Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices, Legacies (Vermont Studies on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, 1)

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.

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 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 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.
Francis R. Nicosia is professor of History at Saint Michael's College in Vermont where he teaches courses on modern German and European history and the Holocaust.
Jonathan Huener is assistant professor of History at the University of Vermont where he teaches courses on the Holocaust, German history, and Polish history.

Booknews

Five of the six essays are based on lectures delivered at an April 2000 symposium arranged by the Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. Historians discuss such topics as the ideology of elimination: American and German eugenics, 1900- 45; the Nazi campaign against tobacco: science in a totalitarian state; a group portrait of criminal physicians in the Third Reich; and the legacy of Nazi medicine. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

One of the most disturbing aspects of the Nazi era and the Holocaust was the participation of German physicians in human experiments and in mass murder. According to the editors of this volume, German physicians fully understood what the Nazi racial and eugenic research entailed, with many opting to pursue the career opportunities it afforded. "The first three decades of the twentieth century witnessed the growth of the eugenics movement in Europe, North America, and elsewhere," they say. "Unfortunately, the Nazi's translated eugenic principles into a program for the racial purification and moral improvement of the German nation." Confronting these issues from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, this volume addresses the critical issues raised by the murderous experiments, the motivation of the German medical establishment and its complicity in Nazi crimes, and the impact and legacy of the eugenics movement as practiced in the Third Reich Contents Preface Introduction: Nazi Medicine in Historiographical Context 1 The Ideology of Elimination: American and German Eugenics, 1900–1945 2 The Nazi Campaign Against Tobacco: Science in a Totalitarian State 3 Physicians as Killers in Nazi Germany: Hadamar, Treblinka, and Auschwitz 4 Criminal Physicians in the Third Reich: Toward a Group Portrait 5 Pathology of Memory: German Medical Science and the Crimes of the Third Reich 6 The Legacy of Nazi Medicine in Context Appendix Contributors Selected Bibliography Index