Race Defilement

On the border between Saxony and Bohemia, the City of Chemnitz lies at the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains in East Germany. A Free Imperial City in the Middle Ages, Chemnitz received its special status around 1170 by a decree of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Eight centuries later Hitler delivered speeches at the Marmorpalast of Chemnitz and, in 1931, led a massive Nazi rally in the city. Saxony was a stronghold of the brown-shirted fascists. One day in the fall of 1935 a German man was brought to the emergency room of the hospital of Niederlungwitz, near Chemnitz. He needed an urgent blood transfusion. At that time stored blood banks did not exist yet. There were no blood donors around either, and the doctor did not want to wait for their arrival. Every second was important. Even a short delay could have been fatal. Dr. Hans Serelman quickly assessed the situation. And then without much hesitation he rolled up his shirt sleeve, incised his vein and gave his own blood to the injured man. He saved the patient's life. But then, and it did not take long, the Gestapo paid a visit to the blood donor physician. 'Dr. Serelman, you're not allowed to perform Jewish blood transfusions to Aryans', said the Nazi Officer. 'You are under arrest.' And so, the exemplary conduct, compassion and life-saving act of Dr. Serelman resulted in a nightmarish ordeal for him. Rather than being rewarded for his unselfish benefaction, an ungenerous tribunal in Hitler's Third Reich found him guilty of defiling the German race. The Nazi court sent Dr. Hans Serelman to a concentration camp for saving an Aryan patient's life.