Group Members:Nat Jones, Ann Johnson, Brian Shafer, Courteny Briggs

Introduction

The Holocaust, and the surrounding treatment of minority races in Germany in the 1930’s and ‘40’s remains, to this day, a black mark on the history of the 20^th century. Following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, stringent programs designed to "better" the Aryan race were implemented in Germany. Proctor’s Racial Hygiene presents a fascinating look into the history behind the Nazi program of ethnic cleansing, gives thorough detail as to how the Nazis implemented their programs, and how citizens reacted to these programs, and examines the philosophical side of the Nazi medical environment.

Chapter 1: The Origins

The beginning of Racial Hygiene concentrates primarily on the origin of the theories behind the very concept referred to in the title, a very deliberate form of ethnic cleansing. German social Darwinists were among the leaders of the movement for racial hygiene, spurred on by fears that the poor and decrepit were beginning to out-reproduce the able portion of the population. Along with that, showing their true Darwinist ideals, they also feared that the advanced state of medical care that was becoming more readily available was obliterating the natural struggle for existence. These were the two main driving forces behind the early ethnic cleansing movement.

Chapter 2: Neutral Racism

Fritz Lenz, known as the grandfather of Racial Hygiene, was the focus of the second chapter. Named the first professor of racial hygiene at the University of Munich in 1923, Lenz seemed obsessed with hereditary defects. He made sweeping generalizations about entire races and, in particular, sexes. Lenz suggested, among other things, that women could never be as imaginative or critically judgmental as men, and that no one could be a genius unless his head was 56 cm in diameter. The general point of this section was that Lenz basically used science to disguise his own pre-existing biases in this area. In short, he made science "prove" what he wanted it to &emdash; the fact that the white race was genetically superior to all others.

Chapter 3: Political Biology: Doctors in the Nazi Cause

This chapter addresses how the Nazi party swept though the country, controlling everything and influencing every decision made by German doctors. German medical practices, according to the text, were among the most creative and well regarded in the world before the Nazi seizure of power. However, within a year, German medical journals were forced to break ties with any other journal not approved by Nazi medical authorities. Of course, doctors needed to be re-educated in new ways, and these ways were basically the ways of Fritz Lenz. Finally, Jews, as a whole, were banned from the medical profession. This was stunning, as over half of the physicians in Germany at the time of the Nazi takeover were Jewish. From this point until their downfall over a decade later, the Nazis would only tighten their embrace of racial cleansing as a way of life.

Chapter 4: "The Sterilization Law"

1933, Germany passed the Law for Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring. This law mandated that people the Genetic Health Courts found to be "genetically diseased" were to be sterilized. Genetic diseases includes feeble mindedness and manic depression.

Chapter 5: "Control Of Women"

German government pushed women that were thought to be racially hygienic and Caucasian to have large families of children to increase their superior race. Pressure and laws were applied to keep women that were racially unhygienic from having children, whether by means of abortion or sterilization.

Chapter 6: "Anti- Semitism in the Medical Community"

Nuremberg Laws were passed which created even more anti-Semitism in German society. Specifically in the medical community, Jews were persecuted both as doctors and as patients. Many Jews were blamed for medical problems and diseases.

Chapter 7: "Live Not Worth Living"

This chapter deals with the euthanasia of people by the Nazi’s. It was started in 1939 to get rid of mostly mentally ill, feeble-minded individuals who the Nazis felt would bring about a lesser quality of person into German. It was also seen by the Nazis that it was economical to rid the public of people of burden who would be unproductive and did not put the food they consumed to good use for the rest of society. This euthanasia program was expanded to children who had diseases or crippling conditions that could not be cured. Many times the parents of the children were told that the children had died of appendicitis, brain edema, or other invented cause. The methods used by Nazi doctors in killing these people in most cases would carbon monoxide gas. In some cases though, people died of exposure. The Nazis also would conduct experiments on prisoners in the concentration camps. These experiments included forced drinking of seawater, low pressure experiments, prolonged exposure to the cold, and bone and limb transplants which usually caused death. The claimed purpose of these experiments were to better advance the Nazi army. For example, cold experiments to see how long pilot could remain in icy waters after being shot down. The genocide of the Jewish populations did not begin until 1941 and was termed "the final solution". It began in hospitals were Jews were ordered to be terminated for no reason except that they were Jewish. The main reason was once again the economic reasons associated with this mass killing. Even before the Nazis "final solution", more than 70,000 people were killed because they were not deemed worthy to stay alive.

Chapter 8: "The Organic Vision"

Despite the uses of euthanasia and recent medical technology, there was another push by the Nazi doctors and officials to take a more organic and holistic approach to living. Orthodox medicinal practices were severely challenged by more natural healers. The Nazis believed that natural living and medical practices would produce better Aryan individuals. The Nazis greatly discourage the use of foreign substances into the body, particularly cigarettes and alcohol. There was also a greater push for better nutrition and hygiene, particularly whole grain breads, fruits and vegetables, and vitamins. Along with this movement was the movement back to traditional midwifery profession. But as this movement grew it was met with criticism from the orthodox medical practices and the fact more and more natural practices pursued the use of many orthodox treatments and technologies. This push was eventually abandoned after pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies joined with orthodox medicine in the criticism of organic medicine.

 Chapter 9: "Medical Resistance"

Openly resisting the Nazis was quite dangerous to physicians, and so resistance was usually not carried out with any flamboyance. Many of the medical faculty protested when their Jewish colleagues were dismissed from their jobs in the early years of the regime. The protests usually went unheeded by the Nazis. Some physicians took it upon themselves to assist Jews in obtaining falsified passports and other documents attesting to their Aryan ancestries. Other forms of resistance included anti-Nazi journals and publications.

The Association of Socialist Physicians was one such group who published a critical medical journal of the Nazis. This group was formed in Germany, but when Hitler came to power in 1933, they were forced to flee Germany and resettle their group in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was from here that they published their journal criticizing various Nazi techniques, and citing four urgent goals: to contain the Hitler dictatorship to Germany, to educate the masses on the dangers of fascism, to resist Hitler’s destruction of socialized medical services, and to oppose medical propaganda. The journal advocated the socialization of the entire medical field, including pharmacies, midwifery, and health care delivery and hospitals; and also advocated occupational health for workers, maternity leave, child labor laws, and giving women reproductive rights.

In addition to the journal, the Socialist Physicians were also able to establish a fund to assist other persecuted German physicians, and organize an international boycott targeting German pharmaceutical products and German medical journals. Their actions incited other nations to protest German racial persecution by lodging complaints with the League of Nations, boycott all trade with the Nazi regime, and to form committees designed to aid exiled physicians in regaining their careers after relocation.

Most of this effort was spent without seeing rewards. After the Nazis took Prague in 1939, the Socialist Physicians were forced to flee Czechoslovakia and were scattered about Europe and America. The journal was then published in Paris, where it gradually migrated from its original goals, and then ceased publication altogether as the War intensified.

Chapter 10: The Politics of Knowledge

The last chapter of Proctor’s book is devoted to more philosophical issues concerning the Nazis. He first addresses the debate over whether the National Socialist movement was anti-intellectual. While it is true that the Nazis prohibited leaders in many academic fields from continuing their studies because of their race, academic fields which served the Nazis’ purposes, such as psychology, anthropology and human genetics, actually expanded under the regime. The Nazis were so convinced that biological predeterminance gave rise to social problems such as alcoholism, poverty, and crime, that they concentrated all of their scientific research in areas that would justify their own theories.

The Nazis’ use of science in the political arena was also examined. In some ways, the Nazis depoliticized science, because the regime disallowed all chances for political debate. However, the Nazis also changed science into a very political area. Instead of finding knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the Nazis only allowed scientific research which assisted them in implementing their reproductive and euthanisitic programs. They manipulated science to serve their purposes.

Proctor stresses the dangers of what science and research can become when researchers are convinced that genetic predeterminance and chromosomal composition determine one’s destiny.

Epilogue

Many members of the Nazi Party committed suicide during the final days of WWII. Some Nazi physicians were convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. However, many others were brought to America to work under the U.S. military, reporting on the experiments they were part of in Germany. Today, German medical journals make no allusions to Nazi research, and any mention of racial hygiene has been edited out of all textbooks and manuals. The subject is one of sensitivity and embarrassment to many Germans.

Criticism (Ann)

Procter certainly presents a thorough view of medicine under the Nazis. His chapters are logically divided and well thought out. However, this book is not for the lay-reader. At times, Proctor sacrifices clarity and brevity in order to apprize the reader of his great knowledge of the topic he is addressing.

Criticism (Brian)

This book was very well put together and easy to understand. It explains the background to Racial Hygiene very well and uses figures and tables to show propaganda techniques and relevant statistics to prove points shown in the text. However, Proctor does at times seem to go into very extreme detail and the reader tends to get bogged down in these details and misses the point of the section which they are reading.

Questions

1. How could the Nazis have such a holistic and natural approach to living, yet use the technologies and medical sciences for the destruction and mistreatment of so many people, even people of their own race?

2. As a country, America certainly witnessed the misuse of eugenics in the Nazi era. Is it possible that similar complications might arise as predeterminate genetic testing for certain diseases gains popularity? What precautions could be taken to avoid such complications?

3. While their beliefs and practices seem grotesque today, one of the Nazi beliefs was that traditional medical care, while it clearly helps the afflicted individual, hurts the race as a whole. Is there any merit to this?

1883 - Francis Galton coins the term "eugenics". His theories rapidly gain popularity in America and Europe.

1907 - Indiana passes law to allow sterilization of the mentally ill.

1931 - 27 American states have sterilization laws.

1933 - January &endash; Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany.

April &endash; First law passed that really excluded Jews from German life &endash;Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service.

July 14 &endash; Sterilization Law &endash; sterilized people with "genetic" illnesses (400,000 people total).

1935 -Fall &endash; Nuremberg Laws passed.

Reich Citizenship Law &endash; distinguished between citizens and residents.

Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor &endash; no Jew/German relationships.

Blood Protection Law &endash; specified which groups could mix.

Marital Health Law &endash; required a certificate of health before marriage.

1939 - Euthanasia program begins.

September 1, 1939 &endash; WWII begins following German invasion of Poland.

1940 February&emdash;Jews confined to ghettos.

1941 - Implementation of Final Solution &endash; targets Jews, blacks, gypsies, some Catholics, etc.

September 1, 1941 &endash; All Jews required to wear the Star of David on garments.

December 7-8, 1941 &endash; Bombing of Pearl Harbor; America is now involved.

1945 - WWII ends.