Hoppe clearly spoke of their responsibility during the systematic killing of patients during the Nazi’s rule – tackling the subject for the first time, according to Focus magazine on Sunday.

Quoting from a speech he made during a medical historical meeting at Gießen University in Hesse, the magazine says he said “death and suffering was caused, ordered and administered without pity,” by medics during the Nazi time.

The admission that doctors took part in Nazi crimes has been an insidious process for the medical community, he told the magazine.

He added that when the scientific investigation of what he called the darkest chapter of German medical history was finished, the question would be posed as to how the medical community could ask for forgiveness from the victims and their families.