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Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis
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.
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.
414 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1988
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About the author
Robert N. Proctor
14books34followersAmerican historian of science and Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University.While a professor of the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, he became the first historian to testify against the tobacco industry.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 2, 2021
This was a well documented and researched narrative on a controversial subject. This book gives the origins of racial hygiene starting with the German take on societal values (genetics, roles of women, family dynamics, etc.), and the eventual rise of Nazi-fueled antisemitism. This book covers it all from the beginning of genetics/racial hygiene and moving into using these racial parameters to establish discriminatory guidelines. Eventually this course of action evolved into euthanasia, the Nuremberg Laws, and lastly the cleansing operations of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. This was a great book that presented the information in a non-biased way. Overall I felt is was fairly easy to read and comprehend. Recommended for pre-WWII Nazi Germany studies. Thanks!
January 19, 2011
Last September I attended a lecture on the life of Dr. Karl Brandt, one of the leading Nazi doctors who was hanged following the Nuremberg Doctor's trial. A comment made in the lecture has increased my interest in learning about what went on in the medical field in Nazi Germany. That comment was that a conclusion drawn from the Doctor's Trial was that never again should we let government control medicine. I am currently searching for an original source which either supports or refutes that statement (was this in fact one of the conclusions?) That search led me to this book.
This book is as disturbing as it is important.
Here are several key take-away points from the book.
1. The eugenics movement began before Hitler took power and was a world-wide movement.
2. The individuals involved in the "euthanasia" (read: "murder:) of "lives not worth living" were never ordered to kill their patients. They were simply empowered to do so.
3. The "euthanasia" program of institutionalized mentally ill and severely handicapped individuals was justified on economic grounds and was clearly the gateway to the mass murdering of the Holocaust.
4. The beginning of the program was relatively innocuous, and included the simple registration of the severely mentally ill and deformed or malformed infants.
5. The murders were justified as acts of mercy and kindness as well as necessary for the good of the nation.
The author argues (and strongly defends) that medicine was not just co-opted and perverted by the political regime of the Nazis, but that it was a mutually reinforcing process.
"In fact, the ideological structure we associate with National Socialism was deeply embedded in the philosophy and institutional structure of German biomedical science long before the beginning of the euthanasia program in 1939--and to a certain extent before 1933."
The author also explores the wider theme of the interconnection between science and politics, how they interact to influence each other. Anti-Semitism was "medicalized" and given greater credence by the association with "science." This raises concern broader than today's push for the "rationalization" of the practice of medicine via government sponsored "comparative effectiveness research" and "best practices." It also brings into question the forces driving environmental and climate science. How much have political and ideological beliefs shaped the results of research in those areas? At the time, German doctors and scientists were unaware of the distorting effects politics and racism had in their "scientific" conclusions. What similar distortions are present in present-day science to which we are equally blind?
This is an area of history it is essential for us to understand, especially as the connections between government,medicine and science continue to grow.
This book is as disturbing as it is important.
Here are several key take-away points from the book.
1. The eugenics movement began before Hitler took power and was a world-wide movement.
2. The individuals involved in the "euthanasia" (read: "murder:) of "lives not worth living" were never ordered to kill their patients. They were simply empowered to do so.
3. The "euthanasia" program of institutionalized mentally ill and severely handicapped individuals was justified on economic grounds and was clearly the gateway to the mass murdering of the Holocaust.
4. The beginning of the program was relatively innocuous, and included the simple registration of the severely mentally ill and deformed or malformed infants.
5. The murders were justified as acts of mercy and kindness as well as necessary for the good of the nation.
The author argues (and strongly defends) that medicine was not just co-opted and perverted by the political regime of the Nazis, but that it was a mutually reinforcing process.
"In fact, the ideological structure we associate with National Socialism was deeply embedded in the philosophy and institutional structure of German biomedical science long before the beginning of the euthanasia program in 1939--and to a certain extent before 1933."
The author also explores the wider theme of the interconnection between science and politics, how they interact to influence each other. Anti-Semitism was "medicalized" and given greater credence by the association with "science." This raises concern broader than today's push for the "rationalization" of the practice of medicine via government sponsored "comparative effectiveness research" and "best practices." It also brings into question the forces driving environmental and climate science. How much have political and ideological beliefs shaped the results of research in those areas? At the time, German doctors and scientists were unaware of the distorting effects politics and racism had in their "scientific" conclusions. What similar distortions are present in present-day science to which we are equally blind?
This is an area of history it is essential for us to understand, especially as the connections between government,medicine and science continue to grow.
October 21, 2024
if you’re interested in knowing exactly how the Nazi regime was able to convince an entire country, this is the book to read� it points out that Germany wasn’t the only one with the foundational ideology for the atrocities. Proctor also helps understand how easily we could go wrong today because the Nazi methods are still familiar to us.
September 15, 2024
read this book for one of my classes. deeply disturbing to read at some parts but i went in with expectations of more emphasis on the specific medical practices, discoveries, etc under the nazi regime. while the book does cover some of that, i actually did prefer the emphasis that was placed on procession of racially hygienic legal measures beginning in 1931 till the 1940s. the book teaches you, as horrible as it sounds, to think as a nazi and place yourself in the shoes of the average german living during this time period. it does not defend nazism under any point, obviously, but it does provide time-period-specific reasonings as to why laws were what they were, as to why people thought the way they did, and the consequences of those actions. in my class, we spent a great amount of time discussing the epilogue of the book, and i brought up the question of, but why? why, instead of reflecting on the tragedies of this devastating regime, did the author point to the successes of former nazis and racial hygienists (yes, they are sometimes exclusive)? it was to point out the fact that it was incredibly hard for germany to transition out of a nazi regime, to recover from war after being devastated for decades, and that, debatably more importantly, that people still held nazi ideas. there continued to be professors, who were former nazi party members and/or worked on racial hygiene laws/material, who continued to publish ideas of social darwinism and the concept of racial hygiene until the 70s. justice for some former nazis was not received until this time period as well. it points out that for awhile, the ideology of the nazis continued to infiltrate education, government, and life for long after the war ended. i also found myself comparing a lot of ideologies explained in this book to modern day american problems and their solutions. it’s more alive than you think.
January 11, 2009
Proctor's book was extremely informative in helping to uncover the social and scientific roots of the healing-killing paradox. It helped me to understand the mind-frame of doctors under the Nazi regime, to a certain extent, and served as an integral part of my senior research.
June 24, 2013
I read this to familiarize myself with the racial hygiene laws to write a paper on medical futility . This book described the horrible and sick lengths the Nazi's went to ensure their "racial purity".
February 25, 2009
This extensively researched book outlines how some in science used the idea of Eugenics to aid in establishing a seriously fucked-up world view that led to the Holocaust.
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September 23, 2010Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis by Robert Proctor (1988)
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