List of Nazi doctors

The following is a list of notable physicians in Nazi Germany. This list is primarily split up into those who performed euthanasia through the Aktion T4 campaign, to those who primarily performed experiments on Holocaust victims. While a majority consists of members of the Nazi Party, others who could not become members contributed in notable ways. After the war, the German Medical Association blamed Nazi atrocities on a small group of 350 criminal doctors. During the Doctors' trial, the defense argued that there was no international law to distinguish between legal and illegal human experimentation, which led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code. Some doctors attempted to change names to escape capture and trial, such as Werner Heyde and Robert Ley, Other doctors, such as Walter Schreiber, were covertly moved to the United States during "Operation Paperclip" in 1951.

Note: ''Some of those listed here were acquitted of the more serious charges, but were still found guilty for other crimes.''
Background

When the Nazi government came to power, they purged Germany of its 6,000 to 7,000 Jewish doctors. Non-Jewish physicians were early recruits to the Nazi Party, due both to social and economic circumstances and to widespread eugenic and Social Darwinist ideas in early-20th-century medicine. By 1942, more than half of all German physicians had become Nazi Party members. In comparison, only about 10% of the general population became Nazi Party members by 1945. In addition, over 7% of German doctors became members of the Nazi SS, compared to less than 1% of the general population. While most of these doctors were physicians, some held doctorates in biology, anthropology, or related fields. Doctors who were working for the state, and not for their patients, using a Mendelian type of logic chart, saw extermination of their patients as the correct solution to the problem of mental illness and the genetically defective. "The participation in the ‘betrayal of Hippocrates’ had a broad basis within the German medical profession. Without the doctors' active help, the Holocaust could not have happened," wrote E Ernst in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Killing and experimentation became medical procedures as they were performed by licensed doctors. A doctor was present at all the mass killings for legal reasons.

Euthanasia

Doctor	Birth	Death	Position
Hans Asperger			Gutachter
Erich Bauer			T4-personnel
			T4-Gutachter
August Becker			T4-Chemist
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gassing doctor
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gassing doctor
Viktor Brack			T4-Organizer
			T4-Gassing doctor
Werner Catel			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Organizer
Max de Crinis			T4-Gutachter
Irmfried Eberl			T4-Director
			T4-personnel
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gassing doctor
			T4-Gassing doctor
Ernst-Robert Grawitz			T4-personnel
Heinrich Gross			T4-personnel
			T4-Gutachter
Hans Heinze			T4-Gutachter
			T4-personnel
Werner Heyde			T4-Gutachter#List of [Action T4 top experts\|T4-Obergutachter]
Ernst Illing			T4-Child euthanasia
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Director
			T4-Obergutachter
			T4-Gutachter
Friedrich Mauz			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gutachter
Paul Nitsche			T4-Obergutachter
Friedrich Panse			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gutachter
Carl-Heinz Rodenberg			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Gutachter
Carl Schneider			T4-Gutachter
			T4-personnel
Werner Villinger			T4-Gutachter
			T4-Chief doctor
Erich Wasicky			T4-Gassing doctor
			T4-Gutachter
Albert Widmann			T4-personnel
			T4-Gutachter
			Euthanasia
			Euthanasia

Human experimentation

Doctor	Birth	Death	Type	Sentence	Reference
Karl Babor			Injections	None
Heinz Baumkötter				25 years
Hermann Becker-Freyseng			High-altitude experiments	20 years
Wilhelm Beiglböck			Sea water experiments	15 years
Otto Bickenbach			Poison gas experiments	Life
Kurt Blome			Multiple	Acquitted
Karl Brandt			Injections	Executed
Carl Clauberg			Sterilization experiments	25 years
Leonardo Conti				None
Hans Delmotte			Injections	None
Erwin Ding-Schuler			Injections	None
Hans Eisele			Surgical experiments	Death
Friedrich Entress			Injections	Executed
Hans Eppinger			Sea water experiments	None
Fritz Fischer			Surgical experiments	Life
Karl Gebhardt			Injections & surgical ex.	Executed
Karl Genzken			Injections	Life
			None directly	-
			Injections	20 years
Julius Hallervorden			Post-mortem brain research	-
Siegfried Handloser			None directly	-
Aribert Heim			Injections	Escaped	-
Kurt Heissmeyer	-	-	-	-	-
			Injections	Executed
Erich Hippke			None directly	-
Ernst Holzlöhner			Freezing experiments	None
Waldemar Hoven			Injections	Executed
Emil Kaschub			Injections	None
Hans Wilhelm König			Injections	Escaped
Eduard Krebsbach			Injections	Executed
Johann Kremer			Starvation experiments	Death
Josef Mengele			Multiple	Escaped
Joachim Mrugowsky			Injections	Executed
Heinrich Mückter				Escaped
Herta Oberheuser			Sulfonamide experiments	20 years
Helmut Poppendick			None directly	10 years
Sigmund Rascher			Multiple	None
Hans Reiter			None directly	Minimal
				-
			High-altitude experiments	Acquitted
Gerhard Rose			Injections	Life
			Injections & surgical ex.	Executed
Paul Rostock			None directly	Acquitted
			Poison gas experiments	Death
Siegfried Ruff			High-altitude experiments	Acquitted
Konrad Schäfer				Acquitted
			Injections & surgical ex.	Executed
Klaus Schilling			Malaria experiments	Executed
			Sea water experiments	Life
Horst Schumann			X-ray sterilization ex.	-
			Biochemical experiments	10 years
Walter Sonntag			Injections	Executed
				None
Alfred Trzebinski			Injections	Executed
Carl Værnet			Injections	Escaped
Helmuth Vetter			Injections	Executed
Bruno Weber			Injections	-
			High-altitude experiments	Acquitted
			None directly	Death
Eduard Wirths			None directly	None

Others

Academics

Doctor	Birth	Death	Short summary
Kurt Albrecht			Albrecht was a professor at the University of Berlin, and Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague.
Eugen Fischer			Fischer developed the physiological specifications, such as skull dimensions, which were used to determine racial origins, and he also developed the so-called Fischer–Saller scale for hair colour. He and the members of his team experimented on Gypsies and African-Germans, drawing their blood and measuring their skulls to attempt to scientifically validate his theories.
Wilhelm Frick			He achieved a doctorate of law and began working for the police in 1903. Later became a politician of the Nazi Party, joining September 1, 1925. He was a contributing creator and writer of the Nuremberg Laws. He was tried and executed after the war.
Rudolf Hippius			Hippius is best known for his work in "racial psychology" carried out under the auspices of the Nazi regime, and specifically his study of the "suitability" of people of mixed German and Slavonic descent.
Alfred Ploetz			Ploetz was a eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene, a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.
Robert Ritter			Ritter was appointed head of the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police. He was the "architect of the experiments, the Roma and Sinti were subjected to." His pseudo-scientific "research" in classifying these populations of Germany aided the Nazi government in their systematic persecution toward a goal of "racial purity".
Ernst Rüdin			While Rüdin has been credited as a pioneer of psychiatric inheritance studies, he also argued for, designed, justified, and funded the mass sterilization and clinical killing of adults and children.
Wilhelm Stuckart			He achieved a doctorate of law in 1930. He worked as a lawyer for the Nazi Party and helped to create and write the Nuremberg Laws.
Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer			Verschuer was a Nazi-affiliated eugenicist with an interest in racial hygiene. He was an advocate of compulsory sterilization programs in the first half of the 20th century.

Camp doctors

Miscellaneous

Doctor	Birth	Death	Known for
Otto Ambros			Chemist and slave labor
Hans Ehlich			RSHA physician
			Pneumoencephalography
Carl Krauch			Chemist and slave labor
Theodor Morell			Adolf Hitler's physician
Walter Schreiber			Physician and witness
Erich Traub			Lab chief - bioweapons
Gerhard Wagner			Compulsory sterilization
Friedrich Wegener			Autopsies on Jewish concentration camp inmates

Non Nazis

While the following people were never members of the Nazi Party, their names are included here as they are known to have contributed or are mentioned in a notable way.

Doctor	Birth	Death	Short summary
Hans Asperger			Asperger's alleged Nazi involvement has been hotly debated as his knowledge and involvement remains unknown.
Alfred Erich Hoche			While never a party member, Hoche is known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia.
Yusuf Ibrahim			Ibrahim was associated with Action T4 to an unknown extent. He could not become a member of the Nazi Party due to his half Arabic background
Adolf Pokorny			Pokorny's entry into the NSDAP in 1939 failed because of Lilly Pokorná's Jewish origins.
Gustav Wilhelm Schübbe			While Schübbe was a witness during the Nuremberg trials, he also admitted to killing thousands of people. He was never a party member himself, and charges against him were later dropped.
Hubertus Strughold			While Strughold never joined the Nazi Party, his association permanently tarnished his legacy.
			Türk was involved with Child euthanasia. During her interrogation at the Vienna People's Court on October 16, 1945, the doctor stated that she was neither interested in politics nor belonged to a political organization. She was given a 10-year sentence for being dependent on her superior.

Articles

Action 14f13
Collaboration with [Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|Collaboration with the Axis powers]
Glossary of Nazi Germany
The Holocaust
Holocaust victims
Mass suicides in 1945 Nazi Germany
Nazi eugenics
Responsibility for the Holocaust
Antisemitism in health care
Lists
List of Axis personnel indicted for war crimes
List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust
List of [medical eponyms with Nazi associations]
List of Nazi concentration camps
List of [Nazi extermination camps and euthanasia centers]
List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
List of last surviving Nazi war criminals