Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis

by Robert N. Proctor

Overview

Scholars exploring the history of science under the Nazis have generally concentrated on the Nazi destruction of science or the corruption of intellectual and liberal values. Racial Hygiene focuses on how scientists themselves participated in the construction of Nazi racial policy. Robert Proctor demonstrates that the common picture of a passive scientific community coerced into cooperation with the Nazis fails to grasp the reality of what actually happened—namely, that many of the political initiatives of the Nazis arose from within the scientific community, and that medical scientists actively designed and administered key elements of National Socialist policy.

The book presents the most comprehensive account to date of German medical involvement in the sterilization and castration laws, the laws banning marriage between Jews and non-Jews, and the massive program to destroy “lives not worth living.” The study traces attempts on the part of doctors to conceive of the “Jewish problem” as a “medical problem,” and how medical journals openly discussed the need to find a “final solution” to Germany’s Jewish and gypsy “problems.”

Proctor makes us aware that such thinking was not unique to Germany. The social Darwinism of the late nineteenth century in America and Europe gave rise to theories of racial hygiene that were embraced by enthusiasts of various nationalities in the hope of breeding a better, healthier, stronger race of people. Proctor also presents an account of the “organic” health movement that flourished under the Nazis, including campaigns to reduce smoking and drinking, and efforts to require bakeries to produce whole-grain bread. A separate chapter is devoted to the emergence of a resistance movement among doctors in the Association of Socialist Physicians. The book is based on a close analysis of contemporary documents, including German state archives and more than two hundred medical journals published during the period.

Proctor has set out not merely to tell a story but also to urge reflection on what might be called the “political philosophy of science”—how movements that shape the policies of nations can also shape the structure and priorities of science. The broad implications of this book make it of consequence not only to historians, physicians, and people concerned with the history and philosophy of science, but also to those interested in science policy and medical ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674745780
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/1990
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	8.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Robert N. Proctor is Professor of History and, by courtesy, of Medicine, at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Origins of Racial Hygiene

2. "Neutral Racism": The Case of Fritz Lenz

3. Political Biology: Doctors in the Nazi Cause

4. The Sterilization Law

5. The Control of Women

6. Anti-Semitism in the German Medical Community

7. The Destruction of "Lives Not Worth Living"

8. The "Organic Vision" of Nazi Racial Science

9. Medical Resistance: The Association of Socialist Physicians

10. The Politics of Knowledge

Epilogue. Postwar Legacies

Appendix A: German Medical journals under the Nazis

Appendix B: University and Research Institutes Devoted to Racial Hygiene

Bibliography

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

The best that has been written...A well-crafted, seminal work.

Burton C. Einspruch

The best that has been written...A well-crafted, seminal work.
— Burton C. Einspruch, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association

Editorial Reviews

It is a deeply disturbing book, concerned as it is with how fine scientific minds, many of which were at least formally committed to the practice of healing, not only ‘sold themselves to the devil’ but, through their own theoretical musings and prejudice-tinctured social concerns, anticipated his arrival. It is an at times passionate exegesis on how ‘value-free’ science is a disingenuous contradiction in terms and, more important, on how people who believe in so chimerical an enterprise could and can contribute to social pathology… The lessons for our own age are baldly obvious.

Science - Robert A. Pois

Proctor’s carefully argued book not only forces us to reassess the dynamics of Nazism but also challenges pervasive notions about the political neutrality and objective value of science and the moral innocence of scientists… [A] provocative study.

Mary Nolan

The best that has been written… A well-crafted, seminal work.

Journal of the American Medical Association - Burton C. Einspruch

A chilling indictment of the pre-war German scientific community which legitimized Nazi racial theories.

Jewish Chronicle

A chilling indictment of the pre-war German scientific community which legitimized Nazi racial theories.-- "Jewish Chronicle"

A valuable, disturbing treatise on the darkest chapter of modern medicine.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

It is a deeply disturbing book, concerned as it is with how fine scientific minds, many of which were at least formally committed to the practice of healing, not only 'sold themselves to the devil' but, through their own theoretical musings and prejudice-tinctured social concerns, anticipated his arrival. It is an at times passionate exegesis on how 'value-free' science is a disingenuous contradiction in terms and, more important, on how people who believe in so chimerical an enterprise could and can contribute to social pathology... The lessons for our own age are baldly obvious.--Robert A. Pois "Science"

Proctor's carefully argued book not only forces us to reassess the dynamics of Nazism but also challenges pervasive notions about the political neutrality and objective value of science and the moral innocence of scientists... [A] provocative study.--Mary Nolan "New York Times Book Review"

The best that has been written... A well-crafted, seminal work.--Burton C. Einspruch, M.D. "Journal of the American Medical Association"

From the Publisher

Proctor’s carefully argued book not only forces us to reassess the dynamics of Nazism but also challenges pervasive notions about the political neutrality and objective value of science and the moral innocence of scientists… [A] provocative study.

New York Times Book Review - Mary Nolan

The best that has been written...A well-crafted, seminal work.

Burton C. Einspruch

It is a deeply disturbing book, concerned as it is with how fine scientific minds, many of which were at least formally committed to the practice of healing, not only "sold themselves to the devil" but, through their own theoretical musings and prejudice-tinctured social concerns, anticipated his arrival. It is an at times passionate exegesis on how "value-free" science is a disingenuous contradiction in terms and, more important, on how people who believe in so chimerical an enterprise could and can contribute to social pathology...The lessons for our own age are baldly obvious.
— Robert A. Pois

Science

Proctor's carefully argued book not only forces us to reassess the dynamics of Nazism but also challenges pervasive notions about the political neutrality and objective value of science and the moral innocence of scientists...[A] provocative study.
— Mary Nolan

New York Times Book Review