Paediatrics in the Reichsuniversität Straßburg

Aisling Shalvey

Description

This sensitive yet incisive book addresses the medical treatment of children in the city of Strasbourg during Nazi occupation. Exploring more than 1,000 previously undocumented patient files, it illuminates starkly the workings of paediatric care at a pivotal moment in history. Issues of nationality, social class, and diagnosis all contributed to the experience of each child, and here extensive data analysis is deployed to back up poignant individual stories.

This is the first ever demographic overview of a vulnerable group who were treated in the hospital of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg. Veering away from the well-established, top-down approach of examining the doctors, instead it makes the patient central to the analysis. A vivid picture emerges of the practical impact that war and occupation had on children who were suffering from illness, revealing how they were affected by Nazi ideology. Establishing a chronology of this important paediatric clinic, the author situates the core historical developments which brought it from establishment with optimistic and idealistic goals, to downfall just three years later when the Allies liberated the city.

Based on previously under-utilized primary sources, this volume employs a novel and distinctive analytical framework, using Alltagsgeschichte (the history of everyday life) and patient experience theory to frame medical records and accounts. The book will be relevant to those interested in the history of childhood, politics, occupation and border disputes, psychiatry, medicine, denazification and the postwar era, the history of National Socialism, patient history and the Second World War.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Author’s note

Glossary of Terms

Archive Abbreviations

Terminology Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Staff of the Children’s Clinic of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg

3. Paediatric Treatment at the Children’s Clinic of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg

4. Paediatric Patients in Psychiatric Care

5. Medical Research and Student Theses on Paediatrics

6. Paediatric Patients at the Internal Medicine Clinic

7. Final Days of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg and the Immediate Postwar Consequences

Appendices

Bibliography

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Médecine
• Médecine Générale
• Political Ideologies
• Medical
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Estrasburgo
• Nazism
• Pediatrics
• History of medicine
• Germany
• History
• Strasbourg

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 13 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781804130902
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 14 Mo

Extrait

PAEDIATRICS IN THE REICHSUNIVERSITÄT STRAßBURG

PAEDIATRICS IN THE REICHSUNIVERSITÄT STRAßBURG ChilbRén’s MébiCiné àt à Bàstion of Nàzi Ibéoloy

A I S L I N G S H A L V E Y

First published in 2023 by University of Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatham Drive Exeter EX4 4QR UK

www.exeterpress.co.uk

Copyright © Aisling Shalvey 2023

The right of Aisling Shalvey to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library CataIoguing in PubIication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

https://doi.org/10.47788/HUGC9927

ISBN 978-1-80413-089-6 Hardback ISBN 978-1-80413-090-2 ePub ISBN 978-1-80413-091-9 PDF

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission to reproduce the material included in this book. Please get in touch with any enquiries or information relating to an image or the rights holder.

Cover image: ‘Protect your Child, Trust the Doctor! Come to the Mothers’ Consultation Hours’ (original Schütze dein Kind. Vertraue dem Arzt. Komm zu Mütterberatungsstunde). Reichsuniversität Straßburg, 1942.

Do mo Sheanmhathair ‘Granny’, le grá

List of Figures Acknowledgements Preface Author’s Note Glossary of Terms Archive Abbreviations Terminology Abbreviations

Contents

1. Introduction 2. Staff of the Children’s Clinic of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg 3. Paediatric Treatment at the Children’s Clinic of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg 4. Paediatric Patients in Psychiatric Care 5. Medical Research and Student Theses on Paediatrics 6. Paediatric Patients at the Internal Medicine Clinic 7. Final Days of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg and the Immediate Postwar Consequences

Appendices Bibliography Notes Index

Figures

Cover: ‘Protect your Child, Trust the Doctor! Come to the Mothers’ Consultation Hours’ (original Schütze dein Kind. Vertraue dem Ar zt. Komm zu Mütterberatungsstunde). Reichsuniversität Straßburg , 1942. This is the only extant image of paediatric treatme nt in the Reichsuniversität Straßburg. It was intended to advertise the clinic, particularly the mothers’ consultation hours where infants could be brought, free of charge, to check their weight and development, administer vaccines and med ications, and to give the parents advice. This was also propaganda material f or the NSV, a Nazi organisation, as by encouraging the parents to come to these conu ltations they could also advise them on eugenics and racial hygiene, as well as ens uring that they were engaging with National Socialist organizations. The doctors and nurses depicted are unknown, but it is very likely that they were all staff of the children’s clinic. The exact date of this photograph is not specified, but it is estimated to have been taken in 1942, and was published by a printer in Straßburg for the local NSDAP (Gau Baden-Elsaß) dep artment of public welfare, training, and education. This image is reproduced on the cover in part as it is the only image of paediatric treatment in this era for the hospital, but also be cause it is a symbol of the duality of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg. On one hand, it pr ovided medical care to the population and advertised itself as such, but this care came with the condition of population surveillance and incorporation of occupa tion politics into daily life, along with indoctrinating the populace by making their he althcare dependent on adherence to Nazi ideology.

1.1. Gau Baden Elsass 1940–1945, with the Rhine del ineating the current border of France and Germany.

1.2. Map of the city of Straßburg, 1942. Box indica ting the hospital.

1.3. Children at the train station in Straßburg in 1940, waiting to be resettled.

1.4. Image of discovering patient files in the cold storage room of the pharmacy building, 2018.

1.5. Kreisleiter Hermann Bickler speaking at the ce ntral train station in Straßburg, 1940, on the arrival of people to the city.

1.6. Inauguration ceremony of the Reichsuniversität Straßburg in 1941 at Palais Universitaire.

2.1. Image of the Kinderklinik from Adalbert Czerny , 1911, illustrating the pavilion structure.

2.2. Reichsuniversität Straßburg doctors at Alt Reh se, 1941.

2.3. Propaganda image reading ‘Serve your people: C ome work as a nurse (sister) for the NSV’, 1941.

2.4. Propaganda poster for the Straßburg children’s clinic, urging new mothers to give their excess breast milk to the clinic.

2.5. Paediatric nursing personnel in the Reichsuniv ersität Straßburg children’s clinic.

3.1. Image of the relocation of Alsatian people bac k to Straßburg in 1940, giving the Nazi salute.

.2. Image of the outpatient poliklinik from 1932, a lthough the structure and appearance remained the same in the Nazi era.

3.3. Excerpt from the three-lead ECG of Klaus D., taken 22 June 1943.

3.4. Gauleiter Robert Wagner meeting the Hitler You th in Straßburg.

4.1. Electroshock chart for Georg E., 1942.

4.2. Drawing of a Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 by Josef L., 1942.

4.3. Drawing of the Porte de l’Hôpital gates leadin g to the hospital by Josef L., 1942.

5.1. Wehrmacht medical students at the inaugural le cture of Professor Dr Stein in 1941 at the Reichsuniversität Straßburg medical fac ulty.

5.2. Propaganda poster from 1941 urging young Alsat ian men to enlist in the Wehrmacht.

6.1. Pathology analysis for Georgine S., 1943.

6.2. Children playing in the rubble of buildings th at were bombed on 11 August 1944 on Rue de Trois Gateaux in Straßburg.

6.3. Letter from forced labour camp to the Reichsun iversität Straßburg internal medicine clinic concerning Wassily, 1943.

6.4. Letter from the gynaecology clinic to the inte rnal medicine clinic recommending hormone therapy for Katherine, 1943.

7.1. Liberation de l’Alsace; Allied troops with Als atian women at Strasbourg Cathedral, 1944.

7.2. Gates to the Reichsuniversität Straßburg hospital, 1941.

7.3. Gates to Faculté de Médicine at the Hôpital Ci vile de l’Université de Straßburg, 2020.

Acknowlepgements

I am extraorpinarily lucky to have so many PeoPle w ho have suPPortep me throughout the Process of writing this book, so thi s list is by no means comPlete. The first thank you goes to the Fonpation Pour la Mémoi re pe la Shoah, anp the University of Strasbourg, who have funpep this rese arch, anp without whom this Project coulp not have come to fruition. Thank you to Exeter University ress, anp in Partic ular Nigel Massen anp Davip Hawkins, my epitors, for making wonperful suggestio ns, catching my mistakes, anp bearing with me through reprafts. Thank you to the Historical Commission of the Reich suniversität Straßburg for suPPorting my work. This book is basep in large Par t on my work in Strasbourg that was PromPtep, insPirep, anp encouragep by the work of this commission. Thank you to aul Weinpling anp Florian Schmaltz, the Presipe nts of the commission, who have given me a Platform to share my research anp given me the tools to po so. It has been an honour to work with such insPiring acapemic s, but I feel Gabriele Moser, Sabine Hilpebranpt, anp Christian Bonah require Par ticular thanks; for reaping my work, for encouraging me throughout the Process, an p for Proviping apvice on how to transform my thesis into a book. Thank you also to Catherine Maurer for her encouragement, anp to Loïc Lutz anp Thérèse Vicent for their helP. To the archivists at the Archives DéPartementales p u Bas-Rhin, Archives pe la Ville et pe l’EurométroPole, Bunpesarchiv Berlin, H umbolpt Universität Archiv, Archives Nationales pe France at ierrefitte, Staat sarchiv Sigmaringen, Archiv Universität Wien, Archives pu StePhansfelp, Archive s pe la Faculté pu Mépecine, Lanpesarchiv Stuttgart, anp the Amies pes HôPitaux Universitaires, for being so helPful with finping aips, inquiries, anp access to archival sources. Thank you to Bripgeman Images Berlin anp aris for their helP wi th image licensing anp access. I am grateful to the librarians at the Bibliothèque p e mépecine et opontologie, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire pe Strasbou rg, anp the Bibliothèque p’Histoire pe Mépecine for their helP in orpering books from o ften obscure Places, anp for being so accommopating. Thank you also to the librarians at the German National Acapemy of Sciences LeoPolpina for accommopating me . Thank you to my family, esPecially my Parents anp m y sister, for listening to this Project for so long, for encouraging me, anp for al l their suPPort. A Particular thank you to Jack Kavanagh, Neale Rooney, anp Caoimhe Bur ke, along with my other frienps. The biggest thank you, though, goes to my granny, for insPiring me with her love of history, for all her helP with Proofreaping , anp for regularly calling to keeP me on track: this book is pepicatep to her.

Preface

This book concerns the ‘normal’ treatment of patien ts in a hospital under German occupation during the Second World War. There are a number of medical terms that are used that would not be considered appropriate i n today’s parlance, such as ‘idiocy’. These terms are used in order to convey t he meaning of the original documents, because it would not be appropriate to g uess at what precise modern diagnosis a given instance of such a term might ent ail. Other terms such as ‘uneducable’ and ‘unclean’ are used to show the sti gmatizing language that is recorded in the original document, which reflects h ow medical professionals viewed their patients, but the use of these terms in this book is not intended to replicate this stigma. Concerning the naming of patients, this work is inf ormed by the Historical Commission for the Reichsuniversität Straßburg, alo ng with other ethics documents that debate the use of patient names. While this is a complicated issue, at the most basic level, the regulation of the use of patient n ames is based on the country in which their records are currently kept. Therefore, this work follows French, and sometimes German, regulations on this topic. In thi s case, as the patients were not victims of unethical experimentation, nor were they victims of the Holocaust, for which the IHRA recommends naming victims, their nam es are not released in full. Furthermore, as some of them may be still alive, or their family members may be alive, identifying information has been altered sli ghtly to preserve privacy. That being said, if you recognize the description of a person, or have any memories of treatment at the hospital, please do get in contact. For a mo re detailed discussion on the choice to identify victims in this circumstance, pl ease consult Paul Weindling, ‘Données personnelles et protection: nommer les vic times’, inCommission historique pour l’histoire de la facultéde médecine de la Reichsuniversität Straßburg. This book is in some ways a microhistory, in that i t works with records that have not been previously analysed from one single instit ution. They form the core of this volume, but I am aware that the Reichsuniversität S traßburg is not a representative sample of how paediatrics worked everywhere in Germ any during the Second World War. Nor should this work be read in a vacuum witho ut understanding the broader context, that for reasons of brevity cannot be elab orated upon within the limits of this book. As a result, other themes such as so-called e uthanasia, forced sterilization, concentration camps and forced labour camps, occupa tion politics, and the university system in general are not detailed here. Further information on these issues is included in footnotes that suggest furthe r reading where one might find more in-depth research that can enhance the contextual understanding of this work.