Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others, Germany 1933-1945

by Benno Müller-Hill

A publishing sensation in Germany, Murderous Science is a devastating indictment of the role German scientists played in Nazi atrocities. It reveals how prominent scholars and physicians--many of whom were active in the international eugenics movement--not only acquiesced to anti-Semitic laws
and extermination camps, but provided a scientific foundation for Hitler's racist policies, advised on the laws that were passed to implement these policies, helped administrate the Final Solution as well as euthanasia programs aimed at the mentally ill, and in extreme cases, such as Dr. Mengele at
Auschwitz, personally murdered inmates "in the interests of science."
A major figure in this sordid tale is Professor Eugen Fischer, an anatomist and a world renowned advocate of eugenics--the use of genetics to "improve mankind"--whose work on interracial marriage in South West Africa inspired Hitler's racial theories in Mein Kampf . Professor Fischer later headed
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, which supervised the forced sterilization of hundreds of thousands of people, the "mercy killing" of 70,000 mentally ill, and finally the mass murder of millions of Jews. Another prominent figure, the psychiatrist Dr.
Ritter, whose research was funded by the Reich, claimed that 90% of the Gypsies he studied were of "mixed blood" and that they should be consigned to labor camps. As a result, over 20,000 Gypsies died at Auschwitz. There was also Professor Hirt, an anatomist at the University of Strasbourg, who
requested and received over one hundred skeletons of "typical Jews" for his studies in anatomy...Professor Schneider, a psychiatrist who recorded the physiological characteristics of mentally ill patients, murdered them, then studied their brain tissue and structure...and Professor Clauberg, who
advised Himmler that "an appropriately trained doctor" could sterilize several hundred Jewish women per day.
Benno Müller-Hill carefully examines the thinking and motivation of all these scientists, and he includes a transcript of the conversations he held with many of the participants. The result is a gripping chronicle of one of the most shocking episodes in 20th-century science.

Genres: Science, Medicine

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 1988

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a German geneticist, ends his survey of the collaboration of scientists with the politics of the Nazis by writing: "To sum up, it is the duty of human geneticists to predict the possible social consequences of genetic research and to act accordingly. I fear that new eugenics will again become kakogenics with massive misuse of genetic knowledge. Indeed, I would be most happy if I am proven wrong by history."

With a contribution by James D. Watson, "Murderous Science" illustrates the abuse of genetic research in terms of the period of Nazi rule, 1933-45. The implications, however, are much broader, this book serving to caution us about the potential abuse of scientific research in many fields. In the case of Germany, the motive was primarily political. In the case of the Allies during the war, the motive for the development of nuclear physics was both political and military. In the contemporary world, as noted in the Watson essay, the motivation is often economic. In all these cases, the fruits of scientific research are often employed toward effects damaging to persons, to populations, to the planet. In light of this, the author pessimistically questions the ideal of unfettered, open scientific research.

[K De · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benno Muller-Hill is a biologist who has a deep interest in the role of German science with the Nazi programs of euthanasia. The exploration is embodied in his book "Murderous Science". He writes about the involvement of geneticists, anthropologists, and psychiatrists in the extermination of Gypsies, mental patients, and Jews with a emphasis on the early stages of the war. The corruption of the institutes of higher learning and research, mainly the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, by the Nazi government and its SS component. Of the first half of book which is covered.

The second half of the book are interviews with scientists and associates. It is not informative because to the person everyone denies their knowledge of extermination programs like T4 or 14f13 by SS offices. Denies the fact their superiors or colleagues had knowledge or actually participated in the writing of expert papers that lead to patients in psychiatric institutes being exterminated begs credulity.

This is a important book in the expanding literature of Nazi extermination programs and the involvement of German sciences. Well worth reading the translated English version.