Medical professionals played a "central role" in the crimes committed by the Nazis, according to a new study published Thursday, which aims to debunk "long-held misconceptions" about the scale of their involvement.

Medical atrocities during the Nazi era were not solely carried out by "a few extremist doctors" or perpetrators that acted "under coercion", according to a report published in The Lancet journal, described by its authors as the most comprehensive of its kind to date.

By 1945, between 50 to 65 percent of non-Jewish German doctors had joined the Nazi party, which represents a "much higher proportion than in any other academic profession," said the 73-page report.  

The abhorrent eugenics and euphemistically termed "euthanasia" murder programs of the Nazis during World War II resulted in "at least 230 000" deaths, including 7,000 to 10,000 children. 

Over 300,000 forced sterilizations were also performed on victims, who were labeled "genetically inferior".

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, "common misconceptions" that medicine in Nazi Germany merely amounted to "pseudoscience" remain, the study shows. 

In fact, German scientists were "part of broader international networks exploring and promoting eugenics and developing racist medical rationales" and Nazi research was sometimes integrated into the "canon of medical knowledge".

Today's understanding of "aviation safety, hypothermia, and even the effects of tobacco and alcohol use on the body" is in part based on Nazi research, while "awareness of how the research was obtained is scarce".

As "coerced contributions to medicine", the bodies of Nazi victims were used for research and teaching, and sometimes kept in scientific collections "for decades after the war" without revealing the crimes involved.      

Better equipped

Scientists such as the Austrian anatomist Eduard Pernkopf achieved lasting fame after the war even though their research derived from the "bodies of victims of the Nazi regime".