Language:
English
Year of publication:
2014
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
28,3 (2014) 450-481
Keywords:
Samuel, Maximilian
;
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Nazi concentration camp inmates
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
World War, 1939-1945 Medical care
;
Jewish physicians
;
Human experimentation in medicine
Abstract:
Maximilian Samuel (1880-1943), a Jewish obstetrician-gynecologist from Köln, fled with his family to Belgium and then to France in 1938; in 1942 they were arrested and deported via Drancy to Auschwitz. There, Samuel was forced to take part in Nazi "medical research"; in particular, the sterilization of women. Robert J. Lifton in his "The Nazi Doctors" labelled him a "Jewish medical collaborator". Nevertheless, there are survivors' accounts stating that Samuel, in many cases, performed fictitious operations, thus saving the reproductive function for women. His disappearance in November 1943 can be accounted for by the fact that the Nazis learned about his fake practice. The behavior of Samuel in Auschwitz is in many ways similar to that of fellow prisoner-doctors, like Dering or Hautval; it shows that the notion of "gray zone" is more complex than as was depicted by Primo Levi.
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