Doctors from Hell
The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans
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Doctors from Hell
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Narrated by:
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Christina Delaine
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Written by:
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Vivien Spitz
About this listen
This is the account of torture and murder by experiment in the name of scientific research and patriotism.
The author describes the experience of being in bombed-out, dangerous, post-war Nuremberg, where she lived for two years while working on the trial. Once a Nazi sympathizer tossed bombs into the dining room of the hotel where she lived moments before she arrived for dinner. She takes us into the courtroom to hear the dramatic testimony and see the reactions of the defendants to the proceedings. The witnesses tell of experiments in which they were deprived of oxygen; frozen; injected with malaria, typhus, and jaundice; subjected to the amputation of healthy limbs; forced to drink seawater for weeks at a time; and other horrors.
This landmark trial resulted in the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which sets the guidelines for medical research involving human beings. Doctors from Hell is a significant addition to the literature on World War II and the Holocaust, medical ethics, human rights, and the barbaric depths to which human beings can descend.
Contains mature themes.
©2005 Vivien Spitz (P)2021 TantorWhat listeners say about Doctors from Hell
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Langer MD
- 2024-04-01
Somewhat Schizophrenic Offering
As a young woman, Vivien Spitz went to Nuremberg to act as a courtroom reporter for the US War Department. She provides a combination of reasonably interesting reminiscences (life-changing events for a 20-year-old woman in Europe for the first time) and an unsophisticated bullet-point summary of transcribed prosecutorial testimony regarding unconscionable acts perpetrated by Physicians in Nazi Germany. Just don't expect to hear any of the defense testimony that resulted in dozens of acquittals, and you'll be fine.
The barbarities would be a headshaking object lesson for how ridiculously unethical medicine could become "in the olden days" - but for the foreword by Frederick R. Abrams.. who makes it quite clear that analogous atrocities are still occurring worldwide.
Bottom Line: 'Doctors From Hell' is ¾ harrowing & legitimately thought-provoking exposé, but ¼ colloquial & self-expository memoir. It's consequently not quite as good as it could have been.
The narration from Christina Delaine is similarly impressive yet imperfect. Delaine reads much too slowly and with affected German pronunciations - but with professional diction, timbre, and cadence.. and a near-psychic understanding of the author's intended tone (personal recollections are read emotively and dead-serious subject matter is presented clinically with 100% appropriate gravitas).
Altogether, the book is almost academically meticulous.. but follows an amateurish outline. It documents horrific ethical crimes & complex legal wranglings.. but often reads like a travel book.
If this book had been able to get past the author's one-sided agenda and stick to a mandate, it would have been a much more worthy read than it is. As it stands, this 7/10-star audiobook belongs in the 'Plus' catalog.. spend your Credit elsewhere should they ask for one.
[Incidentally: Speaking as a physician, the post-WWII testimony in this book makes me nauseous. That anyone involved with my profession could even tolerate any of this occurring is horrifying]
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