Curator's Overview
Dr. Susan Bachrach, curator
Transcript:
Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race shows how the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler aimed to change the genetic makeup of the population through measures known as "racial hygiene" or "eugenics," and the role that scientists in the biomedical fields—especially anthropologists, psychiatrists, and geneticists, these were all medically trained experts—the role they played in legitimizing these policies and helping to implement them. They had embraced these ideas before Hitler took power in 1933 and they would welcome the regime because of its support of eugenics and its support of their research. When Nazi racial hygiene was implemented, the categories of persons and groups regarded as biologically threatening to the health of the nation were greatly expanded to include Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and other minorities. Ultimately, Nazi racial hygiene policies culminated in the Holocaust. Under cover of World War II, and using the war as a pretext, Nazi racial hygiene was radicalized and there was a shift from controlling reproduction and marriage to simply eliminating persons regarded as biological threats. This exhibition should provoke us into thinking about questions today: the relationship between the needs and rights of individuals as weighed against the larger concerns of the society. Scientists dreamed of perfecting human beings by changing the genetic makeup of the population, and so this does offer a cautionary note in that regard and it certainly also speaks to the importance of always respecting the value of the individual and the human dignity of the individual.