The belief that certain people(s) are inherently superior to others and that “lesser” peoples need to be controlled did not begin with the Nazis. Margaret Sanger, Woodrow Wilson and other Americans joined together with others in Europe decades before the Nazis to argue that birth control would help to control the “lesser” peoples, that blacks could not learn mechanical skills and that somehow the “superior” white race which had created Western Civilization needed to control the animalistic reproductive urges of the “lesser” peoples before they swamped the civilized world.
In Germany, the sciences of anthropology and psychology joined together before the Nazi rise to power and invented the theory of biologically inherited, invariant traits which gave some individuals greater or lesser value to society. Of course, being scientist and “objective” they willingly contributed to the rise of Nazi “science” as the Nazi theories of racial superiority became government policy after the rise to power in 1933. Such “objective” scientists were suddenly not only honored in the corridors of power, but they found themselves with new found funding for their “studies”, admission into the general SS and honored at conferences in the newly conquered territories.
Professor Muller-Hill has done extensive research on many of the leaders (both anthropologists and psychiatrists) and had an opportunity to speak with many of their assistants (as many of the scientists had died) regarding their boss’s attitudes, actions, etc. To reach these personnel, he would ask for an interview and promise the interviewee the ability to edit the manuscript before publication. While this may seem unusual, it was effective in getting some of his targeted individuals to respond and this was often followed up by face to face interviews.
Of course, none of the interviewees knew anything about the extermination camps nor about the killing prior to the war of the mentally defective or physically impaired, even when in the latter case, they worked in the very hospitals where the killings were being done. As far as the senior scientists, all the assistants claimed that his or her boss had no hard feelings towards Jews and never used the Heil Hitler salute as decreed by the government.
Reading the book makes one wonder how those scientists could not see where their theories would lead, or when they did discover the result, how they could not fail to protest, turn their backs on the projects or simply resign. Yes, there were pressures that could be brought to bear on them, but like the men of the Einsatzgruppen, there is no recorded record that I can find of anyone being disciplined for not participating in such actions.
There are those who claim that science is “pure”, that it attracts the finest minds which insist on objectivity and the search for truth. But history has shown us that such scientific giants as Curie, Pasteur, and others have always been opposed by vested interests in the scientific community; vested interests who incomes and reputations are threatened by new ideas. In the case of this book, we find new vested interests being created; scientists begin on a path and when labs, honors and rewards are offered to them, they can be just as craven as the poorest person on the street in their scramble to reach the highest levels. Is this the case today? Do scientist get grants with expressed outcomes pre-determined and then create the results to get new grants. Oh no, of course not; but this book should remind us to be aware of “scientific” and “political” trends which when taken to their logical end, can lead to disastrous results.
