Deadly Medicine; Creating The Master Race PDF

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Running head: DEADLY MEDICINE

Deadly Medicine

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DEADLY MEDICINE

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Susan Bachrach's article gives more in-depth insights into the Nazi Germany regime. I was taken through how Adolf Hitler's Nazi socialist party attempted to create an "Aryan Master race." So-called racial hygiene programs were initiated. The aim was to rid Germany of peoples considered threats to the national body. The article documents the use of human genetics to justify the mass murders of millions of Jews and ethnic minorities. This article helped me understand how medical experts got involved. Psychiatrists, anthropologists, and geneticists used science to promote Nazi racial ideology. This act persuaded the German public of the legitimacy of the racial doctrine. I disagree with how the medical expert made Germans view ethnic minorities as alien. I think this made many Germans feel selfish and superior (Bachrach, 2007). The article made me find out that racial hygiene began way before the rise of Adolf Hitler. According to Bachrach, the late 1800s and early 1900s marked the revolution of genetics. She states that there was an increased understanding of heredity. This knowledge caused many scientists to fantasize about a perfect race. Scientists supported getting rid of unproductive people, such as mentally ill and criminals in society. They said this action would clean the Germanic race. It also ensures they don't pass those traits to anyone else. I learned that for Germany to achieve European dominance politicians advocated for eugenic solutions. Proponents of this movement preferred the term eugenics rather than racial hygiene. They reasoned that the Germanic people were undergoing racial degeneration. One method was euthanasia which eliminated people considered unworthy. It gained prominence after World War 1 when Germany suffered massive fatalities. Men deemed unproductive underwent vasectomy while women's fallopian tubes were sterilized (Bachrach, 2007). It was believed this prevented the reproduction of inferior people.

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I am not surprised that Hitler's regime gained many supporters. Because before coming to power, there existed significant advocates of racial superiority. The Nazi enacting Blood protection laws set the tone for marginalizing racial minorities. Prominent Jewish scholars were removed, and anti-Semitic rhetoric thrived. The Nazi preyed on the radical racial policies to use euthanasia. This racial hygiene program culminated in the Holocaust. More than six million Jews were annihilated. Hitler used gas chambers spread across Germany and Austria to eliminate Jews on an industrial scale. I find it shocking, seeing how the desire for racial superiority leads to mass murder. The title of the article fits well with the content as it shows how medical research was used to promote the belief of a superior and inferior race. Deadly medicine: The science of race From the article, I can see how scientists played an integral role in enacting the Nazi's racial policies. I didn't think science could be used as a weapon to justify racism. Massin's article shows me how human geneticists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists perpetuated racism. These scientists legitimized the Third Reich's racial and medical crimes. I am disappointed that these racial eugenic policies were encouraged by medical professionals. Massin helps me understand how the field of anthropology was used. Politicians were advised about desirable and undesirable racial qualities. This set the stage for the cleansing of Germans. The anthropologists popularized the belief that race meant everything. Those ideas influenced political discussions and famous works such as the People and Race journal. This situation brought the field of racial science into the public domain (Massin, 2004). I find it hard to believe how anthropologists exploited science to promote their selfish racial agenda. Nazi's rise to power led to the field becoming more prominent. Jews and leftist anthropologists lost their positions. More learning institutes began offering anthropology. Even

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the German foundation for scientific research increased funding for racial science. One notable thing I found out is during the Weimar republic, politics didn't feature much in academic discussions. But, it changed after the Nazi's assumption of power. The majority of anthropologists identified with the Nazi's political ideology (Massin, 2004). I was disappointed that these reputable scientists ignored ethics to promote the Nazi's brutal racial policy. I liked how Massin presented evidence of scientific misconduct. He used the example of Fischer, a German physical anthropologist. Fischer used his research to state Germans should avoid mixing with inferior race. This claim made many children to be sterilized in many hospitals during this regime. Reading Massin's article, I believe psychiatry significantly increased eugenics during the Nazi regime. Psychiatrists claimed that criminal behaviors were hereditary. I learned that this theory gave eugenicists the confidence to collect evidence in the society. The solution was to use eugenics treatments like sterilization and isolation to remove anti-social behaviors. It puzzles me that this research was used to depict Gypsies as criminals due to genetics and alienate them from the German population (Massin, 2004). My reading helped me understand how German scientists described them as a race foreign to Europe and inferior. I see how such kind of research marginalized the Jews from associating with Germans. Massin further showed me the efforts made to identify all people with Jewish ancestry. Shockingly, many anthropologists and human geneticists used medical research to endanger Jewish lives. The article showed me how theories in various scientific fields were used to discriminate against other races. This aligns well with the title. I found both articles useful in understanding how scientists in the Third Reich used their research to promote racism. One core strength I identified in these articles is the use of extensive examples. These examples gave me compelling evidence that science should accept blame for

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Nazi crimes. I also liked how both Massin and Bachrach used examples from various scientific fields. Massin also first explains the scientific concepts and then shows how they relate to the Nazi racial policy. Another thing that impressed me is the presentation of systematic arguments. For example, in Bachrach's article, I was able to follow through as she described the social and political situation in the pre-Nazi era. She was able to show how scientists' actions during that period helped Nazi put in place its radical policies. I like how Bachrach first gives us the chronology of events before the climax of the Holocaust. It helped me understand the political and social tone in the years leading up to the brutal Nazi regime. I realized how Adolf Hitler was able to execute his murderous campaign in the German republic. One weak point, I found out while reading was the lack of a Jewish perspective about the events during the Third Reich. I also feel the authors failed to highlight some of the positive effects of medical research before and during the Nazi regime. A lot of the arguments present the dark side of the scientific community during that period. I think the arguments are valid since the authors draw from reputable scientific sources. This included psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, geneticists who have done extensive research on Nazi euthanasia programs. This input helped me understand the clear connection between science and racial ideology.

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6 References

Bachrach, S. (2007). Deadly medicine. The Public Historian, 29(3), 1-32. Massin, B. (2004). The" science of race."....