself the Führer's private physician.

Still not satisfied, Himmler held him by the sleeve.

And would that be contradictory to SS membership, Dr. Brandt?

There is no contradiction ReichsFührer, but I am a doctor and must dress as such....

You are first and foremost an officer, Sturmbannflihrer SS, cago Dr. Brandt, Himmler growled with a fierce look. An SS doctor is above all a soldier in the service of Germany and the Führer...

Brandt had long been familiar with Himmler's ideas about the part played by a doctor, and as for the ReichsFührer, he distrusted on principle anything that might hinder him in the task of imposing his will on the troops. Confrontation was inevitable; therefore Brandt answered him in a firm voice and without hesitation:

I disagree with you, Reichshihrer first of all I am a doctor and, like all doctors in the National Socialist League, I am firmly resolved to defend the ideal of the new Germany.

Better for you Dr. Brandt, Himmler replied dryly. Because we will not put up with any opposition, especially then coming from the ranks of the SS, to the wishes of our Führer...

It's certainly not my case, Brandt assured, smiling, as Himmler glared away.

In the evening Hitler pretended not to notice the latent hostility between the two men. Wasn't his game to turn a blind eye to the skirmishes of his protégés so that he could then better dominate them?

But the contrast between Himmler and Brandt was really deep, and the ReichsFührer was always concerned that the high health responsibilities given by Hitler to Brandt did not also affect the SS, of which he cared to be the sole leader.

The war and the enormous efforts it imposed on the Reich's various public health departments added to this disagreement.

The Reichshihrer was alarmed by the presence next to Hitler of that undisciplined SS, which had become so through nonpolitical means. Brandt for his part judged Himmler a mediocre man, full of inferiority complexes toward educated people and doctors in general and who rejoiced in being able to harm them.

This, however, was but one of many and far more serious cases of jealousy and rivalry, the order of the day in the upper echelons of the National Socialist leadership.

APRIL 1 DOCTORS' POGROM

Let us return to 1933: in Berlin, two months after Hitler's election as chancellor, the National Socialist League of Physicians went into action. Anti-Semitic propaganda was also unleashed on them, against whom the removal of Jewish doctors from the profession was presented as a necessity for public health.

At dawn on April 1, 1933, members of the Doctors' League broke into the apartments of their Jewish colleagues, insulted and beat them under the terrified eyes of their families, then took them to Exhibition Park. Processions of groaning people crossed the city, and many citizens, awakened by the weeping of the victims and the insults of the torturers, participated in solidarity: those of contrary opinion hid behind silence. The reign of terror, which would last for twelve years, began, and everyone understood, some welcoming it with enthusiasm and some with fright, that a new era was about to begin: that of anti-Semitism, torture and death.

Consent to the pogrom by the doctors who were followers of the new regime was immediate and total; they forced their victims, regardless of their advanced age, to run around the park under brutal beatings. Then the Jewish doctors were rounded up like beasts and left on the square for hours on end, without comfort or food; not content with having already given such a squalid and sad spectacle, the members of the League later delivered many of their Jewish colleagues into the hands of the SS. The latter then transported their victims to the basement of the Medemannstrasse prison, which was under Hitler the main place of torture in Berlin.

Some of them were allowed to return home on the same day, but they continued to be guarded by the SA and SS, who even prevented their patients from visiting.

The next day the ostracism ceased.

But even if the new regime granted them a reprieve, the fate of the Jewish doctors was now sealed.

The various anti-Semitic persecutions, which were repeated until they became a systematic plan of extermination, were only a precursor sign of the times: the torturers were convinced that by their actions they were preparing a future of greatness for the German nation, and even the National Socialist League of Physicians would continue to repeat this slogan incessantly.

Gradually the League's influence was felt throughout the medical class, and Jewish doctors had to cease their practice altogether. In fact it would become increasingly difficult for them, to the point of proving impossible, to finish their studies and practice without joining the League.

Some excerpts from articles published between March and May 1933 are particularly illuminating about the reigning mood in Germany since that time.

As a result of complaints from the Berlin state commissioner regarding the considerable number of Jewish doctors working in the city's hospitals, comrade Dr. Klein was instructed to examine the situation at Moabit Hospital. The names of eighteen doctors who were to be dismissed followed.

(Völkischer Beobachter, March 21, 1933)

Dr. Lippert plans to reorganize the medical college of our city's hospitals, and for this purpose he received on Friday -a delegation of district commissioners. These complained that, in most of the city's hospitals, Jewish communists and socialists work in the proportion of 80, 90 and sometimes 100%. Dr. Lippert assured them that the contracts of all doctors would be terminated as soon as possible.

(Frankfurter Zeitung, May 18, 1933)

In a Breslau newspaper from April 1933, we read:

Jewish physicians, as well as Jewish Dr. Nusbaum, will be relieved of their duties related to the fight against venereal diseases.

THE APPEAL TO THE GERMAN MEDICAL CLASS

One can tell by looking at the dates of these articles that the doctors' pogrom of April 1, 1933, was part of a very specific offensive: it was in fact carried out after an appeal to the German medical class of March 23, 1933, signed by the Reich's chief physician, the former Dr. Wagner, who would later be replaced upon his death in 1939 by his first assistant Conti, the Nazi politician.

One only has to read this appeal to be convinced: "Comrades, Colleagues,

Get rid of all those who do not want to understand the situation of the moment!

" (...) During these weeks we have noted with excitement and pride that the German people have become aware of themselves and the value of their lineage!

"In all regions, in all circles and in all professions we are witnessing the awakening of the people and their rejection of the errors of the liberals and foreigners. Until now we have not reacted.

"Few professions can contribute to the future and glory of a nation as much as the medical profession, but it, more than any other, is in Jewish hands and is exasperatingly stifled by the presence of foreigners. Jewish incumbents occupy medical professorships as masters, impoverish the medical art and inculcate entire generations of young doctors with a utilitarian spirit.

"'Jewish 'colleagues' grab the highest posts in medical societies and bodies.

" They systematically distort and destroy our ethics.

"There are Jewish 'colleagues' even in key posts in the administration. It is because of them that, from day to day, a lowly utilitarian spirit takes root and develops that offends our profession. This will mean economic hardship for us, diminution of our prestige among the people and our authority in the sphere of the state!

" German doctors! We know: those responsible for this situation are solely the foreigners who directed us.... They opposed any idea coming from our German groups, while they were ready to accept all proposals from the Marxist and Jewish groups. And we have put up with it!

" (...) That the medical class represents a Judeo-Masonic island, in the heart of Germany, THIS CANNOT BE! A sense of honor and duty demand that we put an end to this scandal!

"That is why we appeal to the entire German medical class.

" Restore the leadership of our organizations! Get rid of all those who do not want to believe in the new principles. Make our medical class German again in organization and spirit.... For we want to cooperate in the reconstitution of a new medical class for the good of the people and to restore honor to the figure of the German doctor.

Signed Dr. Wagner, March 23, 1933.

As can be seen, the desire for a more equitable balance of power