39. Comparison I
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Documents about the
proceedings of the university organs in the liquidation of the SPK |
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"To
expose all the cruelties before the eyes of the world public was a task
almost too difficult to accomplish, for all people in the world then would
see it as the most incriminating evidence against the medical profession as a
whole. Although we were rather hopeless that we could achieve any improvement
by our publishing those facts, we nevertheless, got our work done.
10.000 copies were sent to the working group
of the West German Medical Boards [Arbeitsgemeinschaft
der westdeutschen Aerztekammern] expecting that the named Boards would
distribute our book to the medical establishment [Aerzteschaft]. But that resulted in nothing. Almost no one ever
got knowledge about this book, no reviews, no letters from the readership;
among all the people we met in the next ten years, no one who knew the book.
We know of only one place where it was available: the World Medical
Association [Weltaerztebund],
which, based largely on our documentation, took it as a proof that the German
medical profession meanwhile should have distanced themselves and that
therefore the German physicians would deserve it to be welcomed again as a
member of the World Medical Association”.
“I was rather
indignant and I said if this procedure (experiments on human beings sentenced
to death) was to be custom, we could as well hand over the entire teaching
doctrine to the hangman and open a special execution department at our
institute." Prof. Dr. med.
Gerhard Rose, Protocol p. 6231 et seq., 1946/47 “With regard to the necessity of coordinating the mental institutions
through planned economy I request you to fill out the attached questionnaires
immediately according to the enclose instruction leaflet and to return them
to me." Dr. med. Conti, Document no. 825, 24.10.1939 "As can be seen from the two letters (25.11.1940 and 29.11.1940),
the processing by the expert of 300 cases took at most three days." Comment by Mielke and Mitscherlich 1949 "The legally qualified gentlemen told us that this task was a
legal matter, that it was a law of Hitler, or a decree which had legal value,
and we were told that we at no means would be liable to prosecution, and to
the contrary that a sabotaging of this order of the Fuehrer would be a
criminal offense." Senior Physician Dr. med. Walter Schmidt, Protocol p. 1858, 1946/47 "In order to ensure the secrecy of the operation, only such
experts and institutional executives were enlisted as were tried and tested
Nazis and SS leaders" Statement by Mielke and Mitscherlich in 1949 “There a man called Blankenburg … explained to us that the Fuehrer had
worked out a euthanasia law… It was completely voluntary for those present at
the meeting to assure their cooperation. None of those present had any
objections to this program.” Affidavit of Pauline Kneissler, nurse, Document no. 470, 1946/47 “Furthermore, the murderer declared that not an abrupt withdrawal of
food was employed, but a gradual reduction of rations.” Affidavit of Ludwig Lehner on the question put to him as to which
personality actually made the decision about the life or the death of the
patients. Document no. 863, 1946/47 “Every individual doctor was responsible for what he did in the course
of these measures which led to euthanasia, to the end.” Prof. Dr.med. Karl Brandt, Protocol p. 2436 et seq. At that moment I was in a position which perhaps corresponds to a
jurist who is, perhaps, a basical opponent of execution or death sentence. On
occasion when he is dealing with leading members of the government, or with
lawyers during public congresses or meetings, he will do everything in his
power to maintain his opinion on the subject and have it put into effect. If,
however, he does not succeed, he stays in his profession and in his
environment in spite of this. Under circumstances he may perhaps even be
forced to pronounce such a death sentence himself, although he is basically
opponent of that set-up." Prof. Dr. med. G. Rose in his apology before the 1st
American Military Tribunal in 1947, Protocol p. 11498. Prof. Dr. med.
Gerhard Rose, found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life
imprisonment Prof.
Dr. med. Karl Brandt, found and adjudged guilty of Crimes against Humanity, and membership
in an organization declared criminal by the judgment of the International
Military and sentenced to death by hanging. (1947)
Adolf Hitler Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich; presumed death (1945) |
To expose all the unveiled
violent measures before the eyes of the university public, who saw them as
the most incriminating evidence against an institution and its major
responsible functionaries, would have been too direct. Although we were quite
hopeless that we could change something
by the publication of our
contribution against the liquidation of the SPK under the title "Documentation
about the proceedings of the university organs in the liquidation of the
SPK”, we finally presented it on March 17, 1971.
500
copies were given to interested students who bought them in the university’s
canteen [Mensa] and also in the
SPK. The effect was completely absent ... (Note
57) "The Medical Board of the Region of North-Baden [die Bezirksaerztekammer Nordbaden],
however, regretted not being able to bring into action battle tanks against
the group of armed madmen [Geisteskranke],
where the tolerance towards a group of lunatics [Verschrobene] had turned them into an armed revolutionary
brigade, ready to go to the extreme." Monika Fuchs in the official organ of the Medical Board of the Federal
State of Baden-Württemberg, September 1971. “Based on the inquiry of the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Clinical
Medicine II of the University of Heidelberg from August 31, 1970 I hereby
deliver the following expert report on the Socialist Patients’ Collective.
The questions addressed to me, I answer as follows …” Prof. Dr. med. H, Thomae, 9.9.1970, SPK-Documentation I, p. 36 As can be seen from the date of the "inquiry" (August 31,
1970) and from the expert "report" (September 9, 1970), the
processing of 151 cases (number of patients in the SPK on July 20, 1970) by
the expert took at most 8 days. "In the case of the SPK, because of the decree of the Minister of
Culture (Hahn) of September 18, 1970, consent (to the continued existence of
the SPK as an institution at the university) is in no way to be expected. The
Faculty of Clinical Medicine II strongly recommends to refuse the affiliation
of the SPK to the University. " Prof. Dr. med. U. Schnyder and Dr. med. H. Kretz, Senate meeting,
November 24, 1970
"The reasoning behind the reports will show that of the 6 reports
(Richter, Brückner, Spazier, Dr. med. Thomä, Dr. med. von Baeyer, Dr. med.
Bochnik) only in 3 reports (Thomä, von Baeyer, Bochnik) the prerequisites for
an expert judgement are met. The 3 experts requested by the Faculty of
Clinical Medicine II agree in that the SPK is not allowed to become an
institution at the university." Dr. med. U. Schnyder, Dr.
med. H. Kretz, Secret Senate meeting on November 24,
1970. "The risk of suicides for the SPK members is indeed a little
higher, but it is manageable. Therefore, the decision-making senate members
have no special medical or moral responsibility. This responsibility rests
upon the attending physician anyway." Dr. med. Häfner and Dr. med. Kretz at the secret Senate meeting on
November 24, 1970 - quoted from the minutes of a participant from December
28, 1970 "The Senate is of the opinion that the SPK cannot become an
institution in or at the university. The decision is passed against one vote
with one abstention. It is now the task of the Chancellor of the University
to implement this decision through administrative channels and with the use
of the instruments of the State". Official resolution of the secret Senate meeting on November 24, 1970
and instructions from the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Dr. jur. Leferenz "Therefore, the decision-making senate members have no special
medical or moral responsibility. This responsibility rests upon the attending
physician anyway." Prof. Dr. med. H. Häfner and Dr. med. H. Kretz in the secret Senate
meeting on November 24, 1970. "Summarizing I have to conclude that all my efforts undertaken in
this issue (means: the SPK) have failed. The resistance from all sides to a
solution that I would have considered justifiable and feasible was too
great." Prof. Dr. R. Rendtorff in his accountability report to the Grand
Senate on February 8, 1971 Prof. Dr. med.
Hans Thomä, Prof.
Dr. med. Walter Ritter von Baeyer, Director of the Psychiatric University Clinic in Heidelberg (1972),
bearer of the
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany [Bundesverdienstkreuz]
since 1970 Prof. Dr. med.
H. J. Bochnik, Director of the Psychiatric and Neurological University Clinic in
Frankfurt (1972) Prof. Dr. med.
Urs Schnyder, Director of the University Hospital for Dermatology in Heidelberg (1972) Dr. med.
Helmut Kretz, Head of the University’s Psychiatric Policlinic in Heidelberg (1972) Prof.
Dr. med. Heinz Häfner, Director of the Hospital for Social Psychiatry of the University
Heidelberg-Mannheim (1972) Dr. med.
Oesterreich, Assistant medical director of the Psychiatric University Clinic in
Heidelberg (1972) Prof. Dr. jur.
Leferenz, Professor in ordinary on the chair for Law and Criminology at the
University of Heidelberg (1972) Prof. Dr. Rolf
Rendtorff, re-elected Rector of the University of Heidelberg (1972) Prof. Dr.
Wilhelm Hahn, Minister of Culture of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg – CDU
(1972) |
40. Comparison II
For four years (until
August 1971) the psychologist Lawrence A. Newberry investigated the
"Methods of Indoctrination and Psychological Techniques" of the
Vietcong on behalf of the Pentagon. Newberry worked as a team-leader at the
Rand Corporation, an organization set up on the initiative of the US Air Force
to conduct "basic research" in order to develop strategies of
oppression against liberation efforts and movements. Newberry is also a
psychologist, so his methods of research, by which his results are determined,
are based on the subject-object relationship, which determines both the
relationship between psychologist and clients and the relationship between
researcher and the object of his research. Therefore, the language of his
report lacks any adequacy to the research matter; moreover, the language he
uses represents the jargon common to all psychologists, who are
trained to do
“brainwashing” (“indoctrination”) and to whom, by consequence, the language and
the activities of the Vietcong essentially remain excluded from being
understood. He therefore can’t but characterize the Vietcong’s language and
their actions as "the most modern psychological and sociological
methods" of indoctrination. As a consequence of his own misunderstandings
mentioned above Newberry denounces the methods of the Vietcong, despite his
efforts to mask his intention behind an ostensibly scientific and neutral
presentation of his research.
In the following, we
will confront some passages taken from the Newberry report with statements by the
SPK in order to make recognizable the difference between a defamatory report
and a true (authentic) presentation.
Since the authentic
structure of the organizational form of the Vietcong remains still recognizable
in spite of the distortions they have received in the Newberry report – at
least for the Marxist reader – from this confrontation there will result a
correspondence between the organizational structures of the SPK and those of
the Vietcong. This follows from having applied the dialectical method in both
cases. This means that this correspondence should not be taken for a simple
mechanical comparison. For what the Vietcong is for the left movement in the Federal Republic of Western Germany
(BRD), and what the work of the SPK within this left movement is for the struggle of the Vietnamese
people, cannot be answered by theories, but rather has to be done in a
practical way.
The smashing of the SPK
in the BRD by the violence of weapons shows that the agents of capitalism will
use the same tools against revolutionary movements over here as does the U.S.
government, determined by the profit interests of big business, in Vietnam.
This means that the agents and the advocates of capitalism in the Western
European industrial nations, if they see themselves challenged by conflicts
with the system-damaged opponents of this system (ill people) will under no
circumstances engage in scientific-argumentative discussions – means otherwise
supposedly considered appropriate to democratic confrontation. While the "opponents"
of the US war of annihilation in Southeast Asia here in the country are
adhering to the "democratic" rules of “democratic” fair play by
limiting their activities to peaceful manifestations of protest, liberal public
relations and charitable relief efforts for the Vietnamese people, the
collaborators of the North American war criminals in the Western European
capitalist states by no means stick to these rules of the game.
The question is how
long the "Left" of this country will continue to demonstrate
by-passing their own needs and the vital needs of the West German population as
well?!
|
The Vietcong according to Newberry |
SPK |
|
The Vietcong
has developed a completely new language of political and military concepts.
The correct meanings of these concepts have to be discussed and learned over
and over again in the groups and in the cells of the combat units of the
Vietcong until every soldier has mastered them perfectly and until these
concepts have become an essential element of their everyday language. In each unit of the Vietcong there is a political cadre whose task is
to indoctrinate the soldiers continuously, to ensure that their ideological
attitudes are not wavered, that their morale always remains at a high level,
that their connection with the people is not disturbed, and so that, at the
right moment, they will summon their best possible "fighting
spirit".
The cadre is the protective mother of the partisans. He dissolves
their interpersonal tensions, mediates differences of opinion and gives
advice on personal problems. He has to care about those whom he protects like
parents care for their children. In this case, however, the
"children" are fighting adults. During their training, the recruits learn that the political force of
the movement is the Vietcong's greatest strength. They are constantly being
urged to think of the importance of political struggle in all of their
activities.
Political education is necessary for many purposes: to mobilize the
fighting spirit of the ranks, to release them from their fear of the
destructive power of modern weapons, to encourage the soldiers to endure all
suffering in the service of the revolution, to strengthen the morale of the
troop. This is what the Vietcong mean when they say that the politicization
process is everything.
However, if there has to be used force, regardless of the purpose, its
necessity is explained to people with convincing arguments. The people learn
a new vocabulary, the vocabulary of the revolution, so that ultimately even citizen
with a modest grade of educational development will be equipped with the
intellectual tools not only to pass on this new political ideology, but also
to defend it. The ultimate goal of this systematic process is the adoption of new
socialist norms by the people so that the new social order will take root and
bear fruit of its own - with, or even without, political cadres. We have been taught to open the eyes of the South Vietnamese people to
reality: under the pressure of the totalitarian regime, most Vietnamese live
in poverty and misery. The Americans have come to replace the French
imperialists. If they hadn't come here, there would be no war, no corruption.
The Americans brought their money and used it to bribe the people. The people
are poor, so they must sell their lives to the Americans. The Vietcong fights for honor and freedom, not for money.
The People's Army is fighting in order to return the people’s rights
to the people, to abolish the rich in order to bring peace, freedom and
independence to everyone.
An incredible amount of time and energy has been devoted to finding
the arguments that best mobilize the people. For the transmission of
messages, they preferred the personal contact from one person to another,
instead of the transmission of messages through the written word.
Social pressure is exerted on indecisive village inhabitants. When
quite a number of village inhabitants show "enthusiasm" for the one
or for the other matter, this gives rise to a sense of guilt in others;
that’s because they want to draw advantages from the revolution, but do
nothing about it.
Every Vietnamese, however poor and uneducated, knows how the French
governed his country and exploited the people. Since to Asians the Americans
look just like the French, a Vietnamese peasant will immediately believe it
when he is told that the Americans are just as barbarian as the French. Vietnamese do not have many democratic rights and freedoms. It is
therefore nonsensical to assume that the Americans have come to protect
something that does not exist for the common citizen.
Nobody travels over a distance of 20,000 km, nobody spends every year
billions of dollars, nobody sacrifices thousands upon thousands of young
human lives for something that does not exist in the eyes of the Vietnamese.
So there must be another reason for this.
Almost all Vietnamese who have been in contact with Americans have had
bad experiences, realizing how the Vietnamese are humiliated, wounded and
killed by the foreign invaders, often solely and obviously out of sadistic
pleasure.
If you have fear, you are vigilant and you are less likely to fall
victim to an attack.
Unfortunately, this fear also makes American soldiers much more
trigger-happy; they'd rather shoot than ask questions. Each recruit is encouraged to ask questions, however ridiculous they
may sound. Discussions on the level of each cell of the combat units are
probably the smartest and most effective methods of learning in the
Vietcong's pedagogical arsenal. Most recruits have never spoken to a large
group of people in their lifetime; therefore they are timid. For the most
part they come from the simplest of backgrounds, have a narrow cultural and
political level, so that they are reluctant to express themselves in front of
a large group of people for fear of embarrassment. But it is much easier for
them to express their opinion in a group of three persons, especially when
the other two persons are working with the one day and night. As soon as the
newcomer begins to feel somewhat secure in the discussion in his cell, he
begins to speak more easily in his group. Later on he has to defend his point
of view in his platoon, in order to finally explain his views to 300 to 400
people. Care is taken to ensure that none of the recruits concerned is
humiliated; who laughs at someone else is punished; and not the one who makes
a mistake. It is also part of the learning method that the instructor always
explains and unfolds both sides of a matter: both the point of view of the
liberation front and that of the enemy. The instructor "immunizes"
the recruits against any hostile arguments they may later be confronted with.
As the enemy's arguments are collated, analyzed and refuted by the recruits
themselves (with the assistance of the instructor), they develop an attitude
by which counter-arguments are automatically rejected, which ultimately
results in the dismissal of any argument that goes against the view of the
Vietcong. This method is very successful in nearly every case, and the
recruits then become dogmatic to an extent that in future they no longer
accept any argument against the doctrine of their ideology, however
convincing or reasonable the counter-arguments may be.
Another point in the soldiers' political and ideological preparation
for battle is perhaps the most uncommon. When a battle plan is drawn up and
discussed, the cadres encourage the soldiers to make suggestions on how to
improve the plan of attack and increase the chances of winning. Here with us,
one can hardly imagine that an officer will allow a simple soldier to join
the discussion and to have a say in the decisions pertaining to the strategic
and tactical planning of a war expedition. But in the case of the Vietcong
this method serves a carefully calculated purpose. It is consistent with the
Vietcong dogma that all people are equal regardless of rank or position. The political ideology of the Revolutionary Liberation Front, a unique
blend of political philosophy and experiences taken from the literature of
different nations, did gradually replace the religion of the people. |
The patients
of the SPK have developed a completely new language of political and economic
concepts in their treatment of illness. The correct meanings and contexts are
constantly being developed and comprehended in the personal agitations, group
agitations and scientific working groups so that every patient learns to use
them and to apply them in all situations.
In the agitation practice of the SPK, especially in the scientific
working groups, the patients are constantly recreating their political
identity on the basis of cooperation and solidarity through continuous
need-oriented political work in order to consolidate the identity of needs
and political work. Their political identity is the patients’ thread of life [Lebenselement]. As collective
emancipation, it is the dialectical abolition [Aufhebung, sublation] of conflicts, caused by competition and
authority. One could say: for the SPK patients their political identity is
their thread of life, just as the womb is for the embryo; but it makes an
essential difference that the patients have produced and they are constantly
producing anew the thread of life by themselves.
In the process of agitation every patient realizes that the
dialectical unfolding of reality by means of dialectical concepts [begrifflich] and in practice is the
most powerful political weapon for changing the social relations. (Political
identity)
The agitation of the SPK is necessary to liberate us as patients from
the paralyzing fear in front of the "modern" methods of treatment
of the established medicine (electric shocks, pharmacotherapy,
psycho-terrorism, deprivation of liberty, forced labor etc.) in order to
mobilize the progressive moment of illness, the protest, and to turn it into
resistance. The constantly increasing external coercion and the permanently
escalating external threat to which the SPK was exposed throughout its
existence were perceived quite clearly by all patients as the identity of
illness and capitalism. The consequence of the work of the SPK is the dissemination of the
knowledge developed by the patients and their needs-oriented political
practice in the sense of multi-focal expansionism (principle of the people's
university). In the SPK, the patients have realized that illness is the result of
the existing conditions.
In the agitation of the SPK there was worked for the liberation of the
people's consciousness from the rulership of the exchange value [Befreiung von der Herrschaft des
Tauschwerts].
The patients of the SPK have freed themselves by self-defense from
their total deprivation of rights, they are fighting for their liberation.
In the activities of the SPK, the needs of every person were of
central importance: They were the starting point and ‘engine’ of agitation.
In the scientific working groups, we did not care about abstract book
knowledge, but rather it was focused on the question how to refer what was
read in the collective to the needs of single patients (and the SPK as a
whole). Some patients experienced feelings of guilt when with regard to
"their" illness, on the one hand, they made attempts to draw
advantages from their cooperation with other patients in the SPK, but on the
other hand, in their opinion, they themselves did not apply enough time and
energy on their cooperation with the other patients.
Many Germans, however young or uneducated, know how the Nazis governed
the country and sent the people onto the battlefields and into the gas chambers.
But since nowadays the "new" masters no longer appear in SA and SS
uniforms, but masked in fashionable suits, it is difficult for many German
people to realize that the henchmen and agents of nowadays capitalism are
deploying the same destructive capacity against the people (“overkill” by
exploitation = slowed annihilation of life = illness) using more subtle
methods than their predecessor in uniform. But if a constantly growing group
of people gets aware of that and begins to fight against it, then the various
von Baeyer, Oesterreich, Schnyder and Hahn (the main enemies of the SPK of
that time) clearly have no choice but to resort to the use of a heavily armed
police army against these patients and lock them up because of the “danger of
suppression” [“Verdunkelungsgefahr”]
= danger of bringing to light evidence [Aufhellungsgefahr
].
The sick people have no rights whatsoever. It is therefore nonsensical
to assume that doctors and judges protect or restore any health and
invulnerability that does not exist for the proletariat under the determinacy
of illness. Nobody spends every year more than 80 billion DM
[Deutsche Mark] (budget of the social
security in 1969), nobody employs an army of doctors and nurse for a health
that is proven to exist only for a few capitalists at the expense of the
millions and millions of sick, oppressed and exploited proletarians. So there
must be another reason for this.
Almost all ill persons who have been in contact with doctors
(especially with their own "trusted" doctor or medical officers,
company or occupational doctors and hospital doctors) have had bad
experiences, realizing how patients are humiliated (labeled by diagnosis,
incapacitated), wounded (operated, injected, shocked, amputated, poisoned by
pills) or killed (malpractice, denial of assistance etc.), often solely out
of "scientific" interest. If you have fear, you are vigilant and you are less likely to fall
victim to an attack.
The fear of the rulers (that is, their
persecution "mania") is a thoroughly reality-adequate reaction to
the latent power of a collectively and solidarily acting population, which is
constantly held down with violence; for the fear of the rulers, "their
thousandfold fear is being guarded a thousandfold". -
In the personal agitation one deals primarily with the difficulties,
the symptoms of a patient, however ridiculous they may seem to him and
regardless of his feeling guilty in dealing with his conflicts since he
firstly has tried to get along with these conflicts and feelings on his own.
In the personal agitation, the participants also experience together their
being conditioned by social relations, especially those emerging during the
agitation. Thus, the patients experience that both their problems and illness
in general are socially determined. The inhibition, also with regard to
expressing oneself in words, is recognized and reduced in favor of the
release of the protest which is contained in illness. Sooner or later, the
fear of embarrassment is gradually disappearing because the next step will be
done in the agitation groups and later on in the scientific working groups.
Reactions of a certain patient, such as a disparaging grin or
deliberate disregard of the behavior or statements of another, are also made
an object of group agitation, as are the behavior and statements of the group
member concerned.
Practising their daily agitation, the patients have learned with Marx
and Hegel that every thing has two sides: one progressive and one
reactionary. But they also have experienced that the social being [das gesellschaftliche Sein] of people
determines their consciousness, and that with every argument one must always
ask which social interests or needs it is supposed to serve, and that the
so-called sound and healthy common sense that has been inculcated in them by
education normally works in favor of the social interests and needs of the
rulers and against their own needs. Through these experiences the patients
have become extremely sensitive to so-called reasonable counter-arguments.
Our policy has always been such that when dealing with our adversaries,
finally the question of power arises by itself, i.e. that ostensibly
reasonable proposals from our adversaries could very promptly be unmasked as
extortion attempts and tactical moves within the strategy of extermination of
those who claim the monopoly of power for themselves. In this way, there
could be achieved a high degree of immunization of the patients against the
plump attempts of corruption on the part of those who represent the ruling
ideology of destruction and the death economy.
To the medical enemies of the SPK it seemed to be uncommon,
unimaginable, “irresponsible” that the treatment (therapy) had been
socialized. In our country it can’t be allowed that the patients themselves
determine and develop their therapy. Well-protected profit interests, even
the entirety of existing social relations, are thereby called into question,
attacked and threatened. This is why the socialist patients are considered to
be "wild growth [Wildwuchs]
that can’t be tolerated any longer and must be eliminated as quickly as
possible by all available means" (Minister of Culture Hahn, November 9,
1970).
The political activity of the SPK, which was determined by the needs
of the patient and nourished by the knowledge of Hegel, Marx, Reich and many
others, represented for the patients the abolition of their systematic
dumbing down by the ideology and rationality of capitalism. |
Patients looking at the leaflets and wall posters in the
rooms of the SPK
Cops in – Prisoners out
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