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Role of nurses in Third Reich “overlooked”: comment
BioEdge ^ | 4/28/12 | Jared Yee

Posted on 04/28/2012 1:09:11 PM PDT by wagglebee

The work of Nazi doctors is a well-documented lesson in medical ethics. There was even a separate trial for them at Nuremberg and seven were hanged. But what about the nurses who assisted them? Their role has been airbrushed from history, says an Australian academic. Professor Linda Shields, of Curtin University, expressed her concerns in Nursing Review three weeks ago. “There has been a great deal of scholarship on the role of doctors and what they did in Nazi-occupied Europe, what has been neglected or overlooked is the role of nurses,” Shields said. “And yet most of the killings that we are looking at occurred in hospitals where nurses made up the bulk of the workforce. Nurses were very much involved in the killings and the camp experiments,” she said.

Survivor testimonies and available documents state that nurses actively and voluntarily participated in Nazi euthanasia programs, killing over 10,000 people, many of them children. Some estimates are as high as 30,000 victims. While it is impossible to find exact figures on the number of nurses involved - as most of the information was destroyed after the war - Shields says it was a minority of nurses but most have not been held to account for their crimes.

“The bulk of nurses working in Nazi-occupied Europe cared for their patients appropriately, but there were a handful of nurses who chose, and the word is chose, to follow the regime that declared that some of their patients should be killed. These nurses were not forced to do it. The nurses who did these things did them of their own free will,” says Shields, whose historical research into the Nazi era has earned her a place in an international nursing hall of fame, which she will formally receive in August.

Many nurses were allowed to relocate to other hospitals because they disagreed with the objectives of the programs, records state. “There is no record of anyone being sent to a concentration camp. There is no record of anyone losing their job over refusing to participate in the sterilisation or euthanasia programs,” Shields says. She and fellow researcher Dr Susan Benedict will publish a book of their research later this year. ~ Nursing Review, Apr 3


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia; moralabsolutes; nazis; prolife
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To: wagglebee

If they aborted any babies, they should be discovered and persecuted.


41 posted on 04/28/2012 6:22:48 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (The President who ate the dog, will wag the dog.)
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To: snuffy smiff

Oh I agree it happens there too. Just remember one thing. When it happens to Fluffy and Rover the people just go nuts and you had better believe some heads will roll over that.

When it happens in a warehouse full of retarded people the public is outraged but society is slower to clean up that mess.

The warehouse Geraldo took his cameras to did not “fix” the problem for several years. You can just bet that within weeks of this animal shelter going rogue the “Problem” will be fixed in a matter of months and people will be fired!


42 posted on 04/28/2012 7:43:03 PM PDT by Morgana (I only come here to see what happens next. It normally does.)
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To: codder too

I am a conservative RN. I received my RN diploma from the old school (best) way of a 3 year hospital based program 25 years ago. I just completed my BSN . It took a year and $20,000. I really just took BullS*&% junk including a very politically correct sociology class. What surprised me was the apparent conservative bend to most of my classmates who were from all parts of the country and all ages.Even a lot of the professors seemed somewhat conservative. It is true though that now all RN’s will have to get their degrees and experience won’t matter. pity.... 2o K !! Granted it was on-line but that’s an awful lot to pay. As usual it’s just a money grabbing thing.


43 posted on 04/29/2012 12:11:06 AM PDT by R.I.chopper
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To: wagglebee

Want to see my voting record?

Want to come to my house and say that to me in person?

I didn’t think so.


44 posted on 04/29/2012 3:37:00 AM PDT by Peter from Rutland
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To: Peter from Rutland; Dr. Brian Kopp; trisham; DJ MacWoW; little jeremiah; Coleus; narses; ...
Want to see my voting record?

I don't need to, you've made it quite clear that you support Myth Romney.

Want to come to my house and say that to me in person?

Do you mean how you tried to downplay the Holocaust and claim that we were somehow "persecuting" the Nazis? Or do you mean where I pointed out that supporters of Romneycare typically support the idea of death panels?

I didn’t think so.

Your hubris is demonstrated by the false belief that I give a damn what you think.

45 posted on 04/29/2012 11:22:54 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Peter from Rutland

bye


46 posted on 04/29/2012 11:30:45 AM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is on!!)
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To: wagglebee

Once again, the work of women being marginalized :-)


47 posted on 04/29/2012 11:33:34 AM PDT by rabidralph
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To: Borax Queen

It feels to me like history is repeating itself, too. National Socialist and Marxist philosphy (humanism) always follows the same path where human life and dignity is not respected.

All the Jews need to come to Texas if things get nasty and we will play cowboys and Nazis.


48 posted on 04/29/2012 11:42:46 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Jim Robinson
Thanks Jim!
49 posted on 04/29/2012 11:46:48 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Peter from Rutland; TheOldLady; onyx; trisham; DJ MacWoW
Another pro-death, pro-Romney, anti-FReeper troll gets the zot!
50 posted on 04/29/2012 11:47:59 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: SaraJohnson

“Cowboys and Nazis,” LOL!!!


51 posted on 04/29/2012 12:02:05 PM PDT by Borax Queen
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To: Jim Robinson

Thank you for taking out the trash.

God bless you!


52 posted on 04/29/2012 12:20:55 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: Borax Queen

It’ll be fun! Come on down if you ever need to!


53 posted on 04/29/2012 12:23:01 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: SaraJohnson

Thank you, fotflol! I’m just in Arizona so I can be there fast. My friends outside of San Antonio said that we could camp on their land. Whack-a-Nazi, whack-a-Commie, whack-a-zombie!


54 posted on 04/29/2012 12:48:04 PM PDT by Borax Queen
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To: wagglebee
Do you mean how you tried to downplay the Holocaust and claim that we were somehow "persecuting" the Nazis? Or do you mean where I pointed out that supporters of Romneycare typically support the idea of death panels?

*********************************

Exactly right. I was shocked to read that post as well. It's particularly odd that someone here would have that attitude, but he'll have to find another site from which to post that kind of filth.

55 posted on 04/30/2012 6:25:05 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: cripplecreek

4 posted on Sat Apr 28 2012 15:11:56 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by cripplecreek: “Worth noting the next time you hear a teenager complain about all us “old people” using up all the world’s resources.”

That is a very important warning to remember.


56 posted on 05/02/2012 6:16:01 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Robwin
I am not an expert in Nazi health care practices, so I hope Freepers can fill in the blanks here.

I do remember reading that after the Roman Catholic Church strongly protested the euthanasia practices of the Nazis to remove “undesirables” such as handicapped and mentally ill people from the population, people who had been trained in those units were reassigned to the camps that eventually liquidated Jews and others.

It wouldn't surprise me if when the Nazis backed down, they decided it was best to use only volunteers for their death operations to avoid further conflict with Roman Catholics.

I'm not a Roman Catholic and I have no agenda to defend Catholics against Hitler, but liberalism had virtually wrecked the German Reformed and German Lutheran churches with the result that while individual Protestants stood firm against Hitler, the Catholic hierarchy opposed him in an organized manner to a limited extent while the Protestant denominations generally fell in line or were ineffective in organizing opposition.

It probably also helped that Hitler's Italian allies included many Roman Catholics who supported Hitler because of his anti-Communism and because of the anti-clerical nature of much of Italian liberalism, and at least during the first half of World War II, the Italians were viewed as being useful allies. Antagonizing Mussolini's friends would not have been a good move for Hitler.

57 posted on 05/02/2012 6:42:10 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: little jeremiah
34 posted on Sat Apr 28 2012 19:08:28 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by little jeremiah: “Many people will do horrific things if they are told to do so by “authorities”. It takes strong moral courage to stand up against authority. This is something not valued in our current debased and debauched and greed driven society. We will see very bad results, even more than we see now, I am afraid.”

This is an important point to remember.

Over on another thread, I was commenting positively on how Korean soldiers in Vietnam were among the most feared, and how they would do things that Americans could not or would not do.

My comment was here: http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2878786/posts?page=53#53

The Koreans are the “good guys” and were fighting with us in a horrible war where the enemy routinely did horrible things so I give them a bit of a pass. Koreans fought in Asia against an Asian enemy using the methods with which Asian armies have fought for thousands of years — total war against an adversary who also practices total war.

Unfortunately, Asia also doesn't have a Judeo-Christian view of the “imago dei” — that the image of God is in all humans, even the enemy, and there are some things you just don't do to any human being. The concept of refusing unlawful orders because they violate the Law of a higher power who sees everything we do even if the sergeant or the commanding officer looks away is also not present in traditional Asian society.

That means really horrible things can happen.

We need to teach our young people that being conservative without being godly leads to an uncritical “just following orders, sir” approach. Liberals are anti-authoritarian because they want total freedom for themselves. Conservatives respect human authority, but understand it comes from a higher Authority, and there are times we not only can but must question human authority and refuse orders.

58 posted on 05/02/2012 6:54:44 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Borax Queen
When I meet a Holocaust survivor or relative, or someone who suffered under Communism, I try to say something that will acknowledge their sacrifices unless I think what I say risks making matters worse.

Man's inhumanity to man knows no bounds when we forget that we are created by a Creator. Of course people sin even then, but without G-d, evil has no boundaries at all and some wicked people will become as evil as they possibly can.

59 posted on 05/02/2012 7:05:17 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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