TheSanitätswesen ("medical corps") was one of the five divisions of aNazi concentration orextermination camp organization during theHolocaust. The other divisions were the command center, the administration department, thePolitische Abteilung and theprotective detention camp.
The medical corps was an obligatory component of the command center staff of a concentration camp. This division was subordinate to the chief physician of theConcentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI), called after 1937, theLeitender Artzt ("head doctor"). The chief physician of the CCI was responsible for assigning and posting "medical personnel" to theconcentration camps, for technical instructions to the camp doctors and for evaluation of their monthly reports.
Later, the CCI became "Amt D" of theSS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt andEnno Lolling became head on March 3, 1942, of "Amt D III for Medical Corps Units and Camp Hygiene" with headquarters inOranienburg. As such, he was the head doctor supervising all concentration camp doctors, who was, in turn, subordinate to theReichsarzt SS,Ernst-Robert Grawitz.
TheStandortarzt ("Garrison Doctor"), the chief camp physician, also called "first camp doctor", ran the medical corps at the concentration camp. In this capacity, the leading doctor was the supervisor of the entire medical staff of the camp. He was also responsible for carrying out the instructions of the chief physician of the CCI and the preparation of monthly reports to them.
The "troops doctor" was responsible for the medical care of theSS-guards and their family members.
The rest of the camp doctors divided up the remaining areas of the camp (men's camp, women's camp, etc.), according to the duty roster. The medical care of prisoners was secondary to their main tasks. Of primary importance were the hygienic aspects of disease prevention and maintenance of prisoners' capacity to work. To this end, they availed themselves of prisoners who were doctors and nurses to serve as auxiliary staff in the infirmary.
According toAuschwitz concentration camp commandantRudolf Höss, their non-medical tasks were:[1]
Moreover, the doctors had the opportunity, and in some cases, were assigned, to conduct "medical research".[3][4] These experiments were conducted on living prisoners or sometimes on prisoners who were executed for the purposes of the particular research project.[4][5] Along with this were manifold relationships throughout theGerman Reich with National Socialist professors at medical faculties and institutions, such as theKaiser Wilhelm Institute (now theMax Planck Institute), also the pharmaceutical industry and medical organizations.[1][4]
When the local registrar's office required a death certificate for one of these dead prisoners, it was falsified with regard to doctor's name and cause of death.
The camp doctors were allocated SSmedics as ancillary staff, who served as nurses in the infirmary. These medics often had little or no nursing training and as a result, possessed only limited medical knowledge.
The direct care and treatment of sick prisoners was mainly by prisoners who had been doctors and nurses before their arrest. At times, their medical work was performed "illegally", in disobedience of a direct order from the SS.
On occasion, there was also an SS pharmacist.
Though a number of the most important Nazi doctors weretried in Nuremberg and some were executed, many Nazi doctors slipped into comfortable and respected positions after the war. For example, inEast Germany,Hermann Voss became a prominent anatomist and inWest Germany,Eugen Wannenmacher became a professor at theUniversity of Münster andOtmar Freiherr von Verschuer, who had beenJosef Mengele's mentor and sponsor, was allowed to continue his medical practice.[3][4][6] Their Nazi past was generally ignored, though some were forced to work under false names. The experiments they conducted have been cited in medical journals and sometimes republished with no reference or disclaimer as to how the research data were obtained.[3]