The following is a list of notable medical doctors in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. This list is primarily split up into those who performed

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

through the

Aktion T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

campaign, to those who primarily performed experiments on

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

victims. While a majority consists of members of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, others who could not become members contributed in notable ways. After the war, the German Medical Association blamed Nazi atrocities on a small group of 350 criminal doctors. During the Doctors' trial, the defense argued that there was no international law to distinguish between legal and illegal human experimentation, which led to the creation of the

Nuremberg Code The Nuremberg Code () is a set of research ethics, ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in ''Doctors' trial, U.S. v Brandt'', one of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials that were held after the World War II, Seco ...

(1947). Some doctors attempted to change names to escape capture and trial, such as Werner Heyde and Robert Ley, Other doctors, such as Walter Schreiber, were covertly moved to the United States during "

Operation Paperclip The Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War I ...

" in 1951. *Note: ''Some of those listed here were acquitted of the more serious charges, but were still found guilty for other crimes.''

Background

When the Nazi government came to power, they purged Germany of its 6,000 to 7,000 Jewish doctors. Non-Jewish physicians were early recruits to the

, due both to social and economic circumstances and to widespread eugenic and Social Darwinist ideas in early-20th-century medicine. By 1942, more than half of all German

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

s had become Nazi Party members. In comparison, only about 10% of the general population became Nazi Party members by 1945. In addition, over 7% of German doctors became members of the

Nazi SS The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It bega ...

, compared to less than 1% of the general population. While most of these doctors were

s, some held

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

s (PhDs) in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, or related fields. Doctors who were working for the state, and not for their patients, using a Mendelian type of logic chart, saw extermination of their patients as the correct solution to the problem of mental illness and the genetically defective. "The participation in the ‘betrayal of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

’ had a broad basis within the German medical profession. Without the doctors' active help, the Holocaust could not have happened," wrote E Ernst in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Killing and experimentation became medical procedures as they were performed by licensed doctors. A doctor was present at all the mass killings for legal reasons."History Vs. Apologetics: The Holocaust, the Third Reich, and the Catholic Church" Author David Cymet. Page 262. Told by Dr Hans Wilhelm Münch in 1981.
/ref>

Euthanasia

Human experimentation

Others

Academics

Camp doctors

Miscellaneous

Non Nazis

While the following people were never members of the

, their names are included here as they are known to have contributed or are mentioned in a notable way.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazi doctors Aktion T4 * Lists of people by activity Doctors