Hermann Boehm

Hermann Alois Boehm (27 October 1884 – 7 June 1962) was a German eugenicist, physician, and professor of "racial hygiene" in Nazi Germany. He was an early member of the Nazi Party and its paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), rising to the rank of SA-Gruppenführer. He held many important administrative, educational and clinical research posts dealing with Nazi eugenics. After the end of the Second World War, he testified at the Doctors' Trial in Nuremberg against the defendants involved in the Nazi euthanasia program but was not himself prosecuted.

Early life and education Boehm was born in Fürth, the son of a physician. He attended the prestigious humanistic Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich and then studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He passed his state medical examination in 1909, received his license to practice medicine in 1910 and completed his doctorate in medicine in 1911. From July of that year, he worked in the Pathological Institute at the University of Jena. In December 1913, he transferred to the Pathological Institute at the University of Göttingen. He served as a medical officer in the Imperial German Army during the First World War between January 1915 and February 1919. After his discharge from the army, he returned to Göttingen until July 1921. From April 1922 through March 1932, he worked at the Pathological Institute at the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich, eventually advancing to the post of Assistant Medical Superintendent.

Nazi Party career Drawn to German nationalist causes, Boehm from 1921 to 1922 was a member of the Pan-German League and, from 1923, of the Deutsch-Völkischen Offiziersbund (German Ethnic Officers League). He joined the Nazi Party paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA) in September 1923. In November 1923, he took part in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, for which he later would be awarded the Blood Order. The Party and the SA were outlawed for over a year but, upon the lifting of the ban, Boehm joined the Party on 24 March 1925 (membership number 120). As a very early Party member, he later would be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He rejoined the SA in 1931 and rose through its ranks, serving in the Supreme SA Leadership and in 1942 attaining the rank of SA-Sanitäts-Gruppenführer (Medical Group Leader).

Boehm remained in Alt Rehse until just before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. From 1938, he was also an honorary professor at the University of Rostock. From September through December 1939, he served as a camp doctor at an officer's prisoner of war camp in Prenzlau. In January 1940, he returned to Alt Rehse and Rostock and remained there for the next three years. He continued to reside in Giessen until his death in June 1962.