Doctor Refuses To Operate on Man With Nazi Tattoo

By Michael Kaminer November 16, 2010

A 36-year-old German man is probably experiencing an acute case of tattoo regret today.

After seeing Nazi imagery emblazoned on the man’s arm, a Jewish doctor who was preparing to operate on him left the operating theater and had another doctor complete the procedure, English-language German news site TheLocal.de reports. News reports didn’t specify what kind of surgery the 36-year-old man required.

The patient, in the city of Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, “had a graphic on his arm of a swastika and the Bundesadler (Imperial Eagle), the German national symbol adopted by the Nazi party,” TheLocal said. The eagle was a German national symbol long before the Third Reich, TheLocal said.

The 46-year-old doctor said “he could not reconcile proceeding with the surgery with his conscience,” The Jewish Chronicle paper reported. The doctor reportedly told the man’s wife, “I will not operate on your husband. I’m Jewish.”

Since the end of the Holocaust, public display of Nazi party symbols, such as the swastika, have been forbidden in Germany, and carries punishment of up to three years in prison, TheLocal reported. The Jewish Chronicle said that in a 2009 study, researchers found that 5% of 15-year-old German boys belonged to right-wing extremist groups.

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica and The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Jews have inhabited Paderborn since 1285; by 1900, the population swelled to 400. A circa-1881 synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht; only five Paderborn Jews, it’s estimated, survived the Holocaust.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO