Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany

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.

Auteur

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.

Contenu

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