scholarly journals Progressive Entanglements? Activity Profiles, Responsibilities and Interactions of Dentists at Auschwitz. The Example of 2nd SS Dentist Willi Schatz

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-400
Author(s):  
Enno Schwanke ◽  
Dominik Groß
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
History Of Dentistry

The history of dentistry during the Third Reich is still a neglected chapter in medical history; especially with a view to the concentration camps. Beyond the theft of dental gold, we actually know very little about the number of camp dentists or even about their activities and how these changed in particular in the final phase of the war. By using as a case study the biography of Willi Schatz, 2nd SS dentist at Auschwitz from January 1944 till autumn 1944, this paper examines the tasks of SS camp dentists in Auschwitz. It points out to what extent the scope of action of the camp dentists changed under the impression of extraordinary events, and clarifies that using the example of the Ungarn Aktion, in which more than 300 000 deportees were immediately murdered. It illustrates that such situational dynamics were an essential driving force for the expansion of dentals tasks. Despite the fact that Schatz was acquitted during the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial (1963–5) for lack of evidence, we show that dentists were not only part of the selection personnel but also high profiteers of the accelerated extermination actions. It can be demonstrated that participation in the selection process – originally reserved for physicians – offered SS dentists access to further SS networks. The study is based on primary sources supplemented with relevant secondary literature, and combines a biographical with a praxeological approach.

Ostmark

2021 ◽  
pp. 268-287
Author(s):  
Helen Roche
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
World War ◽  
Terrorist Activity ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Security Services ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich

Following Austria’s annexation by the Third Reich, the NPEA authorities were eager to pursue every opportunity to found new Napolas in the freshly acquired territories of the ‘Ostmark’. In the first instance, the Inspectorate took over the existing state boarding schools (Bundeserziehungsanstalten/Staatserziehungsanstalten) at Wien-Breitensee, Wien-Boerhavegasse, Traiskirchen, and the Theresianum. Secondly, beyond Vienna, numerous Napolas were also founded in the buildings of monastic foundations which had been requisitioned and expropriated by the Nazi security services. These included the abbey complexes at Göttweig, Lambach, Seckau, Vorau, and St. Paul (Spanheim), as well as the Catholic seminary at St. Veit (present-day Ljubljana-Šentvid, Slovenia). This chapter begins by charting the chequered history of the former imperial and royal (k.u.k.) cadet schools in Vienna, which were refashioned into civilian Bundeserziehungsanstalten by the Austrian socialist educational reformer Otto Glöckel immediately after World War I. During the reign of Dollfuß and Schuschnigg’s Austrofascist state, the schools were threatened from within by the terrorist activity of illegal Hitler Youth cells, and the Anschluss was ultimately welcomed by many pupils, staff, and administrators. August Heißmeyer and Otto Calliebe’s subsequent efforts to reform the schools into Napolas led to their being incorporated into the NPEA system on 13 March 1939. The chapter then treats the Inspectorate’s foundation of further Napolas in expropriated religious buildings, focusing on NPEA St. Veit as a case study. In conclusion, it outlines the ways in which both of these forms of Napolisation conformed to broader patterns of Nazification policy in Austria after the Anschluss.

Suicide in Nazi Concentration Camps, 1933-9

2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 628-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Goeschel
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
And Control ◽  
Good And Evil

Too often histories of the concentration camps tend to be ignorant of the wider political context of nazi repression and control. This article tries to overcome this problem. Combining legal, social and political history, it contributes to a more thorough understanding of the changing relationship between the camps as places of extra-legal terror and the judiciary, between nazi terror and the law. It argues that the conflict between the judiciary and the SS was not a conflict between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, as existing accounts claim. Rather, it was a power struggle for jurisdiction over the camps. Concentration camp authorities covered up the murders of prisoners as suicides to prevent judicial investigations. This article also looks at actual suicides in the pre-war camps, to highlight individual inmates’ reactions to life within the camps. The article concludes that the history of the concentration camps needs to be firmly integrated into the history of nazi terror and the Third Reich.

scholarly journals Wysiedlenie widziane oczami dziecka z Zamojszczyzny

2020 ◽  
pp. 426-440
Author(s):  
Barbara Stelingowska
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
World War ◽  
Indelible Mark ◽  
Population Displacement ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Second World

The article undertakes the topic of forced population displacement seen through the eyes of a child from Zamojszczyzna along with war-time fates of Polish families deported duringthe Second World War. The history of Zamojszczyzna lands is composed of tragic experiences of people forced out of their family households, imprisoned in the transit camps, deported to be involuntary labourers in the Third Reich, or murdered in concentration camps KL Auschwitz and KL Lublin (Majdanek). The survivors had to carry on throughout their lives with an indelible mark left by war-time childhood reflected by the name “a Child of Zamojszczyna” (the said status was granted to persons who were prisoners of the transit camps in Zamość and Zwierzyniec [solely children until the age of fourteen] and those imprisoned in concentration camps [for at least one day]).

German archaeology during the Third Reich, 1933–45: a case study based on archival evidence

Antiquity ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (291) ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Maischberger
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
Locus Classicus

The history of the archaeological disciplines in Germany during the Nazi era can be considered as a locus classicus of nationalist interpretation and misuse of the past. For some time now, various efforts have been made to enhance our understanding of this period, including several aspects related to archaeology and cultural politics. Most studies have been carried on by modern historians, but also archaeologists have engaged in historiographical research on their own discipline. Some freqiiently cited works like Bollmus (1970) Kater (1974) and Losemann (1977) are still fundamental for our understanding of important aspects of Nazi cultural politics as well as the involvement of traditional institutions into the dictatorial system.

THE MODERN INVENTION OF THE ‘TENORLIED’: A HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY GERMAN LIED SETTING

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 119-177
Author(s):  
Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Specific Performance ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Second World

The early German lied setting is the musical genre that is considered to be the first polyphonic art form in German music. The genre was revived in the nineteenth century in the context of early nationalism, linked with the idea of ‘Volkslied’. This article traces the evolution of the ‘Tenorlied theory’ in early musicology, featuring prominent figures such as Arnold Schering, Hans Joachim Moser and Heinrich Besseler, and connects it with a specific performance practice that developed simultaneously with the emergence of various amateur musical circles: the Jugendmusikbewegung, the male choir movement, the Hausmusik movement and the Collegium musicum. A fatal period in the history of the early German lied setting led to the politicisation of its repertory in the Third Reich. Ludwig Senfl, a German hero of early times, provides a case study in point. The years after the Second World War were characterised by efforts to standardise the performance practice of the lied as well as the usage of the term ‘Tenorlied’, while still insisting on the German identity of the genre.

scholarly journals The ethics and medicine: certain little known pages of history of the Third Reich and USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-56
Author(s):  
Igor V. Damulin
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Second World

The article considers destinies of medics residing in Nazi Germany and invaded countries. They took no participation in resistance but they were annihilated mainly in ghettos and concentration camps. The particular attention is paid to physicians, including the field of neurological sciences, left memories of themselves in the form of eponym names. These eponyms are to be applied in practical activities. The information is cited concerning inhuman programs of sterilization and euthanasia existed in Nazi Germany. It is emphasized that these programs occurred not in empty place because background of their development existed before Nazi came into power and the uSA included. And at that, experiments with prisoners continued to be implemented in the uSA even after the Second world war. The article draws attention to the importance of ethic aspects in activities of medics.

Concentration Camps: A Very Short Introduction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Stone
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Global History ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich

Concentration Camps: A Very Short Introduction provides a global history of concentration camps, showing the differences and similarities between the various camp systems that have been used in the 20th century. Setting concentration camps, such as those under the Third Reich, against the longer history of incarceration, it explains how the ability of the modern state to control populations led to the creation of this extreme institution. Looking at their emergence and spread around the world, this VSI argues that concentration camps serve the purpose, from the point of view of the state in crisis, of removing a section of the population that is perceived to be threatening, traitorous, or diseased.

Shakespeare and Kolbenheyer: Regional Theatre During the Third Reich – a Case Study

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-234
Author(s):  
ANSELM HEINRICH
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional Theatre ◽  
The Third Reich

The importance of regional theatre in the grand scheme of theatre history has long been neglected; this even holds true for an area of research which has aroused more historical interest than any other – Nazi Germany. Addressing this desideratum the article investigates the history of a typical provincial theatre – the Städtische Bühnen in the Westphalian city of Münster – with a special emphasis on the repertoire. The author examines how far the regime was able to implement its demand for a specifically political theatre and relates his findings to other German playhouses. The article argues that the failure of the Nazi administration to turn the Münster playhouse into a propaganda stage does not mean that regional theatres did not fulfil their role for the regime. They did so in other, less obvious ways.

Krupp

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold James
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Steel Mill ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Small Steel

The history of Krupp is the history of modern Germany. No company symbolized the best and worst of that history more than the famous steel and arms maker. This book tells the story of the Krupp family and its industrial empire between the early nineteenth century and the present, and analyzes its transition from a family business to one owned by a nonprofit foundation. Krupp founded a small steel mill in 1811, which established the basis for one of the largest and most important companies in the world by the end of the century. Famously loyal to its highly paid workers, it rejected an exclusive focus on profit, but the company also played a central role in the armament of Nazi Germany and the firm's head was convicted as a war criminal at Nuremberg. Yet after the war Krupp managed to rebuild itself and become a symbol of Germany once again—this time open, economically successful, and socially responsible. This book presents a balanced account, showing that the owners felt ambivalent about the company's military connection even while becoming more and more entangled in Germany's aggressive politics during the imperial era and the Third Reich. By placing the story of Krupp and its owners in a wide context, this book also provides new insights into the political, social, and economic history of modern Germany.

scholarly journals Neurosciences in the Third Reich: from Ivory Tower to Death Camps

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Shevell
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
Physical Disabilities ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
The Political ◽  
Racial Hygiene ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Third Reich

Abstract: It is commonly thought that the horrific medical abuses occurring during the era of the Third Reich were limited to fringe physicians acting in extreme locales such as the concentration camps. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there was a widespread perversion of medical practice and science that extended to mainstream academic physicians. Scientific thought, specifically the theories of racial hygiene, and the political conditions of a totalitarian dictatorship, acted symbiotically to devalue the intrinsic worth to society of those individuals with mental and physical disabilities. This devaluation served to foster the medical abuses which occurred. Neurosciences in the Third Reich serves as a backdrop to highlight what was the slippery slope of medical practice during that era. Points on this slippery slope included the “dejudification” of medicine, unethical experimentation in university clinics, systematic attempts to sterilize and euthanasize targeted populations, the academic use of specimens obtained through such programs and the experimental atrocities within the camps.

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