Hans Joachim Sewering

Hans Joachim Sewering (born 30 January 1916) is a German doctor. In World War II, he is alleged to have participated in transferring 900 Handicapped Catholic children into a camp where they were killed.cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2027938/German-doctor-'who-sent-900-children-to-Nazi-camp'-honoured.html|title=German doctor 'who sent 900 children to Nazi camp' honoured|last=de Quetteville|first=Harry|date=2008-05-25|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=2008-08-12]

Biography

Sewering was born on 30 January 1916, 17 years to the day before Adolf Hitler came to power.cite news|url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/artikel/189/176654/|title=Der Ärztepräsident und das tote Mädchen|date=2008-05-27|work=sueddeutsche.de|language=German|accessdate=2008-08-12] Sewering joined the SS on 1 November 1933cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/1996/43/Ein_duesteres_Kapitel|title=Ein düsteres Kapitel|date=1996|work=Zeit Online|language=German|accessdate=2008-08-12] for "social reasons",cite news|url=http://news.scotsman.com/world/German-doctor-accused-of-euthanasia.4119107.jp|title=German doctor accused of euthanasia given honour|last=Hall|first=Alan|date=2008-05-26|work=The Scotsman|accessdate=2008-08-12] claiming that young men were "simply the victim of propaganda." A year later, he joined the Nazi party. In the summer of 1942, he worked as assistant physician at the Schoenbrunn Sanitarium. According to two nuns who broke their silence in 1993, he killed 900 physically and mentally handicapped children by transferring them from Schoenbrunn to the Eglfing-Haar "healing center", a facility south of Munich. One of these children he was claimed to have killed, the 14-year-old Babette Fröwis whom he signed off to Eglfing-Harr as epileptic yet never even saw, later became a postergirl for the practice of Nazi euthanasia. Sewering has denied these allegations. However, he has been barred from entering the United States for this and Jewish organizations have called for him to be tried for murder.

After World War II, he became a respected MD, and earned the praise of noted doctor Wolfgang Wesiack. Sewering, who became the head of the German Medical Association in 1993 currently lives in Dachau.

In May 2008, the German Federation of Internal Medicine awarded Sewering the Gunther-Budelmann medal for services to the nation’s health system", its highest honor.cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5291_52.htm|title=ADL Outraged Over German Medical Honor Of Nazi SS Doctor |date=2008-05-28|work=Anti-Defamation League|accessdate=2008-08-12] The Anti-Defamation League condemned this, saying that "to honor an accused war criminal, one who is alleged to have used medicine for harm, is an insult to those who have suffered under the Nazis".

References