The Nazi Symbiosis

Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich

Sheila Faith Weiss

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780226891798
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia mondiale

The Faustian bargain—in which an individual or group collaborates with an evil entity in order to obtain knowledge, power, or material gain—is perhaps best exemplified by the alliance between world-renowned human geneticists and the Nazi state. Under the swastika, German scientists descended into the moral abyss, perpetrating heinous medical crimes at Auschwitz and at euthanasia hospitals. But why did biomedical researchers accept such a bargain?

The Nazi Symbiosis offers a nuanced account of the myriad ways human heredity and Nazi politics reinforced each other before and during the Third Reich. Exploring the ethical and professional consequences for the scientists involved as well as the political ramifications for Nazi racial policies, Sheila Faith Weiss places genetics and eugenics in their larger international context. In questioning whether the motives that propelled German geneticists were different from the compromises that researchers from other countries and eras face, Weiss extends her argument into our modern moment, as we confront the promises and perils of genomic medicine today.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction: An Old Legend and a New Legacy
• 1. Human Heredity and Eugenics Make Their International Debut
• 2. The Devil's Directors at Dahlem
• 3. The Munich Pact
• 4. The Politics of Professional Talk
• 5. Politicized Pedagogy
• 6. The International Human Genetics Community Faces Nazi Germany
• Conclusion: The Road Not Taken Elsewhere: Was There Something Unique about Human Heredity during the Third Reich?
• Acknowledgments
• Archival Sources
• Notes
• Index