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Subscribe to RSSThe German Medical Association has issued a remarkably blunt and straightforward apology, more than six decades after the end of World War II, for the role it played during the Holocaust in the mass murder, sterilization and barbaric medical experiments done on Jews and many other groups.
The apology, made Wednesday at the Bundesärztekammer (German Medical Association) meeting in Nuremberg, makes no excuses.
Unanimously adopted by the delegates of the Physician's Congress, the declaration says that contrary to popular belief doctors were not forced by political authorities to kill and experiment on prisoners but rather engaged in the Holocaust as leaders and enthusiastic Nazi supporters.
The apology notes that “outstanding representatives of renowned academic medical and research institutions were involved” in organizing and carrying out the mass extermination of millions.
In the statement, the German doctors said they “remember the living and deceased victims and their descendants and ask them for forgiveness."
I don’t know if forgiveness will be forthcoming.
But in the history of apologies for crimes and abuses carried out in the name of medicine this is the most important ever made. It does nothing to soften the horror of the Holocaust but it both ascribes responsibility where it belongs and ends any further efforts to deny or obfuscate what actually happened.
My father was there to see some of it. On April 29, 1945, Army Sgt. Sidney D. Caplan was among the troops that liberated the Dachau death camp outside of Munich Germany. By the end of the war, nearly 6 million Jews and countless others had been killed.
The Nuremberg trials that followed the defeat of the German Reich showed the intimate role that medicine had played in the Holocaust. Many know about Dr. Josef Mengele's gruesome experiments, but now the actions of mainstream medicine have been acknowledged.
German medicine as field has remained silent about it all these decades – until today.
The world must still grapple with the Holocaust as genocide carried out in the name of science and medicine. But it no longer needs to try and push those involved in German medicine to speak about their role. They have done so and they deserve full credit for it.
The world should acknowledge that medicine has finally stared its worst crimes directly in the face and shuddered.
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About time. Now time for the drug and car companies to also admit what they did.
So maybe in 10 or so years Grunenthal will be apologizing for the deformities caused by Thalidomide.
Car companies? You are joking, aren't you?
I'm sure, some sought of apology from the perpetrators, beneficiaries, of the systematic killing and torture of 60 million people, in Russia and Baltic states, during the "Judaic" Communist "revolution", wouldn't go astray at this late stage either.
It matters not about the car and drug companies, what matters to me is if a man is killed because he is a Jew, that is one Jew too many. Millions of Jews perished and surely that is genocide. Nobody deserves to die because they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus or any other labels one can apply - Hutus, Tutus or Palestine.
duuug, what are you talking about? You didn't know the car companies worked people to death as well?
This apology should be well appreciated but I wish more of the findings by the Nazi doctors were validated even if their experiments were done on humans.
I understand perfectly well medical experiments on humans is not ethical but what's been done is done and the results should not be deemed "inadmissable" for the sake of Political Correctness.
duuug, it's no joke. It is historical fact that German car manufacturers, including Volkswagen, used Jewish prisoners as slave labor throughout the war, and they worked closely with the Nazis to replenish their workforce with a constant supply of no-cost laborers. That shouldn't be news to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of WWII history.
The medical experiments done by Nazi doctors didn't go to waste. The US took the information on the effects of high altitude, high pressure and extreme temperatures for our military programs.
Yeah what wonderful bunch of Information for the US Military,done to people who were murdered mercilessly and didn't deserve it!
Why don't you tell that to the ones,who are still living and some of the of the ones who went through those Horrific Experiments.
I'm sure they'd just be THRILLED!
Two things... first: the holocost meauseam in Germany which was finally opened to the public a couple of years ago has accurate records of the murders of 14 million murders by the Nazi powers that were.
Second: why is it so many use the term killed??? Soldiers in combat were killed... The others were "murdered"...
Almost everyone and everything was involved in thatcrap, you can see by the fact that it was all documented, that the people and their government never considered what they did as being wrong let alone crimes against humanity, thus the statements over and over during the trials "we were only doing as we were ordered" It is no wonder today's Germans bleed at the mention of the war years. Lets pray this earth never sees anything like that again.
Okay, at least 30 million Christians, mostly women and children, were systematically "murdered" in "the revolution" Many millions more were marched to there deaths or met their "demise" in death camps and work camps.
It's so little so late at no cost to them. What's the point?
WOW. There are apologists on this webpage, with creepy statements like the above, and many more down below. The Humanity ! The NewsVIne commenters with primarily negative thoughts are the ones who consistently make these sort of comments. Negative feelings, negative thoughts, destructive actions, awkwardly apologizing for guilty parties. Ughhh!! There are some scary humans on this webpage.
Veer so zorry, fuer all of dat Holocaust, nonsenze. Let's be freunds, yah? Lickity-split.
I hope you all will remember that these are decendants. These people weren't there when these horrors took place. Unfortunately the experiments didn't go to waste.
The USA has said that due to the horrible things done so many medical breakthroughs were found.
The Holocaust was WRONG. I am stationed here with my Military career husband and these folks are so embarassed by what happened in their country.
I would like to hear an apology from Japan for the horrible things they did to our American Military that they took as prisoners. Those were horrible also.
Es tut mir leid Rooster, Die Deutschen versuchen.
Ich habe bier getrunken, mein liebchen.
gut Deutsch Roosterboy. :) Yes you are correct we all do have our own way of thinking and our own opinion regarding this matter. I know that if I were the Jewish community I would probably feel like it was about time too.
Shönes Wochenende!
Cheetah, good question. the quest for freedom? as in the truth will set you free? I don't know, as most doctors/perpetrators of those days are dead by now. a twenty year old doctor? in 1945 would be 97 years old now. hummmm?
No I'm afraid the point is to open a can of worm, spread fear of the Germans and the terrible things they did and could do again. Keep the trauma alive........
if as a nation they wanted to sincerely apologize they could just say: "German doctors willingly participated and it was wrong, the medical German association recognize that and apologizes for it and wishes it never happens again, today's German doctors are disgusted by it and denounce the behaviors." voila
also the “outstanding representatives of renowned academic medical and research institutions were involved” in organizing and carrying out the mass extermination of millions". No I don't believe that except if you consider the producers of Ziklon 3 gas used in the gas chambers, which is not really a medical specialty. tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands but millions? they are over-exagerating, over- apologizing and that makes it insincere to me.
In conclusion I would say: dear Germany you got Evil and that is why your country got pummeled in the end. and we'll do it again if we have to, and probably faster than the first time.
German chicks are hot. I would spank them.
None of the current generation had anything to do with the holocaust, in fact, they are ashamed of their history. The majority WW2 vets have suffered themselves, either as POWs, or by trying to follow impossible orders. It's a nice gesture, taking blame for something they (current generation) didn't do.
History is written by the winners. I have never heard anyone apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Debora, there are still living Holocaust survivors who experienced these dreadful experiments. I direct you to Eva Kor, a girl from Romania, born in 1934. She had a twin sister, and when they were sent to Auschwitz in 1944, the girls were separated from their family and sent to be experimented on by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. Ms. Kor is still alive and operates a Holocaust museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, where I was fortunate enough to meet and interview her. I can guarantee, this apology means something to her.
http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/index.php?sid=26
sotired, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were strikes on military targets against a foreign enemy engaged in war on our country, not the systematic genocide of several races of people. See the difference?
Most of the medical research on (unwilling) humans were of little value, except for the high-pressure tests for air force pilots. Almost everything else was completely useless from a medical and war perspective. Many were brutally tortured to death for no scientific value in the least bit. At least, tell the truth.
No sotired, and you may not. How sad, that we don't always apologize for those we hurt and then learn to NOT hurt so there will be no need for an apology.
Misscreant, Yes actually there are several of them. I know you are correct, this apology is important I just hope folks remember these are not the people who committed the crimes.
I guess it took lots of currage to appogize the crimes the doctors did during WWII - however, now that most of those doctors are dead from old age, I think it is too little too late. May God have mercy on their souls.
Little Debbie snack cake.
JustSuzy, God has nothing to do with Josef Mengele's soul, if he had one to begin with.
Here are a few more apologies I would like to see but have no real hope for.
1. English Queen to all past colonies for the colonial past.
2. USA to all countries where it propped dictatorships.
3. Indian Brahmins to all the rest Hindus (and non-hindus)
4. Catholic Church to all scientists
---
I think that's enough ... my head already started spinning thinking about it.
and
My point is that at some point you have to stop blaming people who are INNOCENT. Or would you like to be blamed forever for the eradication of Native Americans, slavery, and assorted war crimes you had no part in doing?
Debora 389330 and anyone else Germans are very Prejudice and most are very unhappy because they failed. Look at whats happening now with Europe you will start to realize that Germans hate any one else and as far as being a different race... Germans hate any one that is different then white blue eyed Blond hair.
sotired, no one is blaming the current German medical establishment. They are apologizing for the crimes of their forebearers. No one forced them to do it.
No, Debbie is just confused. I was brutal on her to make a point. I went overboard to make it. I am sure she is a good girl. I failed by going too far. I feel like the biggest tool.
What took so long?
Too little, too late.
Obama has promised the Native Americans and Descendants of slaves reparations at the tune of five Billion Dollars, What do you mean people are not still having to pay even if they were not part of any wrong deeds? Obama says it is our Government that owes these People, I think he is a little confused who's Money it really is that the Government has? It is the People existing today.
One thing to keep in mind is that we - as a human race - have not changed. It is only through the adherence to a just and transparent rule of law that we can attempt to achieve our humanity. Religion has proved wonderfully deficient at preventing atrocity on a grand scale, as has any government controled by any entity that is not responsive to the people - all of the people.
How about the apology for the 50 million (to date) unborn children killed in America?
Bill, there is a time and place to discuss abortion. This is not it.
Holocaust: Gay activists press for German apology
This issue goes to the core of personal responsibility for participating in a crime passing off as a 'patriotic duty'. Lots of innocent people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki too... and I have not seen any apologies from people who took part in that genocide.
1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.
1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occured within poverty-striken black populations.
1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.
1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.
1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.
So Tired and Max -
It is an absolute FALSE equivalency to compare Nagasaki and Hiroshima with the Holocaust. The dropping of the atomic bombs saved over well over a million lives. They estimated the causalities of a land invasion of Japan at over 2 million. Japan was a totalitarian military dictatorship that would never of surrendered until it was drowning in blood.
"History is written by the winners. I have never heard anyone apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Here is your apology: "I'm sorry we didn't bomb Hiroshima and Nagasiki sooner. It would have saved millions of innocent lives."
R. J. Rummel, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, states that between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most likely 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war.
One war crime is not an excuse or justification of another. British gen. "Bomber" Harris is a war criminal just like Herman Goering is, having on his hands the blood of hundreds of thousands German civilians murdered on his direct orders. That m-f was not prosecuted only because the side he was serving won the war.
@Defend America - during the colonial war in the Philippines at the turn of 20th century, US military exterminated some 3 million Phillippinos, in a way closely resembling Nazi atrocities some 40 years later. Did anybody in US apologized for that? No. Was anybody tried for these crimes? Only a handful of low level soldiers who got a slap on the wrist at best.
ALL WAR CRIMES NEED TO BE CONDEMNED!
Freedman, yes...ain't we proud. We can't even apologize to our own people! It seems we always want to hold ourselves to a higher standard, but we certainly have a problem living up to it! Man's inhumanity to his fellow man always astounds.
Ron I am married to a German (Parents went to America after WWII), I am part German andwe're currently stationed here in Germany.
Granted the area I live in may not be very near the North part of Germany (Berlin) but I have not run into too many Germans that dislike Americans in this area. I am in the Rheinland Pfalz area, Kaiserslautern.
I have gotten to do a little traveling since being here and have found the German nationals to be very kind people. I have witnessed a few very, very rude Americans who act as though the Germans own them something. Frankly that is sad.
The only trouble we have found over here actually come from Turkish people, they will beat up an American if they find one.
The targeting and killing of civilians is NEVER justifiable. In densely populated areas like these 2 Japanese cities, a lot more non-combatants have been killed than militants, and in the following years by the nuclear fallout. If you rationalize wiping out a goodly number of non-combatants like women and children for a greater good, is in effect making excuses for terrorism.
But that wasn't my point, it was rather that the current generation does not have to apologize for the things their fathers did, but they also should not try to justify war crimes.
America is by NO means innocent. There were millions of Native Americans living here before Europeans came along, now if you wanna see one you have to go to a reservation. The others didn't just, 'disappear' lol. They didn't enjoy those yellow fever-infected blankets as much as the government thought they would.
SoTired- Normally I would agree, but in Japan everyone, even the women were trained how to shoot guns and told that surrender was shameful and unacceptable. How many more lives would have died total if the war had dragged out another year or two? Yes it's horrible, but war is called war and not 'fun' for a reason
Almost every other American possesses / knows how to use a gun, even a good percentage of women and teens. That doesn't make them legitimate targets for an attacker. And yes, war is hell, and it's best to get over it and rebuild as soon as possible.
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group".
Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be compared to the actual genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime and the Axis powers (including Japan). What happened in those cities was not genocide. First of all, those cities were not targeted because of race, religion or lifestyle, they were strategic military targets in a country that we were at war with and were chosen because of infrastructure vs. possible casualties. It was not the Americans goal to kill as many Japanese as possible--the opposite was true. The dropping of the A bombs is certainly a dark spot on America's history, but many people (myself included) don't believe that an apology is necessary now, or ever. After Pearl Harbor, after the Batan Death March, after the Japanese government's absolute refusal to surrender peacefully and their determination to fight to the last man, woman, and child (we're talking civilians here), the A bomb was the best solution. It saved lives in the end. I'm not saying that we should put ourselves on a pedestal for dropping those bombs, but we certainly shouldn't apologize.
Under any criminal law anywhere in the world, committing a crime in response to a crime is STILL A CRIME. The same should apply to war crimes. If Japs or Russians dropped A-bombs on a couple of American cities wiping out indiscriminately large numbers of civilians, you bet your azz we would consider that a WAR CRIME, regardless of whatever justification you may come up with (such as 'shorter war'). Under Hague rules of land and air warfare, and under Geneva convention which US has signed, deliberate targeting of civilian population constitutes a war crime.
What I would HOPE that we learned is that "evil" is ever present in this world. It occurred BEFORE Hitler and it hasn't stopped SINCE Hitler. Yes, the Nazi's are what most think about but the killing of innocent people based on their religious beliefs, heritage, AND political beliefs still happens on a daily basis around the world.
What scares me is this dangerous belief that our country can always protect us from those "evil" individuals and groups. They can't. We have groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban, Muslim Brotherhood, etc. that would LOVE to gain power in THIS country and slowly and methodically "cleanse" those that don't believe like they do. So what do some in OUR country want? Reduce military spending and take away our right to own a gun.
I am sure we can cut some military costs and I am okay with that but let's do that AFTER an analysis of what we need THEN talk about cutting!! This dangerous belief that the world is not "dangerous" and therefore can afford to cut our defenses is irresponsible. Regarding gun ownership imagine if this country was overrun by "evil" and our military could not hold sections back. Do YOU want to be one that walks out to the field, stripped naked, and stand before a ditch with dead bodies waiting for your turn for the gunshot to your head (or knife to your throat) and fall in the ditch with the other dead bodies? Do you want to be the one watching your children taken in one direction and you in another knowing either or both will be executed? Or would you rather have the opportunity to fight and protect your families and loved ones?
This is what scares me about this desire to "take away our guns". This could ONLY happen if the government believed they could ALWAYS protect you. They can't. Don't be misled by the desire of government to take away our guns "for our own good" because when that occurs you will not be able to protect your family when needed and one day it is quite possible that you will be standing naked in a field waiting to be executed wondering why you were not allowed to protect yourself.
So, by that definition the US committed a crime when they interred Americans of Japanese descent at Manzanar. All this stuff about WWII atrocities and no ones mentioned Manzanar...truly a forgotten piece of history.
And, lest we all forget...Manzanar.
Thule Lake, too. American citizens CITIZENS imprisoned ONLY because of their parents or grandparents HERITAGE. The only thing different was that we didn't execute them.
Max^108
Under any criminal law anywhere in the world, committing a crime in response to a crime is STILL A CRIME. The same should apply to war crimes. If Japs or Russians dropped A-bombs on a couple of American cities wiping out indiscriminately large numbers of civilians, you bet your azz we would consider that a WAR CRIME, regardless of whatever justification you may come up with (such as 'shorter war'). Under Hague rules of land and air warfare, and under Geneva convention which US has signed, deliberate targeting of civilian population constitutes a war crime.
By your response, Max, it sounds like you think that war in itself is illegal. Am I incorrect in that assumption? Defense of self or a nation is not "committing a crime in response to a crime" as you assert, and therefore, your statement about it being illegal anywhere in the world is incorrect. Laws of all civilized and westernized countries allow for defense of oneself (or defense of millions in a nation). No such laws require "turning the other cheek" and not responding to force with force. The version of the Geneva Convention you're referring to was ratified and signed after WWII (in 1949). No individual, nor a sovereign country's leaders, can be prosecuted via ex post facto law. This approach was used at the Nuremberg trials with mixed results. This is what led to much of the content of the current version of the Convention. When the atomic bombs were dropped, it was not illegal. It became a "gray area" of legality after 1949. The US government cannot be prosecuted for a action that was legal at the time of action, but became illegal (sort of) after the action. That's not the way international law works.
Also, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not chosen as targets because of their civilian populations. Hiroshima was a strategic industrial and military city. There were military installations within the projected blast zone of the atomic bomb and was one of the few Japanese areas of military significance that did not house American POWs. Yes, there were civilians in the city, much as there were in every other city that was bombed during WWII (by all participants). I'm not saying that targeting ANY area where civilians were residing is okay, but you cannot overlook the fact that international law did not address those actions at the time of the war.
It's not the black and white issue you are trying to make it into, Max.
This article reinforces a BIG LIE. It is in the meantime well known that the "6 Million Jews" number is actually around 4 Millions. Right ... for the author "around" or "nearly" 6 Millions is something very relative. What's 2 millions more or less? :)
Who's at the core of this propaganda? Don't they have a chief editor? Or is that individual also brainwashed with the wrong numbers?
It is like someone would write about today's computer technology but based on facts from 20 years ago. I bet everyone would laugh loud about such a stupid article.
LM-2418400--you're seriously disturbed. The number of 6M murdered Jews during WWII is a low estimate. Educate yourself a bit, you'll see that what I'm telling you is true. In addition to these Jews, the Nazis also murdered 5+M Slavs, Gypsies, Russian and American POWs, homosexuals and Catholics (among others). What's most disturbing about your comment is that you seem to think that 4M is "no big deal". The only person brainwashed with propaganda here is you. Perhaps you should start listening to the neo-Nazis you seem to have spent time with.
You're a disgusting troll who obviously knows nothing about what you speak. Go elsewhere.
Entire city can't be military target. That's such a load of crap. Whoever argues that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate targets to obliterate hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians - is a monster or a madman.
As per German unhappiness - could it be because they are brainwashed a bit too much to feel guilt for things that their forefathers did? While I strongly feel for all the injustices in the world - I just think it's horrible for future generations to carry the burden of what past generations did.
The jews are remarkable people - but I think it's unjust that comparatively vietnamese or Kambodian or Iraqi victims didn't even receive 1% of sympathy or justice that holocost victims received. Not that holocost victims received a whole lot of justice. But the others I mentioned didn't receive any.
In reality, there is a broader definition of genocide than is being acknowledged on this vine. However, I've noticed that to be a common thread. Especially when discussing anything to do with the NAZI holocaust. "Race" is an arbitrary cultural construct. That means that it's definition is not scientific, per se. ANY group within a given population can be defined, by whatever characteristics, a "race." The poor, the brown, the hispanic, the Han Chinese, the Hutu, the Tsutsi. Really, the possibilities are endless.
There is a documentary, and surely there are others on the mechanics of genocide. "Worse than War."
PJ, they did not bomb the entire city, in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. They dropped the bomb on a specific military target in each case. Plus, Japan had been warned, several times, that if they did not surrender, we would deliver "prompt and utter destruction." Japan was committing their own atrocities, and we, the Allied forces, wanted the war to end, and we executed a perfectly legal wartime maneuver to achieve that goal. It is not pretty, but that is war.
Miscreant it is quite a distortion to say they only hit military targets in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb was detonated at 580m to ensure maximum damage to as wide area as possible. That's not a military surgical strike.
This whole notion of military target is propoganda and average joe buys into it to avoid guilt or culpability. Show me one top 25 cities in any country that doesn't have a military target. Every city has one.
WW2 was before the Geneva Convention so the reference is not applicable. And if you think the Japanese would NOT have nuked the USA if they had been given the chance at the time, you are living in a fantasy land. They were not innocent, you have obviously never heard of the Rape of Nanking.
War is not fair. Either weaken the morale/enthusiasm of the population or allow them to support a government that murders people...neither one sounds too great
Be nice if this nation would finally own up and confront the atrocities it has commited, but not America, we have God on our side, judge all, be judged by none.
Yes, and we don't need you as our conscience. All these apologies made by people that did nothing wrong seems ridiculous. If you can get the actual criminals that's one thing but I'm not going to apologize for something I did not do. I have enough of my own faults without assuming those for people that passed long ago.
I'd like you to list the atrocities this country has done, I could find only two worth mentioning, The native Indian and the time of slavery. and I do believe we have made things right by one of them, we've spent over 11 billion on one race and gave toilets and bath tubs to the other I'll let you figure out who's who.
@Curt,
So if despicable acts were done by your parent or your child, you would see any value in yourself apologizing to the victims' families?
Also, what if those who committed despicable acts a few generations ago acquired a (tainted) fortune or lesser benefit? If the descendants of such unethical people inherited anything --money, valuables, education, social privilege, a home, food, other properties, 'well-placed' friends, etc.-- then those descendants are tightly connected to the unethical actions of their ancestor(s). Indeed, in such circumstances a simple apology comes up short-- besides a heartfelt apology, the descendant would do well to, in some way, attempt to heal the economic & social injustices.
The war ended 67 years ago. Is anybody still alive that had anything to do with it?
kip360
In 1492 there were an estimated 26 million native Americans that populated the lands that became The United States & Canada. By 1880 there were less than 200,000 native Americans remaining on these lands. Even though it's only an estimate the numbers are staggering. I believe The United states has earned it's rung on the ladder of governments committing genocide, not just an honorable mention as you suggest.
MV the biggest killer of Native Americans was disease. They did not have antibodies for European diseases. If you read any of the early accounts of the settlement of North America the colonists report finding village after village empty. Smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, typhus, influenza, whooping cough, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, chicken pox, and venereal diseases spread like wild fire among the natives without any crime being committed. Yes many crimes were committed but the biggest killer by far was disease. Especially early on. The second cause was getting dragged into European wars.
Kip, 50 million unborn children (to date) killed in America.
Ummnmmm.....that is not an act of the government, but of 50 million individuals, acting individually, over time. This topic is about acts by a government, by official policy.
lonereb: Seriously?
1945 "Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.
1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.
Bill- 857242, how many times do you need to be told that there is a time and place to debate abortion and this article is not one of them?
Also, Kip, do you need to be reminded that the US placed over 7000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans into internment camps during WWII? These people had done nothing wrong, but we only guilty by association.
And Devil's Son, yes, disease was a large killer of the Native Americans, but they wouldn't have experienced these if we hadn't purposefully given them smallpox infected blankets with the intent to kill them. And do we also need a reminder on how many died during the Trail of Tears and how many others died being relocated so that we could have the prime land in America?
Far too little, much too late!
oh I remember the USA killing university students shooting them killing them for protesting look it up this happened during the vietnam war... oh yes the shamless USA
That's what used to happen when you didn't pay your student loan. We're more evolved now.
1950 In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.
It will mean something when those "allies" not only allowed these gruesome butchers to escape punishment but went so far as to give them new identities and jobs in the government medical establishments after the war. I wont name them but heres their initials....USA, UK, USSR. Morality of course only goes so far against money!
The Vatican also. There was an official program to provide false papers to known Nazi war criminals so they could go to South America. What happened in Argentina in the 1970s is directly related to the admission of a large number of war criminals facilitated by the Vatican. The Argentinian military learned much from the Germans in their midst. Pedophilia isn't the only perversion the Church in Rome finds agreeable.
Sorry I forgot about them!! The Vatican was the WORST offender for getting Nazis out of Europe with new identities and cash! Like i said, in a battle between morality and money. Money ALWAYS wins with religions and governments.
Almost, and I emphasize almost, hard to believe what humans are capable of doing to fellow humans. Glad to hear the German medical field accept responsibility for their willing and enthusiastic participation in the Nazis' sadistic barbarism.
Most Germans I have met are horrified at what their nation did in WWII and very appologetic about it and very much mindful of how it could happen again. I have no doubt its a sincere apology. And honestly,somewhere,sometime,it will probably happen again. The only hope of preventing that is to understand what happened,understand how it happened and not shift blame,rewrite history or pretend those who were responsible were innocent.
Thomas Jefferson- "Those who do not know history are bound to repeat it"
I hear that some schools want to stop teaching about the Nazi Party. My answer-DON'T. If schools stop teaching about the Nazi's, then Americans might vote for another leader with Nazi customs.
Amen to that, and don't stop teaching about the evil and atrocities carried-out under the banners of Communism and Socialism.
@Random pennsylvanian: that quote does not belong to thomas jefferson. it belongs to a spanish writer named george santayana.
And let us not forget the evil and atrocities perpetrated upon the Native Americans and the Africans (by our European ancestors).
Um, Edmund Burke, not Jefferson.
Levi's right. I got mixed up with 2 similar quotes from Jefferson and Santayana. We all make mistakes. I still agree with Santayana's quote though.
... and Santayana rephrased it. But the original is still Burke.
Burke- "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it"
Santayana- "Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it"
The quotes are very similar and Edmund was the first to say his quote. You're right as well Early.
@Michael M.-544519: After the war, it was hard to find ANY Germans who were Nazis! Which is, of course, absurd.
This apology is disingenuous and way too late. The doctors were not victims of the Nazis: they were architects of the eugenics policies which the Nazis subsequently adopted into their twisted ideology.
I agree not to teach about the war but then take the Bible out too it has more killings in there then all of world war 11 and world war 1 combined.
Germans I have met, (I have met many, even lived with some in North Germany), won't talk about this. When someone says Germans are embarrassed by it, did the German actually discusse it? Or did you ASSUME their silence was embarrassment? The most a German has discussed this topic with me was bombing raids (hiding in a basement as a child). The next generation does not discuss it and will say, 'We didn't learn about that in school.' Embarrassed? Doubtful.
1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.
I have to ask: why now? There has to be more at work than we're seeing, here.
Maybe guilt. Maybe facing old age and death themselves.
There could be children of Nazi physicians who went into the field of medicine perhaps not knowing their family history and have learned in adulthood and now dealing with it. This secrecy is quite common. This wouldn't be unusual for any adult children of Nazis.
Strange we don't hear more and directly from Nazis and/or their children who know. They are quiet groups.
Not strange at all that we don't hear directly from Nazis. WWII-era Nazis are getting in pretty short supply. Anyone who was an adult during WWII would now be well into his or her late 80's, at a minimum (say 20 years old in 1945).
Their children aren't responsible for what their parents did. Why should they say anything at all?
Yes, 'why now?' is a good question. The economic instability/death of the Euro? They might need help soon. Our military did human experiment on their soldiers to test altitude, decompression, etc. and they still do experiments on soldiers. It's hard to see a silver lining in genocide.
1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.
Hi EARLY OUT -- just to clarify to your response-- "Not strange at all that we don't hear directly from Nazis.....Anyone who was an adult during WWII would now be well into his or her late 80's, at a minimum (say 20 years old in 1945). Their children aren't responsible for what their parents did. Why should they say anything at all?"
These older Nazis are the last regardless of age. They don't need to be from medical profession. I meant from general population of that time. And their children are witness to the witnesses. All of these people know something and should speak it vs. silence. Holocaust Survivors, if alive, are the same age and there is a very active, ongoing community and sense of responsiblity among them to speak regularly and educate adults and children. And they are very old, but they still speak. In addition, there is shared sentiment from their children who are involved in same efforts to educate forever.
Ah, a reminder of what horrors humanity has brought upon itself. I think we too quickly generalize and trivialize what the Holocaust was. 100 years of shame is not enough for the evils done.
1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.
I wonder when the nurses will come forward. I also wonder how many nurses know of the role of the ANA and the ICN had when its leaders where nazis during the war!
Quite nicely done, and sincerely, it appears to me.
Let's remember.
Let's move on.
If a generation is about 20 years, then it took THREE generations past the medical perpetrators to acknowledge their role. Good for them but weak for their society.
20 to 25 is the old definition of a generation. It is now 33. 3 generations in 100 years= 33 1/3. Of course then a biblical generation is 80 to 100 depending on what bible you use.
Of the doctors who gave the apology, how many of them were there in WWII? Probably none and it takes a lot of GUTS to apologize for something you PERSONALLY had NOTHING to do with. Yeah, weak..
Taco Bell reasoning at its finest....
1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.
Germany at least has always generally acknowledged they were bad, had tried to prevent the rise or remaining Nazi sympathizers, and the people seem generally genuinely sorry. Very different from Japan that is actively doing things like trying to get people to take down memorials, edit textbooks, and generally deny everything.
Japan will never admit what they did in China,in Korea ,in Singapore,in Burma ,or the Phillipines (sp).I have talked with many people that lived through Japanese occupation in Korea and a couple people that were in Nanking,China. The Japanese then were very bad guys,as in being told it was ok to rape a woman,but you had to kill her after you finished. At least the German doctors admitted that doctors willingly took part,and apologized for their professions involvement.
What??? The adult Germans I know in Kiel and Hamburg aren't sorry or embarrassed. If the subject comes up they will tell you matter-of-factly 'We didn't learn about that in school.' With the failing Euro, they might need some friends soon. What were the Germans you know taught about the Holocaust? And their parents will talk about bombing raids and live munitions but not their 'feelings'. Ridiculous.
Germany does not always 'acknowlege they were bad'. They are proud and feel superior to all their neighbors. They are the leading economic, industrial and political country with the Euro... And They Know It. They will be glad to tell you all of the things about them that are better than everyone else. Many Americans just assume Germany feels bad, is embarrassed or ashamed but they are not. They don't feel responsible for WWII and think its crazy to hold them responsible for any of it.
Julie, look up ODESSA.
1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.
Iran's President Nutty must think the doctors are apologizing for nothing.
I check http://www.aljazeera.com/ everyday to prevent bullshltters from influencing me and I didn't see that. Where was it?
I am glad that the current generation of Germans have come to terms with the "sins of their fathers." Germany did a good job of facing up to history, and it's culpability as a nation, and taken responsibility for the horrors of WW2. Unfortunately, the Japanese have not done so. The current Japanese have denied the genocide their fathers committed in China, and gloss over the atrocities of the Japanese military. World War 2 is taught in Japanese classrooms as an heroic struggle against Western imperialism, and that Japan was a victim of the US and allies.
" I am glad that the current generation of Germans have come to terms with the "sins of their fathers."
You need to remember that some Germans were forced to be in the Nazi Party. Some Germans really didn't want to do these evil things, but if they didn't, they would get punished.
Paragraph 3. Reading comprehension.
"forced" ? Read "Hitler's Willing Executioners".
And the article we are commenting clearly reports :
"..the declaration says that contrary to popular belief
doctors were not forced by political authorities to kill and experiment on
prisoners but rather engaged in the Holocaust as leaders and enthusiastic Nazi
supporters."
Mmm and mytown, I'm not talking about Nazi Scientists/doctors, I'm talking about Nazi soldiers. Near the end of WW2 when Nazi Germany was close to defeat, Hitler ordered that people as young as 14 and people as old as 60 years old were to be drafted into the Nazi army. Do you think those teenagers/grandpa's wanted to fight with an almost certain death?
Not, true... I was in Germany when the holocaust film was aired there... Threats were made against the T.V. stations. My landlord was shocked and begged me to say that it was not true. Up until that point their histroy painted us as the bad guys and Hitler as a man only trying to unite Europe. After the war the records of the mass murders were turned over to the Germans. They disappeared until a couple years ago when the Germans finally opened the holocaust museum and invited reporters to the opening.This only many years after the upheavel over the movie. And when the American reporters returned home they talked about finding the records of Ann Frank for all of less than five minutes. As for the Japanese the Sargent is correct.
The Germans I know just say 'We were not taught about that in school.' And only recently were so many records made public.
1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the european population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.
They would do again, if given the chance. The Medical profession in Hitler's Germany were some of his most diabolical followers. They are only sorry they lost.
None of these doctors were likely even alive when the Nazis were in power. Your statement is absurd.
Doctors are still doing experimenting on people in mental hospitals around the world including the USA. Nothing is being done about it.
1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.
Some day, much as this group did, the United States will apologize for its role in the invasion of Iraq and for torture. Of course, the damage is done and our society (and others) are set back decades, but that is what will happen. Mark my words.
Andrew547, ever hear of Saddam's chemical weapon experimentation on the Kurds in northern Iraq and how many villages he massacred? Do you even have a clue about his torture policy? Your ignorance is horrible. It's called genocide. Only, Saddam didn't kill millions, just many hundreds of thousands, Hundreds of Thousands and no one cared.
1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.
KrisBy, he did not "experiment" on the Kurds. How many other countries have a government that has committed the crime of genocide? How many other countries routinely torture? Of those, how many have we invaded and occupied?. Of those, how many have we occupied for ten years? Yes, that's right: none, and none.
By your standard, we should have invaded ourselves. After all, we torture. Well, at least we did under a Republican president. Neither genocide nor torture were the "reasons" we went into Iraq.
But what does that have to do with the US apologizing for torture and the Iraq invasion? We live in the civilized world. We adhere to international and domestic laws. Oh wait, at least we used to until a Republican president got into office. Reminds me of Nixon.
When did other people breaking the law become an excuse to break the law? Seriously...the ignorance in this conversation is not coming from me.
Nearly 67 years after the fact they now apologize? Guess better late than never.
Migdatig -- and others ---
Nobody I know who was involved / connected with the horrors of WW-II ever "gets over it"...
In many cases, I am not even sure if the CHILDREN of those who "went through it" -- ever really "get over it" either... I note that one child of survivors noted that when she was growing up, she was in a class where almost NOBODY had a living grandparent!! It was dificult to understand who OTHER people could have [living] grandparents.... and then they learned "why"... and the "trauma" was NOT "trivial"....
Only someone totally uninvolved withe events of WW-II could ever simply say.... "move on"...
"First do no harm." then appologize for it. If sincere (and on the surface it does seem so) then I am glad for it.
"It does nothing to soften the horror of the Holocaust but it both ascribes responsibility where it belongs and ends any further efforts to deny or obfuscate what actually happened."
Tell that to the Iranians.
1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.
I lived in (now former West) Germany from 1980-1988. One of our field trips as high school seniors was visiting the former site of the Dachau death camp. It has been 25 years, and I can never forget that trip. Good for that governing body, I suppose, but I wonder how many of them made the visit to any death camp, and God knows there are many.
What is important is for this professional group to become more vocal as to the psychological forces that created such violent horrors. Within the social discussions about parent child relations always is brought up the issue of discipline and punishment. The culture of pre world war Germany regarding parents was they molded their offspring sharply with corporal punishment for reasons of obedience to train them. This was nationally espoused as a virtue, and to some extent now in America it is still more valued, physical force to train children that utilizes psychological shameing and pain for disobedience. This is the origin of unquestionaly obedience, brutal force used upon children, bred a culture that followed without question because as children they had experienced this a good attachment parenting. It allowed a Hitler to sieze power and worship strength and force to achieve an end, without any emotional guilt in doing what it did. The key is to work toward banishing child corporal punishment world wide against cultures of parenting that do not accept that violent force with children harms them. That is the best course a contrite country like post war Germany could do for humanity now.
1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.
1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.
"6 decades later" How could it possibly have taken them this long apologize?
1970 United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.
I think it is too late for forgiveness.
Moise dov Millman, my true name that my parents were afraid to give me in 1940. My mother's favorite game with me in 1942 was "playing refugee," back when it seemed inevitable that Hitler would win.
1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).
Wow... a belated but blunt apology from the "German medical association" on behalf of a bunch of dead quacks . . . Gee what's next... An apology from Obama and his pals, for the misery they have inflicted?
How about an apology from Bush and Cheney for all the death and misery they caused by invading Iraq.
How about a big, late, heartfelt apology for what you all did to the "negros"? Oh, you barely began and now you are tired of apologizing. Geez, let's move on. Oh, let's move on from Obama and that tired blame game, too. Don't you trolls ever sleep?????
Just like Nazi Germany, we will never let the South rise again. Traitors still. I am so sick of the continuing, never-ending Civil War. Let's move on.
Madborg1, Arrive-1, absolutely right on. I totally agree, Love and best wishes.
The south has risen already ,all the trash moved north :
Cool! I'm not a northerner either :)
Jesus saves. Moses invests. Mohammed embezzles. Odin rains thunder.
Arrive....slavery happened a little earlier than WWII. Slavery was not a good thing, but it was a world wide reality for thousands of years before America came away with about 7% of the total slaves removed from Africa.
The Africans (ahem...they were black) rounded up all the slaves in the first place. Did you think a dozen scurvy ridden sailors rowed ashore and subdued slaves? Blacks rounded them up for their own profit. European and Asian sailors sailed to the various slave ports where slaves were chained up waiting for sale, and bought them. America had a policy against it (hard to enforce) so European slave traders re-sold them in American ports.
Over a half million white Americans died in the civil war freeing the slaves. That works for an apology as far as I am concerned. I'm of Norwegian/Swedish descent. My ancestors and the Danes didn't approve of slavery, and waited until America settled the issue before moving to the US. HALF the population of those countries emigrated to the US. I am flying to Iceland and Norway this fall. To see the old country and check it out. Anyone can do the same. If you are black, you may feel free to buy a reasonably inexpensive ticket and head to Africa and see what you missed.
Warning: They still have slavery, rampant AIDS, a life expectency of about 40, an average annual income of less than 1000 dollars and ethnic cleansing there, so...be careful. Oh, and if you do catch AIDS on your vacation, they don't have much for doctors, so better cut it short and get back early.
Hey Steve, what did the Danes do with their prisoners of war? Kill them (burn the village), rape them and/or make slaves? Visit a very old museum there (one that dates back to 900 BC and on, go Vikings!) and they will tell you. My point is that if you want dirt on any civilization you only have to keep digging till you find it.
Steve, Iceland was settled by your ancestors AND THEIR IRISH SLAVES. So much for their not approving of slavery.
1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
Yes, the Vikings held slaves. That, of course was several hundred years before the "golden age of slavery" that included African slaves. When the Viking feudal system gave way to Christianity and a more centralized government, Slavery died out. That was by about 1200 AD. Slaves started arriving in America in the 1700's, over 500 years later.
Irish (and other) "slaves" the Vikings took worked off their captivity and gained freedom, sort of like the slaves in Roman times.
However, the Irish aren't pestering the Vikings for reparations, geniuses. Yes, the Vikings were asskickers. They looted most of the known world, discovered America. 1100 years ago.
WHATEVER ETHNIC AND RACIAL BACKGROUND YOU COME FROM has held slaves, so you are all just as guilty as Simon LeGree. The discussion was surrounding American Slaves in the 1800's and everything I said was the truth. Including the fact that Africa is about the only place where slavery is still thriving.
Wrong, Steve- Roman slavery was NO walk in the park, and slaves almost NEVER gained freedom on Roman times. In the Greek system, earning freedom was possible, and apparently happened often, as there was "human respect".