ABSTRACT
The history of the German medical profession’s complicity in the crimes committed by the Nazi regime has been written from many perspectives. Initially, it was common to speak of such monsters as Dr. Mengele and his horrifying medical “experiments” in Auschwitz. Later on it was discovered that the involvement of physicians in Nazi policies was anything but limited to a few cranks. It thus appeared that the profession as a whole had become polluted by Nazi thinking. Yet thanks to further research we now know that this was not a one-sided relationship. It is not just that German doctors were influenced by Nazi racial thinking, but just as much that Nazi racial thinking was derived from ideas and theories propagated by well-respected scientists. Furthermore, ideas about “racial hygiene” and “scientific racism” were not limited to Germany; indeed, they were also quite popular in such countries as Britain and the United States. The major difference was, however, that with Hitler’s “seizure of power” a regime was installed in Germany that was willing, indeed increasingly obsessed with, carrying out the policies implied by such notions to their ultimate conclusion, namely, wholesale destruction of “life unworthy of life,” with the willing participation of numerous doctors.
