German doctors and medical historians have criticised the German Medical Association’s present and previous presidents for omitting the Nazi past of another former president in a recent obituary in Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the German counterpart of the BMJ. The article concluded by stating that Hans Joachim Sewering "rendered outstanding services to the protection of ethical values in medical practice".

The German medical community’s considerable efforts to come to terms with the Nazi past make this omission incomprehensible, say 81 signatories to an open letter.

The editor countered that a previous short article had mentioned Sewering’s Nazi past. He also said the German Medical Association and the Deutsches Ärzteblatt had tried hard to shed light on the Nazi period by  commissioning independent research projects.

Professor Sewering was a member of both the Nazi Party and the SS. He began work in a lung hospital for… click here to read whole article and make comments