Chapter+19

=Chapter 19: My Will was Drained=

Summary:
The Chapter opens with Johann writing the latter to Helga. He then realizes that in three days, the time he allotted himself would be over. He is hoping that Helga will take him back after he explains himself. The trials are still going on. Then Johann goes into a flashback. Philip is in Auschwitz. Carl Clauberg, the SS lieutenant general calls upon Johann to join him in a medical experiment on women’s fertility. Goebel joins them. The experiment was to practice a technique was on a women’s fertility, specifically a Jewish women’s fertility. The procedure took place in block 10, a modern research facility Clauberg treated the women terribly with the experiment casing great deal of pain. Johann was getting sick from watching the procedure. One of the women turned out to be the daughter of Richard Semmelberg, the man who died on the train. Johann tried t talk to her and return when he could. Johann is noticing that Philip is growing more thin and pale. He arranges his schedule so that he may visit Philip in the ward. He brings him food each time he comes. However, rather than eating it. Philip shares it with the other prisoners. Johann tries to apologize for the things hes been doing. Johann is developing more regret than ever. Philip becomes increasingly distant until one day he is missing. He leaves behind a postcard for johann that says: Be the doctor that we both wanted to be. We can still make a better world, though it will be harder now than ever. It is unclear what had happened to him. The orderly says he has been taken to the crematorium. Mengele, another Nazi Doctor at Auschwitz rounds up the other physicians to see his “Great” discovery. A father and a son were taken to the camp and selected for their deformities. Mengele used them to prove that is was hereditary and which solidified the killing of all the unwanted people. On the way to the presentation, Schetzeler tries to convince Johann to go for a hike with him and some other doctors and nurses. But Johann says no. He is in a daze about all that he has seen and done at Auschwitz. He can’t wrap his head around it all and how it came to be.

Memorable Passages
“My procedures, by contrast, will absolutely prevent any increase in the loathsome race. Our Jewesses will become sterile. We isolate the males, castrate the troublemakers or at out leisure, all the Jewish males for all I care. We can even use Schumans slow procedures.” (p. 379)

“We’re no different than the shitty prisoners and the goddamned Jews.” (p. 391)

Vocabulary

 * Ingrating** (380)- to move one inside a group or idea
 * Egotism** (380)- exaggeration of an opinion
 * Posturing** (380)- position of the body
 * Rippling** (382)- to cause to form small undulations
 * Speculum** (384)- a mirror or polished metal plate used as a reflector
 * Musselmann** (387)- derogatory term used for inmates
 * Convulsing** (382)- to agitate greatly
 * Bantered** (382)- good humored, playful conversation
 * Grotesque** (384)- odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character

Key Concepts& Events
Fürtherstrabe(378)- a residential highway in central Germany

Kapo(378)- a prisoner who served as an assistant in the camps. More info at []

Obersturmführer(378)- a paramilitary rank used in certain Nazi organizations

Birkenau(382)- an infamous concentration camp adjacent to Auschwitz. More info at[| http://www.shadowswalking.com/Shadows_Walking/Auschwitz-Birkenau.html]

Lebewohl(387)- a common phrase, meaning “farewell”

Muselmann(387)- literally meaning “Muslim”, used to describe those withering away and zombie-like in the camps. More info at []

Reichsarzt(388)- literally meaning a ‘doctor of and for the Reich’, this title was the highest a physician in the Nazi regime could earn. Dr. Skopp explains here: []

Lodz(388)- The second largest ghetto in Poland. More info at []

Sonderkommando(391)- Prisoners used as workers in the camps, their duties included disposal of the victims of the gas chambers. More info at []