Suchergebnisse

Can bombs and broadcasts instigate resistance against a foreign regime? In this paper, we examine the canonical case of bombing designed to undermine enemy morale-the Allied bomber offensive against Germany during World War II. Our evidence shows that air power and the airwaves indeed undermined regime support. We collect data on treason trials and combine it with information on the bombing of over 900 German towns and cities. Using plausibly exogenous variation in weather, we show that places that suffered more bombardment saw noticeably more opposition. Bombing also reduced the combat motivation of soldiers: fighter pilots from bombed-out cities performed markedly less well after raids. We also provide evidence that exposure to BBC radio, especially together with bombing, increased the number of resistance cases. We corroborate these findings with the evidence on people's opinions and behavior using unique survey data collected in 1945.

As a consequence of the Holocaust, Israel's security is officially regarded as part of Germany's 'reason of state'. Yet the criteria for a responsible relationship between Germany and Israel are by no means self-evident or without logical or practical contradictions. One of the complications is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In order to better understand this complication, I examine two familiar national narratives, one from each side, about possible connections between the Nazi era, the Holocaust, and this conflict. I also put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a broader historical context. It turns out that the examined relationships are not as obvious as the familiar narratives describe them. The origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are older than the Nazi era and the Holocaust, and they also point to broader European responsibilities more generally, to Europe's nationalism, anti-Semitism, colonialism and imperialism - with irresponsibilities towards both Jews and Arabs. In no way does such a comprehensive perspective affect Germany's special historical responsibilities resulting from the Holocaust. But it puts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a more complete and also more honest framework, with consequences for Germany's moral and political position.

After World War II, an international military court sentenced 20 Nazi doctors and 3 collaborators with crimes against the humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. For the past 70 years after Nuremberg Trials, the restoration to pre-Nazi's ethical standard has been progressed. The eugenicist theories and the policies of racial hygiene were the fundamental axes of the Nazi euthanasia programs without paying attention to the basic ethics of the medicine. German psychiatry that it enjoyed an extraordinary international reputation, played a capital rôle in these programs and the mental patients supposed the main group of risk for these practices during the Nazi era. In this overview, we deal with, the historical perspective of the euthanasia programs of the mental patients, and the procedures for its execution, and the use of the mental patients as investigation tools. Direct consequence of the mentioned penal process gave birth to the Nuremberg Code, which has been considered as the fi rst international code of ethics for the medical experiments with human subjects. During the last 70 years, it has advanced substantially in the restoration of ethical codes and norms to protect patients in particular in the fi eld of psychiatry and psychopharmacology, and its culmination of advancement has been in the 1996 Declaration of Madrid.

The article presents an analysis of the legislative framework and the main lines of activity of the “National Socialist People's Welfare” organization (NSV) that operated in Germany during the Hitler regime. The functioning of the NSV was one of the most important social programs carried out in the framework of the National Socialist social policy. The organization’s mission was to provide material assistance to needy compatriots who included exclusively “full-fledged” racial representatives of the German population, carriers of the national socialist worldview. The activities of the NSV, along with other areas of Nazi social legal policy contributed to the consolidation of society around the Nazi regime and legitimized its institutions.

Historians of the postwar period have tried to evaluate various protagonists of the Nazi regime who were involved in human subject research and ethically questionable experiments. Prof. Dr. Paul Rostock, accused in the Nuremberg medical trial, has been largely omitted from such evaluation. Only a few short treatises on him can be found in relevant literature. This dissertation intends to work out the life of Rostock biographically. From this, conclusions can be drawn about the socialization, training, medical work, political ambitions and about his entanglements in the crimes of the "Third Reich". The goal of this dissertation is the clear classification of Rostock the individual in the context of contemporary history. This is linked to the presentation of the dangers of a fusion of political ideology and personal ambitions with scientific research, ethics and practical medicine. In addition to relevant literature, documents from various archives as well as protocols of the Nuremberg medical trial and personal correspondence serve as the basis for investigation. After some chronological, partly thematic, reworking and interpretation of literature and source material, a more nuanced picture of Rostock's knowledge and assistance in the human subject researches of the Nazi regime emerges. As an organizer and expert in the field of science and surgery, Rostock was a serious voice in matters of National Socialist research projects. Moreover, his influence on the main defendant of the Nuremberg medical trial, Karl Brandt, seems to have been far greater than has been assumed to date. Rostock was able to support the less scientifically literate Brandt with his broad specialist knowledge. In this way, he supported Brandt's intensive efforts in the execution of human experiments. In addition, Rostock stands out from the circle of high-ranking national socialist doctors such as Conti, Brandt and de Crinis through his immense specialist knowledge. During the Nuremberg medical trial, Rostock was able to separate himself from ...