Wien Med Wochenschr. 1997 ; 147(2): 53-4.

50 years ago: the Nuremberg Doctors' Tribunal. Part 3: The failure of coming to terms with the past.

Ernst E.

Postgraduate Medical School, Department for Complementary Medicine, University of Exeter, United Kingdom. E.Ernst@exeter.ac.uk

After the sentences at the Nuremberg Doctors' Tribunal, the German and Austrian medical profession tried to avoid the subject of medicine during the Third Reich at almost any cost. Only under persistent pressure did the subject gradually became a topic for more open discussion. many of the perpetrators within the ranks of the medical profession were not properly punished and were allowed to remain members of the profession. The German and Austrian medical profession may have forfeited the chance to learn an important lesson relating to its own past.