Series: Deadly Medicine

From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany tried to create a pure "Aryan" race. To accomplish this, the regime planned to "cleanse" German society of people viewed as biological threats. It sought answers in the pseudoscience of eugenics. How and why did Nazi Germany embrace eugenics? What role did medical professionals play in this plan? How did postwar justice and the field of medical ethics respond to the Nazi regime's ideologies and policies? Browse a series of articles to learn more.

Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race

Eugenics

Science as Salvation: Weimar Eugenics, 1919–1933

The Biological State: Nazi Racial Hygiene, 1933–1939

Lebensborn Program

Euthanasia Program and Aktion T4

Final Solutions: Murderous Racial Hygiene, 1939–1945

Nazi Medical Experiments

Robert Ritter

The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings

The Nuremberg Code

How did the shared foundational element of eugenics contribute to the growth of racism in Europe and the United States?

What were some similarities between racism in Nazi Germany and in the United States, 1920s-1940s?

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