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Germans give former SS doctor accused of killing 900 children a medal


A former SS doctor accused of sending 900 sick children to their deaths under the Nazi euthanasia programme has been awarded a German medical association's highest honour.

The decision comes as Jewish organisations continue to press Germany to put 92-year-old Hans-Joachim Sewering on trial for mass murder.

Sewering was a doctor at a tuberculosis clinic near Munich before World War II.

He allegedly signed orders sending 900 German Catholic children from the clinic to a "healing centre".

Infact, it was a killing centre carrying out a secret Nazi policy of murdering the handicapped who were declared "useless eaters" by the Nazis before the war.

Four nuns who broke their vow of silence on the recommendation of the Archbishop of Munich in 1993 claim to have witnessed Sewering ordering the transfer of the children and signing documents to that effect.

The U.S. Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and an independent committee seeking Sewering's prosecution claim he was an enthusiastic supporter of the euthanasia programme.

He has admitted to membership of the SS, an elite Nazi group, claiming hejoined for "social reasons", but has always denied being responsiblefor euthanasia.

Despite a flurry of trials after the war and a few in the early 1950s, Germany largely forgot about former Nazis, many of whom thrived in politics, the judiciary and the police.

So you what did they give him a medal for? A discovery or what?

I mean, the fact is no matter who it is, they have to be brought to justice for their crimes, but what did they give him the award for?

Any way, it is terrible what happened to those kids. Truly unspeakable crime. I hope the justice is served in this case sooner than later.

On a side note, consider that 16,000 kids die from hunger-related causes every day. One child every five seconds. Whilie we can't bring back the 900 kids killed by this nazi doctor, we can do something to save a child's life today.

Thirty two dollars a month provides a child in a third world country with food, education and basic medic care. The kids will write you letters and tell you about how they're doing in school and everything. Check it out.

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm

yeah...what did he get a medal for ???

He was given the Guenther-Budelmann medal by the German Federation of Internal Medicine for "unequalled services in the cause of freedom ofthe practice and the independence of the medical profession and to the nation's health system"

also...

Sewering, former head of the German doctors' association, was designated in 1992 as chairman of the World Medical Association but had to withdraw the following year under international pressure because of the accusations against him.

W T F

actually I believe that Leo is sponsoring a kid. I think he mentioned it in one of the prior posts.

The world is not giving this guy a medal, Germany is! So let them celebrate their culture how they want to celebrate it. Its all internal, they are not bothering anyone.

Well if he is it is very honorable.

a little history sideline...
SS (or schutzstaffel) was an elite political organization and one had to be an outstanding nazi to join, let alone be known as a distinct doctor. it was originally formed as hitler's personal bodyguards, and then grew into three bigger branches, one of which was btw responsible solely for the killings.

SS men were basically cloned hitlers, sometimes even worse (take the notorious heinrich himmler).
so no, i dont believe that a man who chose to be a part of this deserves any medal. and the age does not excuse him from the horrendous things he had done in the past.

So you don't feel that becoming part of the SS would gurantee him and his family safety?
There were doctors killed not only by Hitler but also by Stalin politics who dissagreed with "political" views.
I wish my soul i as great as yours, and I would risk my life vs becoming a part elit group that potentially could provide me and my loved once extra security, but I just can't.
In addition, you seem to ignore the fact that those kids would die a probably much worse death then being shoot if this didn't happene, noone would try to heal and save kids with tuberculoses during the War. Are you aware that people in Ukraine and specially Uzbekistan were dying of stomach tiff and tuberculeses and no one even cared enough to take them out of their missery. My grandma said it was imposible to get any medical help and hospitals would deniy food to those with such sicknesses because they felt it was a waist. Should we prosecute the hospitals?

i dont think it's necessary to go into details of sufferings caused by WWII....those things are pretty well-known, esp in the circles of this forum

also, we dont actually know whether the "useless eaters," as he called the handicapped kids that he then ordered to be killed, were actually shot or killed otherwise.


but as far as the argument on hand goes... let me draw a parallel to elucidate my point.

take the soviet system: u had to become a member of the communist party to secure your family.
but only the especially zealous lovers of stalin's/lenin's regime ended up in the upper crust of the gov't, only those willing to trade their integrity for power.

same in nazi germany of early 1940's. you had no choice but to publicly embrace fuhrer's laws in order to survive. but you had to be a very special individual to join the SS, a military organization that was directly under hitler's control.

So what are the social reasons he is refering to are in your opinion then?

Fonarik Wrote:

ny xylu tu? vot lezbi vlezt'

1- he MIGHT have had no choice but to join the SS...however yeh, it was an elite org. for ELITE nazis...since we don't know what his social reasons were, can't really condemn or condone his membership there...but i personally don't trust an ex SS

2- the whole idea of "waste" or "extra people" or "useless eaters" is valid...however it is also an ethical dilemma that many have tried to solve....where do u draw the line in determining who's useless? is it the old and the young? the weak? the ill"? how ill would you have to be to be considered useless? terminally ill? what if you are homosexual and don't reproduce? what if you're mentally ill? what if its war and u cannot fight? etc etc

The thing is, one cannot justify murder by saying that these people were a waste. It seems that all famus genocides somehow have their origin in finding someone useless, or subpar (jews were seen as useless ...) . However, in times of war and tragedy, moral codes change and of course, it is hard now to comprehend the state of mind that was present during WWII.....

Actually Simone de beauvoir has a very interesting and strong play about this whole topic....called the "useless mouths " or The "useless eaters" not sure what the name will be translated into english....she tackles a lot of these basic questions. if u read a lot of french existentialists some of these dilemmas are actually adressed.

3- personally, i get both of your points. i understanding rita's comments about the mentality of war etc and i understand polina's comments about integrity. I think that rationalizing a war crime as normal because it occured during war is dangerous and has led to many people not being held accountable for their crimes.

4- finally, its funny that out of all the people leo is getting attacked. he is actually "engaged" as in he is actively trying to make a difference and doing stuff.

no i know, i know....i was just piggy backin on the "useless eaters" concept. and actually kinda directing this to some of rita's statements, since she also discussed the "useless eaters" thing.

Well it is obvious that Hitler and his followers considered anyone weak and sick as useless. I agree that it is not a perfect moral choice, yet I dissagree that a perfect moral choice is to prosecute a 92 year old men, who obviously served humanity for "majority" of his life by being a good enough doctor to receive national recognition. Why aren't we prosecuting the nuns who didn;t do anything to stop those murders and waited over 50 years to come forward.
I am not sure about German court system, however if we are talking about all this from our "american/democratic/fair" point of view, isn't he innocent till proven guilty? How can this nuns be sure what orders he signed? Aren't they suppose to be the most moral people? Why did they allow such an ungodly thing to take place? I am guessing because they didn't want to risk their own lifes.
I can not be sure about SS society since I haven't read enough about it, however, I did read alot of Stalin's elit groups and in refrence to the literature I did read I can state that majority of people surrounding Societ Union's udeclared dictator did so because they feard that if they didn't step up they would suffer consequances. Many of this people were well known and been offered to be included in elit groups, have they declines they would dissapear along with their families never to be found. I dare to assume, drawing obvious paralels, that Hitler's SS membership wasn't much diffrent.

Just one more fact, since we are taling about the morality of the war times.

Soviet Union Army was given an order then if an unharmed soilder runs back to his own front, turning his back to an enemy and dropping the weapon, he is to be shoot on the spot without any questions by soilders of his own army.

Is that moral?
My point is I think war crimes are very hard to be judged upon at this time. I beleive most people did what they had to do, because they had very little choice.
Yes I do agree, his choice was moraly wrong, yet I read another two articles this week about many other hospitals who supposedly send children to those facilities, and it is a common understanding that this children were shoot. It is a horrible thing to say , but it is a horrible situation too , so it is possible that for this sick children who would die in worse suffering withing weeks, it might have been the most humane death.