The Nazi doctors : medical killing and the psychology of genocide : with a new preface by the author

This book explores the psychological conditions that promote the human potential for evil, relating medical killing to broader principles of doubling and genocide Nazi doctors did more than conduct bizarre experiments on concentration-camp inmates; they supervised the entire process of medical mass murder, from selecting those who were to be exterminated to disposing of corpses. Lifton (The Broken Connection; The Life of the Self shows that this medically supervised killing was done in the name of "healing," as part of a racist program to cleanse the Aryan body politic. After the German eugenics campaign of the 1920s for forced sterilization of the "unfit," it was but one step to "euthanasia," which in the Nazi context meant systematic murder of Jews. Building on interviews with former Nazi physicians and their prisoners, Lifton presents a disturbing portrait of careerists who killed to overcome feelings of powerlessness. He includes a chapter on Josef Mengele and one on Eduard Wirths, the "kind, decent" doctor (as some inmates described him) who set up the Auschwitz death machinery. Lifton also psychoanalyzes the German people, scarred by the devastation of World War I and mystically seeking regeneration. This profound study ranks with the most insightful books on the Holocaust. **The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide** was written by Robert Jay Lifton and published in 1986, analyzing the role of German doctors in carrying out a genocide. In the work Lifton details the medical procedures occurring before and during the Holocaust and explores the paradoxical theme of healing killing in which one race was healed by eliminating another; a concept that many used to morally justify their actions. Throughout the book, Lifton provides quotes from interviews he conducted with SS doctors and with victims. The book was awarded the 1987 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 1987 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category. (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nazi_Doctors)) Sterilization and the Nazi biomedical vision Euthanasia : direct medical killing Resistance to direct medical killing Wild euthanasia : the doctors take over Participants Bringing euthanasia to the camps : action special treatment Auschwitz institution Selections on the ramp Selections in the camp Socialization to killing Prisoner doctors : the agony of selections Prisoner doctors : Struggles to heal Prisoner doctors : collaboration with Nazi doctors Killing with syringes : phenol injections Experimental impulse Human being in an SS uniform : Ernst B. Dr. Auschwitz : Josef Mengele Healing-killing conflict : Eduard Wirths Doubling : the Faustian bargain Auschwitz self : psychological themes in doubling Genocide.

A brilliant analysis and history of the crucial role that German doctors played in Nazi genocide.

This powerful study, the result of ten years of painstaking research and extensive interviews, casts new light not only on the origins of the Holocaust, but explains how physicians, sworn by oath and conviction to ease suffering, were transformed from healers to systematic killers.

An analysis of the psychological forces behind the transformation of Nazi doctors into mass murderers in Auschwitz and other "death camps."