Evening star., 1938-11-07
Doctor SHORTAGE
Threatens Reich
In Purge Of Jews
Situation Will Become
Even More Serious,
Soys Newspaper
BY WALLACE r. DEUEL.,

BY WALLACE X. DEUEL.,
CHICAGO Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
BERLIN, Nov. Germany Is
threatened with a shortage of doc
tors, the Frankfurter Zeitung de-
clares in an article published over
the week end.
Even before Jewish physicians
were forbidden to practice the ratio
Of doctors to the total population
of the Reich was lower than is gen.
orally considered desirable, the arti-
Gle says, and the purging OF Jews
has reduced the proportion still
further. The shortage Of physicians
is liable to become more serious
within the next few years, further
more, the Frankfurter Zeitung says,
because the need for doctors prob
ably will increase while the number
Of students graduating from medi-
cal colleges sharply declines.
Experience has shown that the
ratio Of one doctor per 1000 of
population is desirable, according to
the Frankfurter Zeitung. Yet even
before the expulsion of Jews from
the medical profession the ratio Of
doctors to population in the old
Reich Germany without Austria
and the Sudeten regions) was only
go per 10000.
Practitioners Cut by 10 Per Cent,
Driving the Jews out Of German
medicine has deprived the old Reich
of approximately 10 per cent of its
total number of medical practi-
tioners. the Frankfurter Zeitung
estimates. This agrees substantially
with recent calculation of the
Voelkischer Beobachter, official party
organ, that the Nazis have elimi-
mated total of approximately $500
Jewish physicians from the practice
of medicine in Germany since the
revolution.
Approximately $500 of these doc
tors were deprived of their prac-
tices between 1888 and 1897, the
Voelkischer Beobachter estimated,
and the remaining 1000 were ban
ned by a final decree forbidding all
Jews to practice-eXcept a small
number of "healers" allowed to treat
Jews-aS of September 80 of this
year.
Vienna has been particularly hard
hit by the expulsion of Jewish doc
tors, according to the Frankfurter
Zeitung. Before the NaZi purge of
'non-Aryan" physicians there were
2l.2 doctors per 10000 population in
the former Austrian capital, it SAYS,
a ratio more than twice that for the
old Reich. The purge of Jews has
reduced this ratio to rs per 10000
inhabitants, the paper adds.
Reasons for Growing Need.
There are several reasons why the
need for physicians probably will
increase in Germany during the next
few years, according to the news
paper. First, the German death rate
is tending to decline and experience
has shown that this phenomenon
usually is accompanied by an in
crease in sickness. Second, medical
science is becoming more and more
complicated, which tends to make a
larger number of physicians neces-
sary. Third, the extension of health
insurance to more numerous ele-
ments of the population further in
creases the demand for medical at
tention. Fourth, Nazi policies calling
Tor mass physical examinations for
industrial and public health surveys,
vocational guidance and supervision
OF employment of labor, also, require
a larger number of doctors for their
execution.
While the need for physicians
may thus be expected to increase,
the number of doctors in the Reich
is due to decline, the Frankfurter
Zeitung says. In 1928 there were
$4,000 students enrolled in the Ger
mad Medical College, it reports,
This number already has declined
to 17,100.
Mostly Older Students.
Worse still, most of these 17,10O
are older students. Younger stu
dents of classes which have felt the
full weight of the Nazi discourage
ment of studies for the learned pro-
fession are Is to 20 per cent too few
in numbers to fill the country S need
for medical attention when they
graduate.
Some of the Jewish doctors who
now are permitted to practice among
fellow "non-Aryans" as "healers"
put up their shingles" for the first
time today. These signs, which have
been prescribed by the authorities,
are pale blue with black lettering
and have six-pointed star in a
yellow circle in the upper left-hano
corner. A notice in small type at
the bottom reads: Licensed for
the medical treatment of Jews only"
Copyright. 1888. by Chicago Daily
News. 1nc)