title: [The fate of Polish psychiatry under German occupation during World War II].
abstract: Polish psychiatry was since its origin deeply influenced by German (Austrian) and Russian psychiatry. After the German assault Polish psychiatric patients were the first victims of mass executions, and the first to be killed by new developed "gassing" technology. Especially cruel was the fate of Jewish patients. German "health policy" in occupied Poland was only "starvation or shooting". Some hospitals continued working under German rule and received patients from Germany in the framework of Nazi-"euthanasia". The article describes the mostly ignored facts of the close link between the medical programme of annihilation of the "unfit" and the genocide of Poles and Jews.
authors.affiliation: LVR-Klinik Langenfeld.
authors.forename: Friedrich
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leidinger
mesh_terms: D005065:Euthanasia / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D017767:Holocaust / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews / Q000266:history*; D028683:National Socialism / Q000266:history*; D011044:Poland; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D047789:World War II