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Chapter 4: "Protective Custody" (Schutzhaft)

Chapter 3: The Reichstag Fire Decree

On the 27th of February, the Reichstag building, the German House of Parliament, burnt down, a case of arson that would nowadays be called a terrorist attack.

Worum geht es: 

 

Before Hitler implemented his racist ideology through laws, he suppressed all political opponents with ruthless brutality. The most important instrument was the Reichstag Fire Decree.

Chapter 2: Did Hitler assume power in a legal way?

It is often said that Hitler assumed power in a legal way. Looking at this procedure superficially, one might concede that the Nazi Fuehrer was appointed Chancellor by due process.

Doc. 8: The declaration of Helsinki

The Declaration of Helsinki more specifically addressed clinical research, reflecting changes in medical practice from the term 'Human Experimentation' used in the

Worum geht es: 

The Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles regarding human experimentation, developed by the World Medical Association (WMA). It was originally adopted in June 1964 and has been revised several times, most recently in October 2013. The Declaration of Helsinki is not a legally-binding instrument under international law, but morally binding on physicians and other health care professionals.

Doc. 7: Protest of historians and Hungarian civic society

Hungarian Memorial with protest banner

Worum geht es: 

In the last chapter various reactions of Hungarians to the new Memorial of German Occupation in Budapest are documented.

Eckdaten: 
  • Open letter from Prof. Randolph L. Braham in the Hungarian Spectrum.

  • Daniel Nolan: German occupation memorial completed under cover of darkness, in: The Budapest Beacon (21 July 2014).

Doc. 7: "Shards in the wound"

Extract from the German periodical Der Spiegel
Worum geht es: 

This article, published in the German periodical Der Spiegel in 1961, deals with the different medical experiments carried out in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. It also sums up Herta Oberheusers life after her premature release from prison in 1952.

Eckdaten: 
  • Article on the case of Dr Herta Oberheuser in the 1950s, in: Der SPIEGEL 46, 9 November 1960.

Doc. 6: The Nuremberg Code

Worum geht es: 

The Nuremberg Code is a set of research-ethic principles for human experimentation, developed as a result of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial in 1947.

Doc. 5: Final statement, judgement and sentence

Final Statement of Defendant Oberheuser
Worum geht es: 

In the judgement, the court found Herta Oberheuser guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced her to imprisonment for a term of twenty years.

Eckdaten: 
  • Trials of War Criminals before Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol 1, Nuernberg, October 1946 – April 1947, pp. 174, 773, 294-95, 300.

Doc. 6: Reports on Hungary's memorial of German occupation

A new monument dedicated to the victims of the German occupation of Hungary during WW II is seen at Szabadsag (Liberty) square in downtown Budapest.

Worum geht es: 

In the well-established blog "pusztaranger", a critical description of Hungary‘s Memorial of German Occupation on Liberty Square in Budapest is available.

Eckdaten: 

Doc. 4: Cross examination of witness Władysława Karolewska

Question: Now, witness, were you operated on while you were in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp?

Answer: Yes, I was.

When did that happen?

Worum geht es: 

Władysława Karolewska was born on 15 March 1909 in Żuromin. At the outbreak of the war she was in Lublin, where she worked as a courier for a resistance movement. In the Ravensbrück concentration camp she was subjected to a total of six forced operations; the first of them was on 14 August 1942, in the course of which SS doctors removed bones from her left leg. 

After her return to Warsaw on 28 April 1945, Władysława Karolewska could no longer work as a nursery school teacher. She suffered chronic pain for the rest of her life; her legs repeatedly swelled and the wounds inflicted during the forced operation would reopen from time to time.

She appeared as a prosecution witness at the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial. In her cross-examination, she analysed the experiments and pinpointed Herta Oberheuser’s role in them.

In 1948, she married Stefan Łapiński, a survivor of Majdanek.
Władysława Karolewska-Łapińska died on 22 March 2002 in Lublin.

Eckdaten: 
  • Trials of War Criminals before Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol 1, Nuernberg, October 1946 – April 1947, pp. 409-417 (extract).

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