An alleged “conspiracy of silence” on the part of scores of leading physicians and West German Government officials to protect Professor Werner Heyde, the Nazi euthanasia specialist, will be the subject of a judicial inquiry, it was disclosed today.
Heyde, who was a brigadier in the SS, was implicated in the killing of 80,000 “mentally sick” patients in hospitals and nursing homes during the Hitler regime. After the war, he emerged as a Dr. Sawade and practiced medicine without difficulty for several years. He is now under arrest and awaiting trial.
Evidence given by five doctors to a West German Parliamentary Commission led to the inquiry. The doctors said they did not report Heyde to the police because this would have been regarded as a “betrayal.” Widespread opinion was reported to the effect that there was alarm at the thought that many leading officials and doctors knew of Heyde’s identity, but took no action to report him to authorities.
In addition to Dr. Heyde, another ex-Nazi health officer, Dr. Gerhard Bohne, has been arrested in Dusseldorf on a warrant issued at Frankfurt, charging him with the murder of 70,000 “deranged persons” during the Nazi regime. Dr. Bohne had not even tried to disguise himself, officials said, living openly in Dusseldorf under his own name.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
