Pho to cou rtesy o f US I-IMM- Pho to Archives

At the Nuremberg Trials, German physicians are charged
with conducting experiments on human `gr .uinea pigs."

`Healing By Killing'

Israeli filmmaker 1VItzan Aviram documents how
German doctors paved the way for the Holocaust.

S

ome years ago a German
physician complained that
after the so-called Doctors'
Trials at Nuremberg in 1947,
most Germans believed that only a few
physicians had been involved in the
Holocaust and had been tried and
punished.
Since then, after Robert Lifton's
remarkable book The Nazi Doctors
(1988) and numerous other works, the
culpability of the German medical pro-
fession has been exposed.
The German Medical Association
was among the earliest professional
organizations to accept Nazism, and
doctors made up the largest percentage
of professionals to belong to the Nazi
Party. The medical association even
founded a journal called Der Erbarzt
("The Genetic Doctor"), which includ-
ed regular descriptions of the latest
sterilization techniques.
Now, the Israeli director/producer/
writer Nitzan Aviram has added an
important documentary film to the list
of works that chronicle the history of
the medical profession during the
Third Reich. Based on Lifton's book, it
is an impressive and carefully con-
structed film that details an alarming
and compelling account of a "psychi-
atric death industry."
Aviram charts the evolution of a
medical idea that grew into the
Holocaust. The origins and foundation
of that idea, not in the film, emerged
in a German theoretical work of 1920,
The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy

ofLifi, co-authored by a psychiatry
professor and a jurist. The partnership
of those two professions—medicine and
law—would pave the road to the "death
industry" It would end in the death
camps.
Using interviews with survivors,
Aviram uncovers a gruesome and
appalling history. His survivors, howev-
er, are not Jews. The roots of genocide
lay in the Nazi legislated program of
sterilization, begun as early as 1933,
which led to the euthanasia program in
1939. Thus, these survivors were vic-
tims or near-victims of either steriliza-
tion or "mercy killing."
The program first assaulted children
born or suffering from a variety of dis-
eases, especially mental disorders, and
then adults in the same categories. The
result was an estimated 400,000 vic-
tims sterilized.
By 1939, Hitler himself ordered the
beginning of a euthanasia program,
later known as the T-4 Program (for
Tiergartenstrasse-4, the address of the
headquarters in Berlin). "No psychi-
atric death industry ... no Treblinka
or Auschwitz," says the narrator.
No viewer of this film should
miss the irony of a Jewish, Israeli
director interviewing survivors of
what we might consider the proto-
Holocaust.
As anti-euthanasia protests grew
in Germany, Hitler was forced to
postpone the project. It had already
produced efficient, streamlined

HEALING

on page 84

T 11WR 917

Artistically ConqueringYour Hunger

Corner of 12 Mile & Orchard Lake Rd.• Farmington Hills • 324-0400

HAVE YOU HAD OUR GREAT ITALIAN SPECIALTIES?

MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY

SEE OUR NEW MENU SELECTIONS

CHOPPED SIRLOIN
7.95
WHITEFISH SICILIAN
7.95
$
CHICKEN PARMESAN OR SHORT RIBS
7.95
STUFFED CABBAGE
7.25
WHITEFISH (Broiled or Duratee)
7.95

INCLUDES YOUR CHOICE OR 2 ... SOUP, SALAD, DESSERT

Regular Hours
Mon-Sat 7 am-8 pm
CLOSED SUNDAYS

SHIVA DINNERS
AND
BEAUTIFUL PARTY TRAYS

FREE DELIVERY

DELI AND GOURMET RESTAURANT

21754 W. '1 1 MILE RD. • HARVARD ROW • 352-4940 FAX: 352-9393

EvIjo9
aateAt

OUTSIDE OUR RESTAURANT
FOR PARTIES 20 to 500

Featuring Ristorante di Modesta's
Famous Cuisine of Outstanding Favorites

qmsroannirt
QJI giootsrn

IN MARKET STREET SHOPPES
2.9400 NORTHWESTERN HWY. • SOUTHFIELD

(248) 358-0344

"The Simone Vitale Band is an assurance of a great
evening... One of the hottest bands in town."

Danny Raskin, Jewish News

"Royal Oak band leader extraordinaire Simone Vitale..."

Bob Talbert. Detroit Free Press

• Weddings • Anniversaries
• Private/Corporate Parties • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs

Call Simone for the best persanal service in town, with
an exciting night of dancing and fun at your party.

2/19

1999

Detroit Jewish News

83