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NAZI MEDICINE AND THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE Robert Proctor Science is not an end in itself; every science has certain tasks to fulfill. KarlK6~chau, 1936 The triumph of National Socialism coincides with the most rapid demise of the scientific culture of a people in recent history. In 1930 Germany led the world in the physical, life, and social sciences. By 1935, however, one in five scientists had been driven from their posts; in some universities (the University of Berlin, for example) this figure approached one in three.1 National Socialists forced the emigration or imprisonment of some of Germany's most eminent scientists: Einstein, Schrodinger, and Franck in physics: Goldschmidt in biology; Haber and Pauli in chemistry-and these are only some of the better known. In medicine, where Jewish representation was large, the toll was especially great. Between 1933 and 1938, 10,000 German physicians were forced from their jobs; many of these were compelled to flee the country, and others were killed in concentration or death camps.2 Physicians driven from Germany or Austria included five men who either had won or would eventually win Nobel Prizes: Ernst Boris Chain, Max Delbruck, Hans A. Krebs, Otto Loewi, and Otto Meyerhof. The Nazis forced the dispersal of the world-famous Institute of Physiology headed by Meyerhof, and stripped the famous veterinary college in Berlin of most of its staff. Leading medical figures such as Sigmund Freud, Kate Frankenthal, Rudolf Nissen, Hermann Zondek, Selmer Aschheim, and Friedrich Dessauer were all either fired or forced to emigrate. Other physicians driven from their jobs included von Bayer, Blumenthal , Borschardt, Goldstein, Klemperer, Roesle, and Teleky. The Nazis forced socialist and communist physicians into exile or concentration camps. In countries occupied by German armies, the story was similar. In Poland the medical philosopher Ludwik Fleck was deported to Auschwitz, where he was forced to work on vaccines for the 55.3 The Nazis destroyed the University of Cracow and forced the majority of its faculty into the camps. In Paris medical scholars such as Langevin were imprisoned. NAZI MEDICINE AND THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE / 345 Charlatans and Quacks or "Normal Science"? In one sense, the persecution of Jewish, socialist, and communist intellectuals can be seen as part of a larger attack on German intellectual life. Nazi philosophers reoriented schooling from intellectual to manual labor; Education Minister Bernhard Rust shortened the high school week from six to five days and ordered that Saturdays be devoted to sports. Nazi philosophers cultivated the virtues of brawn over those of brain, naming as their first official playwright a man (Hans Johst) whose most memorable phrase appears to have been his boast: "When I hear the word 'culture,' I release the safety catch on my gun." And yet it is only partially true, and in more than one sense misleading, to characterize the phenomenon of National Socialism as anti-intellectual. The image of the Nazis as irrational, jack-booted fanatics fails to appreciate (1) the extent to which the National Socialist movement appealed to academics and intellectuals; (2) the extent to which the Nazis were able to draw upon the imagery , results, and authority of science; and (3) the extent to which Nazi ideology informed the practice of science. Academics in every field gave support to the Nazi regime. The Nazis, in return , provided support for various forms of intellectual endeavor, and in some instances quite handsomely. Certain fields, such as psychology, anthropology, and human genetics, actually expanded under the Nazis.4 The Nazis provided substantial support for research in fields such as criminal biology, genetic pathology , and comparative physical anthropology. The German government provided financial support for twin studies and genealogical research, in an attempt to isolate the effects of nature and nurture, heredity and environment. More than a dozen new medical journals were founded in the Nazi period, and a host of new scientific institutes and academies were established.5 The Nazis expanded Germany 's public health facilities and state health offices. Health authorities implemented public health reforms with a zeal rarely equaled in modern times; millions of persons were X-rayed as part of a nationwide effort to combat tuberculosis ; health authorities initiated a program to provide dental examinations for an entire generation of German youth. One could name many other programs implemented on this scale. Nazi physicians frequently boasted of the growth of public health and medical science under the Hitler regime. Leonardo Conti, for example, on a trip to Denmark in 1942, maintained...

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