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The participation of German physicians in medical experiments on innocent people and mass murder is one of the most disturbing aspects of the Nazi era and the Holocaust. Six distinguished historians working in this field are addressing the critical issues raised by these murderous experiments, such as the place of the Holocaust in the larger context of eugenic and racial research, the motivation and roles of the German medical establishment, and the impact and legacy of the eugenics movements and Nazi medical practice on physicians and medicine since World War II.
Based on the authors' original scholarship, these essays offer an excellent and very accessible introduction to an important and controversial subject. They are also particularly relevant in light of current controversies over the nature and application of research in human genetics and biotechnology.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. The Ideology of Elimination: American and German Eugenics, 1900-1945
G. Allen Chapter 2. The Nazi Campaign Against Tobacco: Science in a Totalitarian State
R. Proctor Chapter 3. Physicians as Killers in Nazi Germany: Hadamar, Treblinka, and Auschwitz
H. Friedlander Chapter 4. A Criminal Profession in the Third Reich: Toward a Group Portrait of Physicians
M. Kater Chapter 5. Pathology of Memory: German Medical Science and the Crimes of the Third Reich
W. Seidelman Chapter 6. The Legacy of Nazi Medicine in Context
M. Burleigh Appendix: Speech given by the President of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science Hubert Markl on the occasion of the opening of the symposium entitled "
Biomedical Sciences and Human Experimentation at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes - The Auschwitz Connection"
Notes on contributors
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Jonathan Huener is assistant professor of History at the University of Vermont where he teaches courses on the Holocaust, German history, and Polish history. He is the author of the forthcoming book
German Deeds, Polish Soil, Jewish Shoah: Auschwitz Memory and the Politics of Commemoration.
Summary
The participation of German physicians in medical experiments on innocent people and mass murder is one of the most disturbing aspects of the Nazi era and the Holocaust. Six distinguished historians working in this field are addressing the critical issues raised by these murderous experiments, such as the place of the Holocaust in the larger context of eugenic and racial research, the motivation and roles of the German medical establishment, and the impact and legacy of the eugenics movements and Nazi medical practice on physicians and medicine since World War II.
Based on the authors' original scholarship, these essays offer an excellent and very accessible introduction to an important and controversial subject. They are also particularly relevant in light of current controversies over the nature and application of research in human genetics and biotechnology.
Additional text
”Brief and synthetic as the essays are, they will…be of most use to students or to those new to the field. However, they provide engaging reading for those with more in-depth knowledge too.” · Journal of Modern History
"Educators and students owe a debt of gratitude ... all of the articles in this anthology are readily accessible to the non-specialist without compromising the cutting-edge scholarship that informs them." · ISIS
"This in an engrossing book ... morally challenging to all physicians." · Journal of the American Medical Association
"... extraordinarily valuable essays combine perspectives from history, sociology, demography, and anthropology." · Choice
"Excellent introductory and concluding chapters summarize the explanatory factor that historians have so far singled out." · History: Reviews of New Books
"... excellent orientation for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as physicians and the general public ... All in all, this is a stimulating set of essays that deserves a wide readership." · H-German
