ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a small extract taken from my efforts over the last fifteen years to deal with a portion of our nursing history —the period of German National Socialism.
When I began my research, I was interested in filling in a gap in our history. It quickly became clear that this was not a normal gap but a deepseated taboo; touching it produced not so much a sense of satisfaction but instead mistrust, rejection and fear. This research has meant not only dealing with the history of my profession, but also dealing with the history of my parents’ and teachers’ generation and the history of my country where I was born in a refugee camp and later grew up. This research raised questions about my personal relationship to this period of history and my own defence mechanisms against the reality of nursing under National Socialism.
