Blind in the right eye? The practice of awarding honorary memberships by German and Austrian dental societies (1949–1993) to Nazi dentists: A study on the role of National Socialism in post-war dentistry

•Dental associations made no effort to examine their role under National Socialism.•Former National Socialists became honorary members of the dental associations.•Jewish dentists are severely underrepresented among the honored members.•German dental organisations missed the opportunity to make amends. According to ongoing public discourse, the dental profession in Germany and Austria has found it rather difficult to come to terms with the National Socialist past. Against this background, this study focuses on the practice of awarding honorary memberships by German and Austrian dental societies in the years 1949–1993. In particular, it examines how previous memberships in the Nazi party or other Nazi organisations were handled. We identified a total of 86 honourees, 47 of whom (55 %) were members of the NSDAP during the Third Reich, whereas only two were of Jewish origin. This leads to two conclusions: (1) Previous involvement with Nazi organisations was obviously not a limiting factor in the selection of honourees, and (2) after 1945, the Jewish colleagues were marginalised for a second time—now by being largely overlooked. The reasons of both findings are analysed and contextualised.