{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T10:57:34Z","timestamp":1777892254736,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,12,1]],"date-time":"2011-12-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1322697600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Karl Gebhardt (1897\u20131948) had a distinguished career as professor of sports medicine before the Second World War. He developed sports for the disabled at a specialised orthopaedic clinic at Hohenlychen and was President of the Red Cross in Germany. During the war, Gebhardt also acted as Heinrich Himmler\u2019s personal physician and was responsible for medical experimentation on prisoners in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Ravensbr\u00fcck. In his capacity as SS consultant surgeon, he treated Reinhard Heydrich (a high ranking Nazi official, also known as \u2018the Hangman\u20191) after an attempt was made on his life. When Heydrich died, Gebhardt was accused of failing to treat him with sulphonamides. To prove his innocence he carried out a series of experiments on Ravensbr\u00fcck concentration camp prisoners, breaking their legs and infecting them with various organisms in order to prove the worthlessness of the drugs in treating gas gangrene. He also attempted to transplant the limbs from camp victims to German soldiers wounded on the Russian front. He was tried after the war and executed for these crimes in 1948. This paper explores the paradox of a gifted doctor who was also the perpetrator of inhuman crimes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4997\/jrcpe.2011.417","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,12,14]],"date-time":"2011-12-14T11:14:00Z","timestamp":1323861240000},"page":"366-371","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Karl Gebhardt (1897\u20131948): A lost man"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"41","author":[{"given":"JR","family":"Silver","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Retired Consultant in Spinal Injuries and Fellow of the Institute of Sports Medicine"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"1Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team [Internet]. Reinhardt Heydrich. Available at: http:\/\/www.holocaustresearchproject.org\/holoprelude\/heydrich.html"},{"key":"bibr2-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"2 Hahn J. Grawitz, Genzken, Gebhardt: drei karrieren im sanit\u00e4tsdienst der SS. M\u00fcnster: Klemm &Oelschl\u00e4ger; 2008. Personal communication (13 February 2011)."},{"key":"bibr3-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"3 Wootton G. The official history of the British Legion. London: Macdonald and Evans Ltd; 1956. p.186."},{"key":"bibr4-JRCPE.2011.417","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"4Chirurgische Krankengymnastik [Book Review]. BJS 1933; 20:708. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1002\/bjs.1800208042","DOI":"10.1002\/bjs.1800208042"},{"key":"bibr5-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"5 Kater MH. Doctors under Hitler. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press; 1989. p.25, 131, 361."},{"key":"bibr6-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"6 Weyers W, Ackerman A, editors. Death of medicine in Nazi Germany: dermatology and dermatopathology under the swastika. Philadelphia: Ardor Scribendi Ltd; 1998. p. 140, 335."},{"key":"bibr7-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"7 Hahn J. Personal communication (30 November 2010)."},{"key":"bibr8-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"8 Proctor RN. The Nazi war on cancer. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press; 1999. p. 217."},{"key":"bibr9-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"9 Mitscherlich A, Mielke F. Doctors of infamy: the story of Nazi medical crimes. New York: Henry Schuman; 1949. p. xxxii, xxi, 6."},{"key":"bibr10-JRCPE.2011.417","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"10 Silver JR. The German-speaking world. In: History of the treatment of spinal injuries. New York: Kluwer Academic\/Plenum Publishers; 2003. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1007\/978-1-4419-8991-8_7","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4419-8991-8_7"},{"key":"bibr11-JRCPE.2011.417","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.313.7070.1445"},{"key":"bibr12-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"12 Schmidt U. Justice at Nuremberg: Leo Alexander and the Nazi doctors trial. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2006. p.159\u2013259, 284."},{"key":"bibr13-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"13 Ebbinghaus A, Roth KH. Die kriegschirurgischen experimente in den konzentrationslagern und ihre hintergr\u00fcnde. In: Ebbinghaus A, D\u00f6rner K. Vernichten und heilen. Der N\u00fcrnberger \u00c4rzteproze\u00df und seine folgen. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag; 2001. p.177\u2013218."},{"key":"bibr14-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"14 Machlejd W, editor. Experimental operations on prisoners of Ravensbr\u00fcck Concentration Camp. Warsaw: Zachnodnia Agencja Prasowa; 1960."},{"key":"bibr15-JRCPE.2011.417","unstructured":"15 Schmidt U. Karl Brand, the Nazi doctor: medicine and power in the Third Reich. London: Hambledon Continuum; 2008. p.245\u2013391."},{"key":"bibr16-JRCPE.2011.417","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"16[Editorial]. Sports doctors. BMJ 1928; 1:365\u201366. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1136\/bmj.1.3504.361-a","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.1.3504.361-a"},{"key":"bibr17-JRCPE.2011.417","volume-title":"Essentials of sports medicine","author":"McLatchie GR.","year":"1986"},{"key":"bibr18-JRCPE.2011.417","first-page":"37","volume":"75","author":"Weindling P.","year":"2001","journal-title":"The origins of informed consent: the International Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes, and the Nuremberg Code"}],"container-title":["Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.4997\/JRCPE.2011.417","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.4997\/JRCPE.2011.417","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T06:25:01Z","timestamp":1777616701000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.4997\/JRCPE.2011.417"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,12]]},"references-count":18,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,12]]}},"alternative-id":["10.4997\/JRCPE.2011.417"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4997\/jrcpe.2011.417","relation":{},"ISSN":["1478-2715","2042-8189"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1478-2715","type":"print"},{"value":"2042-8189","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,12]]}}}